Faldo/Norman (31 page)

Olazábal made another brave putt at the 17th to save par and won by two from Love and by three from Norman. It was an emotional victory for the Spaniard as three years earlier he could barely walk and thought he might not play golf again before being treated for rheumatoid polyarthritis. Norman was genuinely pleased for a friend and, having entered the week more in hope than expectation, with his world number one crown long gone, he was in full philosophical mode afterwards. ‘This is easier to take,’ he said. ‘I was more disappointed in 1996 – that one was
a totally different animal. It was a successful week and a sad week rolled into one. I feel good I’m back in a position where I know I can contend again. I’m sad I lost but don’t make a mountain out of a molehill on this one.’

Norman had become the eighth player to record at least six top-three finishes at Augusta but the first to do so without having won it. Others were also finding the green jacket elusive, albeit none quite in as harrowing circumstances as the Australian. Love was second in 1995 and 1999 and had six top-ten finishes. David Duval was second in 1998, sixth in 1999, third in 2000 and second again in 2001. Ernie Els had five years in a row when he finished sixth or better, a run book-ended by runner-up finishes in 2000 and 2004.

In the recorder’s hut in 1999, as they signed their scorecards, Olazábal turned to Norman and said: ‘Just keep trying because you deserve this jacket and hopefully you will get it.’ He never did, just as Olazábal never won the Open. In
Golf International
in 2013, Robert Green observed that both men would be happier had they swapped an Open and a Masters title so they ended up with one of each, rather than two of the same colour.

Norman was sixth in the Open Championship that followed at Carnoustie in 1999, and that seemed as if it might be his last appearance on a leaderboard at a major as injuries took their toll and business and course design became his priorities. After 2005 at St Andrews, he did not even play in the Open but three years later he entered at Royal Birkdale. More than anything it was a warm-up for the following week’s Senior Open Championship at Royal Troon and the US Senior Open the week after that. For a month before Birkdale Norman had other things on his
mind anyway, getting married to former tennis star Chris Evert and honeymooning in the Bahamas and then at Skibo Castle in the Scottish Highlands, where the clubs came out again and he started to hit the ball well.

The weather in Lancashire was brutal, wet and windy. Links golf in such conditions is a great leveller and Norman’s experience was a vital commodity. Two rounds of 70 put the 53-year-old part-time golfer a shot off the lead. ‘My life is great,’ Norman said. ‘I feel great. I have a wonderful wife, my whole being is just beautiful. I enjoy playing golf, I enjoy spending time at home with Chrissie and my kids. I enjoy my business and what I’m doing. It’s the first time I’ve got the most beautiful balance in my life.’

He added: ‘My mind still salivates about playing golf.’ But physically, after various surgeries over the years, his body was not up to the long hours of practice he used to put in. He was telling anyone who would listen that he played more tennis than golf and so his expectations were ‘still realistically low’.

A two-over-par 72 in high winds in the third round was good enough to give Norman the lead by two strokes from Padraig Harrington and K.J. Choi. He had birdied two of the last five holes to become the oldest ever leader of the Open. Faldo was so excited he exited the commentary box at the end of the round and went over to give Norman another hug (12 years after the one on the 18th at Augusta). ‘What you are doing is awesome,’ he told his old rival. ‘I’m rooting for you.’

But the fairytale had to come to an end at some point and three bogeys in the first three holes on Sunday hastened that point. Everyone else was struggling as well, however. Harrington had three bogeys in a row to end the front nine and with six holes to play Norman was only a shot behind the Irishman, but then at the 13th there was a two-shot swing. Harrington birdied there and at the 15th and then eagled the 17th after hitting a glorious
three-wood onto the green. Walking down the 18th fairway, Harrington told Norman: ‘I’m sorry it isn’t your story being told this evening.’

Harrington said: ‘I thanked Greg for his company. He’s a super guy and the perfect gentleman to be playing with in the last group of an Open. He says “good shot” when it needs to be said, does his own thing as well. Of course, I wanted to win but it would have been a fantastic story if Greg had won. He has been a great champion and another win at this time in his career would have been the icing on the cake. It is never easy leading a tournament in very difficult conditions so you have to feel for him. But, gee, you’d be happy to drive the ball like him at any stage of your career, let alone at 53 years of age.’

For the eighth time Norman had taken the lead into the final day of a major and he had still only won on one of those occasions. This time he closed with a 77. ‘I’m disappointed,’ he said. ‘Padraig played great and finished like a true Open champion. I hung in there and can hold my head up high and I’m sure I surprised a lot of people. I thought I got off to a pretty good start but the conditions were tough. If you haven’t played a lot of golf it’s hard to regroup. And I don’t plan on playing too much golf.’

Norman moved on to become the captain of the International team at the Presidents Cup. He served in the post at Harding Park in San Francisco in 2009 and at Royal Melbourne in 2011, the Americans winning each time. One of the decisions Norman made for the 2009 match was to pick Adam Scott as a wild card. It did not go down well since Scott, the world number three a year earlier, had completely lost form, missing six cuts in a row during
the season. ‘It was easy for me to take the criticism,’ Norman said, ‘because I wanted to help my friend and to help a player who should be a lot higher in the game than he was get back up there. He needed a pat on the back from someone to realise he was not in as deep a hole as he thought.’

