- In lieu of 2020 action, relive 1996’s classic final round
- Norman goes for glory with Faldo and Mickelson on his tail
- Email your thoughts to Scott
Norman really should aim for the heart of the green. “If I was Greg, I would not take the pin on,” opines Venturi, who knows a thing or two about what Norman is going through right now, having bogeyed 9, 10, 11 and 12 himself while shipping a lead on Masters Sunday in 1956. “I’d take it over the fat side of the bunker and put it on the green. He’s not going to win it here, but he can lose it here.” Greg takes the flag on. The ball begins its fateful descent over Rae’s Creek. Just before it lands on the bank guarding the front of the green, one wise old Augusta punter, who clearly knows where you can and cannot take liberties, predicts in matter-of-fact style: “It’s in the water.” The ball slaps the face of the bank, takes one big bounce, then a couple of sweet baby ones, then topples back quietly into the drink. Oh my. Amen Corner on Sunday, huh.
Norman and Faldo receive a rousing, standing ovation as they walk up to the 12th tee. On CBS, Ken Venturi deconstructs. “You know what that ovation says? It says they’re tied: may the best man win!” Most of the colour has drained from Norman’s stunned face. As he waits for Faldo to go about his business, he gnaws on his bottom lip like a clubber who’s been a bit too liberal with the old bag of speed. His heart will be racing in similar style, too. Faldo meanwhile calmly sends a 7-iron into the heart of this most testing of par threes. Can his co-leader – his co-leader! – respond?
… Norman clacks his birdie putt down the green. It flirts with the lip on the right, but it’s not lacking for speed and charges on by. He’s left himself a tricky three-footer coming back. Not the worst putt in the world, but given what’s happened to him recently, it’s not the ideal outcome either. After trying to shake the tension from his shoulders by letting his arms hang loose, he sets himself and … shoves a meek putt to the right, the ball lipping out. As he taps in, the patrons of Augusta National swoon and chatter in disbelief. What on earth is happening here?! Norman started the day with a six-shot lead, but all of a sudden, it’s all gone! Three consecutive bogeys. No wonder he’s pinching the bridge of his nose as he stumbles off the green, head bowed in bewildered contemplation.
-9: Norman (11), Faldo (11)
-5: Nobilo (13), Waldorf (12)
-4: Mickelson (12)
Mickelson bumps his chip up onto the 12th green. Not quite enough juice, he’s left with a four-footer for his par. And once again his flat stick lets him down. Having pushed one left on 11, he now pulls this right. A bogey, and he’s left two shots out there in short order. He slips to -4. Meanwhile Faldo can’t make his 25-footer for birdie at 11. No matter, another par will do. Because …
Faldo’s comparative lack of distance means he’s hitting first into 11. Always an advantage in match play, which, well, y’know. He piles the pressure on Norman by landing his ball 20 feet from the flag. Not sure whether he went straight for the pin or was aiming for the centre of the green and pulled it a tad, but he’ll not care too much about that. Norman responds well: after twitching and tweaking his set-up this way and that for 20 seconds, he eventually drops a 9-iron into the middle of the green, and will have a fairly straight look at birdie from 15 feet or so. Worth the wait.
Norman takes out his frustration on his drive at 11, and batters one miles down the middle. He’s a long way past Faldo, who had crashed a big enough one down there himself. Over on 12, Mickelson goes straight at the flag, but he’s long, and the ball topples off the back-right of the green. He doesn’t have too much green to work with there, he’ll be facing a difficult chip back up. Meanwhile here’s Simon McMahon: “As Seve (+11) rides off into the sunset, my sources tell me there’s a promising young Spanish golfer who may be worth keeping an eye on. Won the European amateur championship aged just 15 last year, and with it entry to this year’s Open. A cool customer by all accounts. Sergio Garcia. Remember the name.” Yes, we’ve heard rumblings that he’s something special. Word is, if he hasn’t landed at least three or four majors by 2010, something will have gone seriously wrong.
Up on 11, Mickelson arrows an iron straight at the flag. From 140 yards, he’s now no more than four feet away. That is a sensational shot, and ballsy too, the pin tucked in behind the water, with barely any room for error. A birdie would take him to within four of the lead … but with the sun glinting off his flat stick, he dribbles a miserable putt wide left. Like Norman up on 10, he only half-committed to the stroke, and paid the price for his timidity. That’s one hell of a yip. I wonder whether he was put off by a roar of disbelief elsewhere, as news of Norman’s latest bogey was posted on the leader boards? And he nearly misses the two-footer he left himself, pulling it, the ball only just toppling in on the right. He remains at -5. And he’s joined there by Nobilo, who finds the heart of 13 with his approach, then rolls a gentle left-to-right slider into the cup from 25 feet.
