Links Shell Cove operations manager Peter Nascimento was in high school and certain his mates were playing a prank.
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“I took a call offering me the chance to caddy for Arnold Palmer, I thought it was a gee-up, so I hung up,” he said. “I phoned back a bit later on and asked (manager) Lynne (Whitehouse) if she’d called me to ask if I wanted to caddie for Arnold Palmer, she said yes, and the offer was still there.”
Palmer passed away this week at the age of 87.
Nascimento was a talented 17-year old back in 2004 and it didn’t take too long for him to accept when he realised it was for real.
“I probably wasn’t as well versed as what I should’ve been on one of the greats of the game. Since then, I’ve become a bit more interested,” he said.
Palmer was grouped with Australian legends in Peter Thomson and Bruce Devlin to play a nine-hole exhibition game for the Australian Open Championship centenary.
Nascimento took little time to realise the gravity of the occasion, with a large gallery watching on.
“I met him just off the first tee that day. He was all smiles, he asked me a bit about myself,” he said.
“When I picked his bag up for the first time I wondered how am I going to do this for nine holes, it was so heavy.
“There were way more people there than will ever watch me play, that’s for sure.”
