Chairman Billy Payne and golfing greats Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus flank Masters chairman Billy Payne Thursday morning for the traditional tee shot from the past champions. It was the first tim in many years that the late Arnold Palmer was missing. Palmer’s green jacket is draped on a chair for the ceremonial shots. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)

It was obvious that the Big Three would be the Big Two on Thursday morning at Augusta National. Yet as the wind whipped across the first tee and thousands of people filed through the gates to catch a glimpse of on octogenarian and his septuagenarian friend — each hitting a single golf ball — it was striking nonetheless. Gary Player was here. Jack Nicklaus was here. And Arnold Palmer was not.

The early part of this Masters week has been filled with stories of Palmer, arguably the most important figure in the development of modern golf, who died in September at 87. For decades, the four-time Masters champion joined Player and Nicklaus to hit the ceremonial first shot that annually opened the tournament.

Instead, with fans lined a dozen deep around the tee box, tournament officials put a chair, and over the chair they draped Palmer’s green jacket. Palmer’s widow Kit joined the ceremony as well.

“Good morning, and welcome to the 2017 Masters,” Masters Chairman Billy Payne said, addressing the crowd. “It is a wonderful, but in one respect a difficult day. For the first time in many, many decades, someone is obviously missing from the first tee.”

This was all completely predictable and inevitable. And yet it was still emotional.

A year ago, Palmer sat in a chair on that tee, no longer able to hit a shot. But when Payne called his name, he put his hands on the arms of the chair and lifted himself up, acknowledging the cheers.

“Arnold was a great stickler for manners,” Player said. “… He had been taught to stand up, and he gave a little wave. And that was very touching to me, and I could see him doing it in that chair today.”

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Palmer’s popularity, at its height in the late 1950s and through the 1960s, was nearly synonymous with the popularity of the game. It lasted, too, till the end of his life. As they walked through the gates Thursday morning, fans were handed buttons that read, “I am a member of ‘Arnie’s Army.’ Est. 1959.” His victories here — in 1958, ’60, ’62 and ’64 — came about just as televised golf was taking off, and they helped establish the Masters as a legitimate fourth major, joining the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA Championship.

“My feeling was that, yes, the Masters made Arnold in many ways because of his wins,” Nicklaus said. “But the other way around. I think Arnold made the Masters. Arnold put the Masters on the map with his rise and his popularity.”

Palmer, too, was a preeminent storyteller. And so Nicklaus and Player spent an inordinate amount of time Thursday morning swapping their own Arnold stories. Player told of the time he brought Palmer to his home nation of South Africa, where they toured a gold mine. At the end of the tour, a mine worker challenged anyone to lift one of the weighty gold bars — a task, by Player’s telling, that no one had pulled off.

Palmer stepped up, and lifted the bar. No problem. The worker was stunned.

“It was absolutely amazing, because you’ve got no idea how heavy that was,” Player said. “I don’t think anybody’s ever done it since.”

Nicklaus, who came along a decade after Palmer, recounted oft-told stories of how the game’s greatest star helped out, rather than hindered, his young challenger.

Palmer last hit a shot two years ago, but as Nicklaus recalled, his old friend was dealing with a dislocated shoulder and hadn’t hit a golf ball in eight months.

“He could barely get it to the bottom of the hill,” Nicklaus said. Yet he still wanted to participate.

Thursday morning, two remained. Player stepped to the tee first, and he sent his ball off to the right side of the fairway, well short of the massive bunker that guards that side of the hole. Nicklaus followed, drilling his down the center — short for anyone in the field, but a fine shot for a 77-year-old.

“Gary wants to call it a tie,” Nicklaus said.

But that was it. Just two shots.

“Welcome to the 2017 Masters,” Payne said again. “Have fun.”

Arnold would have.