-10: Norman (10)
-9: Faldo (10)
-5: Nobilo (13), Mickelson (11), Waldorf (11)
A lovely boring two-putt par for Faldo. If he’d hit the first one, uphill from 25 feet and fairly straight, it might even have dropped for birdie. But par will do. No sweat. Norman is breaking out into cobs, though. He almost quits on his par putt, and the subsequent lack of velocity means the ball’s always going to turn left before reaching the cup. That’s a wretched effort in the circumstances, and as he taps in disconsolately for a second bogey in a row, one patron emits a sing-song “ooooh my” in the style of Blanche Dubois. The tone and timing of this particular song of the south strongly suggests the subtext: “Uh-oh, what do we have here, this dude is losing it.”
-10: Norman (10)
-9: Faldo (10)
Norman elects to chip from just off the green at 10. And it’s not the best idea. He’s way too aggressive, the ball landing to the left of the hole before rolling a good ten feet past. That was so clumsy. The crowd gasp in almost theatrical horror; they’re witnessing the world number one clanking the ball around Augusta in the most basic fashion. He hasn’t even got to Amen Corner yet. Goodness, he really needs to knock in the par putt coming back, or the wheels will be in danger of coming off completely.
Back on 10, Norman tugs a dismal second to the left of the green from 200 yards. He doesn’t half enjoy visiting that side of this hole; you may recall his running up a double-bogey six from down the bank there on the final day ten years ago. He’s parred the hole three times this week, though he’ll need to get up and down to maintain that consistency. The good news: the ball’s refused to topple down the bank, clinging onto the top by its dimples. He’ll probably elect to putt from there, so par isn’t a pipe dream. Speaking of consistency, the iced-tea-cool Faldo swishes an effortless iron into the heart of the green. No pin chasing. Par chasing. Given the jittery way Norman has been playing today, pars all the way in may well be enough.
Some smart play by Nobilo on 13. His first response to that momentum-jiggering bogey on 12 was to whistle his drive into the pine trees down the right of the dogleg par five. There’s a route to the green from where he finds himself, and he considers the New York Or Bust option for quite some time. But instead he decides to lay up, bumping his ball down the left of the fairway, well short of Rae’s Creek and watery disaster. And he’s left with the chance to spin close and make birdie.
OK, so the 1996 Masters starts now! In other words, the final group on Sunday has reached the turn. You know how it goes. In the CBS booth, last year’s winner Gentle Ben promises that “we’re gonna see some stuff on this back nine.” And that’s a cast-iron guarantee, folks! It is Masters Sunday, after all. Faldo steps up and belts a big drive down the middle of 10. Norman passes him with an alpha 3-wood.
Faldo nearly drains his birdie putt from 40 feet! He dribbles it down the glassy green, the gentlest of prods. He’s judged it perfectly … almost. The right-to-left breaker looks like dropping; one dimple’s width to the left, and in it would have gone. But it lips out on the right. He taps in for a par, the crowd catching their breath. What pressure that would have put on Norman! Faldo looks in the mood now. Unlike his partner, he’s in control of his game, and perhaps more importantly his emotions. Norman underscores the point by missing his par putt. A very timid effort, always missing on the left from the nanosecond it left the face of his flat stick. Suddenly there’s just two in it, and Norman walks off – almost in silence, the gallery can’t believe what is unfolding here – with extreme concern scrawled all across his face in capital letters. He’s not quite reached the thousand-yard-stare stage yet, but the eyes are beginning to transmit the first distress signals of extreme inner pain.
-11: Norman (9)
-9: Faldo (9)
-5: Mickelson (10), Waldorf (10)
-4: Nobilo (12)
Greg is off the front of 9, at the bottom of the steep slope. He’s not got much green to play with, as the flag is only 20 feet over the brow. He chips up bravely, sending his ball screeching to a halt eight feet past the flag. He’ll have a treacherous one coming back to save his par, but that was about as close as he could get without lucking out by hitting the flagstick or bundling the ball into the hole. He landed his chip right on top of the front slope; anything less, and his ball was coming straight back again.