Scott was 15 when he watched Norman lose the 1996 Masters and was devastated for his hero. They first met around that time when Norman gave the youngster a lift on his plane. Over the years Scott often stayed at Norman’s home in Florida and the Shark turned into a mentor. ‘I love the idea of handing down what I’ve learned to someone like Adam,’ Norman told
Golf Digest
. ‘He’s humble, he’s kind, he’s intelligent – but also a great listener who never sucks up all the oxygen in the room. All the things people like about him are real.’

Reflecting on his selection for the 2009 Presidents Cup, Scott said: ‘Greg as the captain had a lot of faith in me and made me a pick. There is no hiding in a Presidents Cup and I used that as a real motivator and a way to make myself believe I was a great player again. It was a really big boost for me.’ There was always a wonderful rhythm to Scott’s swing, which looked uncannily like that of Woods when both were taught by Butch Harmon. The final key for Scott was sorting out his putting, which he did by turning to a long-handled putter early in 2011, initially trialling it on Norman’s putting green in Florida.

He almost won the Masters that year and his confidence started to build. In 2012, he was four ahead with four to play in the Open Championship at Royal Lytham. While Els birdied the last hole, Scott ended up bogeying the last four holes to lose by one. Els was elated to win a second Open but sorry for his ‘good buddy Scotty’. He need not have worried. Scott handled himself with great decorum, so much so that few could bring themselves to label his collapse as ‘Normanesque’. Scott was adamant: ‘Next
time, and I’m sure there will be a next time, I can do a better job of it.’

And next time, he did. ‘Lytham gave me more belief that I could win a major,’ he said at the 2013 Masters. ‘It proved to myself I could. The difference was that last time I played 14 good holes but this time I played 20 good ones.’ Scott was one of three Australians, along with Day and Marc Leishman, battling to end the Augusta curse. When Scott holed his putt on the 72nd green, he roared: ‘C’mon Aussie.’

‘I knew it was time for me to step up and show how much I wanted it,’ he said. ‘I was pumped. I thought I’d won but only for a split second.’ There was still a playoff to come but out of Scott’s sight at the time, Leishman celebrated his countryman’s putt with his own fist pump. When he found out later, due to a photograph taken from a particular angle which had Leishman in the background, Scott was touched that a player who had also hoped to earn a green jacket that day could be glad for his friend. ‘I was just hoping he would hole the putt – for him, for Australian golf, for everything it meant,’ Leishman said.

Angel Cabrera, the big man from Argentina who won the 2009 Masters, tied with Scott and almost won the playoff when he nearly chipped in at the 18th. ‘My heart was about to stop and I was thinking, is this it, really?’ Scott said. Norman tweeted at the time: ‘The golfing gods can’t be this mean to Australia.’ He said later: ‘It was the first time I was on the other side of the fence and praying for someone else to do something special.’

The golf over the last hole of regulation and the two playoff holes was spectacular and only ended when Scott holed for a birdie on the 10th green. ‘I knew that was my chance, it was getting too dark,’ he said. Not seeing the line clearly because of the gloom, Scott called in caddie Steve Williams, the New Zealander who was Tiger’s long-time bagman, who advised that it was ‘at
least two cups outside the hole’. ‘It was a great read,’ Scott said. ‘He was my eyes on that one.’

Scott was quick to give credit to Norman: ‘A part of this belongs to him.’ He added: ‘What an incredible day. Everything fell my way in the end. I am so proud of myself and everyone who has helped me. I am a proud Australian and I hope this sits well at home and even in New Zealand – we were a trans-Tasman combo with Steve on the bag.’ It did sit well.
The Australian
proclaimed a new national hero under the headline ‘Scott banishes Masters hoodoo’. The
Sydney Morning Herald
said: ‘In Australian pantheon, Scott’s first among equals.’

When he returned home in November, Scott was feted everywhere he went. Not since Norman had the game Down Under enthralled to such a popular Pied Piper. Huge crowds came out to watch him win the Australian PGA Championship, the Australian Masters, the World Cup for Australia alongside Day, and he only just missed out on the Aussie Triple Crown when Rory McIlroy stole the Australian Open away at the 72nd hole. Mike Clayton, another Aussie player turned scribbler, wrote: ‘Scott, as is his way, took the loss with grace. For a month he has signed autographs, spoken at dinners arranged in his honour, had hundreds if not thousands of photographs taken with green-jacketed arm around adoring fans. What is more impressive is he looked like he enjoyed every step of the journey. He never once looked like he was doing us a favour by being here when he could have been sunning himself in Bermuda.

‘Scott is a throwback to the generation of Thomson and Nagle, outwardly modest men who understood their golf scores were not the most important things in the world, and he surely will win a lot more.’