Faldo is on the 9th in two. Again he’s played the percentages, sending his second towards the back of the green. He’ll be left with a tricky downhill putt, of course, but at least he took the false front out of the equation. Norman, by contrast, goes straight for the flag near the front. But his sand wedge, from 100 yards, isn’t long enough. It reaches the green, but only just, and inevitably topples back off and down the fairway. Now he’s left with a tricky up and down. Speaking of down: that’s how his head is hanging, as he trudges up towards the scene of the crime. And the volume of the gallery is significantly lower too: they wanted some excitement, but they’re beginning to wonder whether they’re witnessing the start of a slow-motion collapse. He’s not been on it all afternoon, but the red flags have started waving since that backward-stumbling second shot on 8.
So much for Nobilo’s charge. Any slim hopes he might have harboured of snatching victory – which to be fair would require an almighty blow-up by both players in the final group – have become pretty much kaput at 12. He sends a safe tee shot into the heart of the green, deciding not to toy with Rae’s Creek by going for the flag. But if you take the conservative route, you’d damn well make sure to get down in two putts. From 40 feet, he races his first effort 12 feet past the flag, and can’t make the one coming back. He slips back to -4.
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Norman is becoming very jumpy. He spends an absolute age setting himself over his drive at 9, his usual careful style multiplied. Shades of Doug Sanders at the 1970 Open, when he presaged his infamous missed tiddler at the last, by taking 36 seconds at address over a shot at the Road Hole, glancing 16 times up the fairway before dumping his ball in the bunker. This isn’t a good sign, though to be fair he crashes this drive straight down the middle. Hopefully that will settle his nerves, which at the minute are dancing, jiving and cavorting around in plain sight. A proper hootenanny of horror.
Meanwhile Frank Nobilo guides a glorious, nerveless iron into 11, and rolls home his fourth consecutive birdie from a couple of feet. He’s almost certainly too far back to seriously contemplate winning, but he could sell that run to either Norman or Faldo for a pretty penny.
-12: Norman (8)
-9: Faldo (8)
-5: Nobilo (11), Mickelson (9), Waldorf (9)
-3: Love III (17), Hoch (10)
Norman would have felt a whole lot better had his fourth, a delicate chip from 20 yards, dropped into the hole for birdie … which it nearly did. A lovely touch. More of that, please, Greg. Par, which to be fair he’d have taken when down that leafy swale to the left. But then a huge sucker punch: Faldo takes his time over his uphill 25-footer, pauses as caddie Fanny Sunesson tells the gallery to shut the eff up, then sends a slightly bouncy left-to-right slider scampering up to the hole and in! That’s a game-changer, right there! There’s only three in it! A huge cheer from the gallery, who are now permitted not only to speak, but also holler and roar. They haven’t come to watch a procession, and now this is a proper competition. Faldo struts off with a look of steely determination on his boat, though he’s clearly desperately trying not to give away his inner excitement with any sort of smile. He’s cut Greg’s lead in half! He knows this is on!
Norman does extremely well to punch a low shot through a small window to the right of the trees. Under the branches it goes, bumping back into play, just off the front of the green. But that’s just three of the first eight greens found in regulation. He’s not in full control of his game right now.
Faldo becomes the latest player to mishit his wedge into 8. From that perfect position, he flops weakly, his ball only just reaching the fringe at the front. He drops his head in despair, then turns his back on the scene in disgust. Meanwhile Greg is deep in the forest, down a bank covered liberally with pine needles. He’ll have to manufacture something special, with the flag behind two trees, some overhanging branches getting in the road as well.
Faldo decides to lay up with his second at the par-five 8th. Playing for position. He lands his ball short and right of the green, the perfect spot from which to attack the flag. Norman is going for it, though. Out comes the fairway wood, and he rocks back on his heels, a wild loss of control, as he pulls one into the trees down the left. Not such a good place to be. Meanwhile New Zealand’s Frank Nobilo is launching a late charge. Quietly, away from the spotlight, he’s just made three birdies in a row, 8 through 10, to rise up to fifth spot at -4. And Davis Love III, the hot tip of many a pundit at the start of the week, has followed up his eagle on 15 with birdie at 16.
-12: Norman (7)
-8: Faldo (7)
-5: Mickelson (8), Waldorf (8)
-4: Nobilo (10)
-3: Love III (16), Hoch (9)
Up on 18, the warmest ovation of the day so far. It’s for the beloved Jack Nicklaus, the six-time winner. This is his 38th Masters; he’s made the cut 34 times now. He nearly drains a monster for birdie, but it doesn’t quite get there. It’s not been the old boy’s weekend: 76 and 78, and he ends +9, with only Seve (+11) and Alex Cejka (+14) below him. Still, not bad for a 56-year-old, and how about all those green coats, huh?
Mickelson is flitting between the fantastic and the farcical right now. He’s only just off the green, but opens the face of his wedge, takes a full swing, and sends his ball miles into the air, landing it gently four feet from the cup. That’s delicious, and took some nerve too. The gallery break into coos of awed wonder. What touch. But then he prods at the par putt with great uncertainty, and it lips out on the right. “Aw come on Phil!” hollers a disappointed-cum-affronted patron, the verbal equivalent of a clip round the lug. Mickelson deserves the brickbat; his last three strokes have been a preposterous nonsense, one way or the other. Meanwhile Waldorf pars, having duffed a chip into the green himself.
-12: Norman (7)
-8: Faldo (7)
-5: Mickelson (8), Waldorf (8)
What on earth is Lefty up to here?! He’s chipping into the par-five 8th, looking to set himself up with a nice birdie putt. The young Californian has already established a reputation as a wizard with the wedge, but his Seve-style short game deserts him big-time here. It’s an appalling chunk, squirting off almost straight left, landing apologetically into a bank and rolling back down the fairway. What was he trying to achieve? It almost looked as though he’d set up to lob, but changed his mind mid-shot to bump-and-run. Oh dear. Mickelson reacts by alternating the position of his hands, first on his head, then on his hips. He can’t believe what he’s just done. Turn a decent birdie chance into a likely bogey, is what he’s just done.
Norman is attempting to become only the fifth player to win the Masters wire-to-wire. Craig Wood was the first player to lead outright in all four rounds, back in 1941. The other three: Arnold Palmer (1960), Jack Nicklaus (1972) and today’s hole-in-one ace Ray Floyd (1976). Norman should end that particular 20-year wait this afternoon, though he shouldn’t waste too many more chances like this if he’s to make sure. He tugs his straight, very makeable putt left. That was a bit fidgety. I do hope his shoulders aren’t tightening up again, like they did when the nerves suddenly ambushed him going up 18 a decade ago. He remains four ahead of Faldo, whose longer birdie effort was distinctly average, but the cushion should be bigger.
-12: Norman (7)
-8: Faldo (7)
Straight out to the 7th, where Norman and Faldo are sending wedges into the green. Faldo is a little long; he’ll have a snaking 20-footer coming back. Norman is pin high, though, maybe ten feet to the right of the flag. Up on 15, Davis Love III – last year’s runner-up, a shot shy of Crenshaw – curls in a left-to-right swinger from the back edge of the green for eagle. He’s on his way to another impressive finish; he’s suddenly -2, catapulted into the top ten.
The CBS telecast begins with some wise words from outgoing champ Ben Crenshaw, who missed the cut this week but served up some delicious Texas barbecue (brisket and ribs) at the Champions Dinner, so it’s been swings and roundabouts. “It’s going to be exciting,” Gentle Ben promises. “I think everyone went to sleep last night thinking Norman has this tournament, he’s played magnificent golf all the way through. It appears that way. But we’re at a different place where so many things have happened and can happen. One thing is that the wind is not blowing that much today, which is in Greg’s favour. But on the other hand it gives these other people confidence, people are dangerous behind him. You see Nick Faldo doing what he’s doing, Phil Mickelson is ever-dangerous. It’s gonna be interesting!” Sure is! So folks, get your pimento cheese and your iced tea, and settle down. This is happening!
Sound on! Vision on! And we’re live!
Now it was Faldo’s turn to bounce back immediately from bogey. He sent his tee shot at 6 over the flag, his ball dropping softly four feet from the cup. In went the putt, and the lead was once again cut to four. Mickelson and Waldorf continued to ping-pong up and down the leaderboard too, the former dropping one at 7, the latter making birdie. At this point, CBS will have been rabidly champing at the bit.
-12: Norman (6)
-8: Faldo (6)
-6: Mickelson (7)
-5: Waldorf (7)
-3: Pavin (9), Huston (8), Hoch (8)
-2: Calcavecchia (10), Els (9), Nobilo (8), McCarron (6)
This was better from Mickelson. He arrowed his tee shot at the 6th straight at the flag. He made the eight-foot uphill putt he’d left himself, to card only the third birdie of the day on this deceptively tricky par-three. Waldorf bogeyed, that eagle handed back to the field in double-quick time, any slim chance surely gone. Meanwhile behind on 5, Faldo dropped his first stroke of the afternoon, failing in his attempt to escape with a sandy par after missing an eight-footer. So once again the picture had changed, and Norman had five shots’ worth of breathing space again.
-12: Norman (5)
-7: Mickelson (6), Faldo (5)
-4: Waldorf (6)
Norman and Faldo both went on to par the 3rd, Flowering Peach, but then on 4, more problems for the leader. Greg came up a club short at the long par-three, Flowering Crab Apple, and couldn’t get up and down from the front. A second bogey in the first four holes, and perhaps the ship hadn’t been totally steadied by that birdie at 2 after all. Suddenly the lead is only four. Incidentally, in the match ahead, both Mickelson and Waldorf had dropped a stroke at the troublesome 4th as well. This was already beginning to look like a slightly more interesting two-way tussle than anyone had expected, and CBS will have been wishing Augusta National had let them go live a good hour or so earlier. Maybe they’ll relent one day.
-12: Norman (4)
-8: Faldo (4)
-6: Mickelson (5)
-5: Waldorf (5)
But Norman bounced back well at the par-five 2nd. He was over the back in two, but elected to putt, up and over the fringe and down the ludicrously quick green. For a second, you wondered whether he’d given it enough, and if the ball might stop the second it reached the short stuff. But it turned and continued to slowly turn, trickling down to kick-in distance. That was so exquisitely judged. You can’t do that if you’re riddled with nerves. One turn away from eagle. Birdie more than sufficed, though, given his uneasy start. Faldo matched him, getting up and down from a bunker for his own birdie to stay five behind.
-13: Norman (2)
-8: Faldo (2)
-7: Mickelson (3)
Norman wouldn’t have been calmed by news of the group ahead. Phil Mickelson birdied 2, while his playing partner Duffy Waldorf nearly became the first man in Masters history to make double-eagle at Pink Dogwood, bumping a long iron into the front of the green, the camber gathering it around to the right, towards its traditional Sunday placement behind the bunker. The 33-year-old Californian, who won his first tour title at the Texas Open last year, and has top-ten finishes at both the US Open and PGA Championship to his name, rolled in his three-footer for eagle. And yes, yes, albatross, but when in Rome and all that. Double-eagle is the phrase in the official Masters literature, and these good folk are our hosts, so there’s no excuse for bad manners.
-12: Norman (1)
-7: Mickelson (2), Faldo (1)
-6: Waldorf (2)
The opening ceremonial shot of this year’s Tournament was taken by Gene Sarazen. The Squire won here in 1935 on his first visit, the double-eagle shot heard ‘round the world, a 235-yard 4-wood at 15 that ultimately defeated Craig Wood, all that. He’s now 94, but still managed to whistle his drive down the middle of Tea Olive. How Greg Norman must wish he could have done that today: his opening tee shot went straight into the trees! He did well to recover, managing to send his second into a greenside bunker, from which he splashed to eight feet. But his putt lipped out on the right, and that was an opening bogey. No way to calm nerves that will surely be jangling. Faldo parred, and the lead was immediately down to just the five strokes. Just the five!
-12: Norman (1)
-7: Faldo (1)
Has there been any early action of note, ahead of CBS’s upcoming live telecast? Oh yes, plenty of it and more. Let’s start with the 1976 champ Ray Floyd, who mined all those years of experience to land his 5-iron at the par-three 16th in the perfect spot, back right of the green, allowing the natural slope to gather his ball down towards the traditional Sunday pin, by the pond, back left. In it serenely dropped, and that’s the first hole-in-one at Augusta since 1992, and only the seventh of all time at the 16th.
Greg Norman took a little while to get going this week. He started out on Thursday with six pars in a row, an unremarkable beginning to his latest bid for that elusive green jacket. Having missed the cut in his last two Tour events, was this shaping up to be another forgettable week for the Great White Shark?
Nope! No! No sir! See, when Greg finally gets going, he really gets going. You know how he rolls. Those six consecutive garden-variety pars were quickly followed by a three-birdie blitz, and suddenly he was hitting the turn in 33. Then he really started motoring, tearing up the back nine. Six more birdies on his way home, the last courtesy of a spike mark on 18 that deflected a wayward putt into the hole. Hey, when it’s your day, it’s your day, and you’ve got to take your luck while the going’s good. Back in blistering style, 30 strokes, for a course-record-equalling first round of 63.
