US Masters 2021: 25th anniversary of Norman’s shocking Augusta defeat
It’s been 25 years since Greg Norman lost the unlosable US Masters. Happy, erm, anniversary.
The most shocking defeat in the history of Australian sport? Greg Norman’s loss at the 1996 US Masters. Jonny Wilkinson’s field goal at the 2003 World Cup, and Michael Kasprowicz’s dismissal at the end of the 2005 Ashes series spring to mind, too.
But nothing tops Norman’s choke for snatching defeat from the jaws of what looked certain to be a six-shot victory.
Because that was the lead Norman took into the final round at Augusta National. You would have expected him and Nick Faldo to shoot around the same score. Norman would be the first Australian to win the Masters. How fitting. Norman would be the first Australian to wear the green jacket. It would have fit him.
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That colossal figure of world and Australian sport, the swashbuckling world number one – he was the strong-willed, broad-shouldered, charismatic player who would break Australia’s duck at the Masters. How shocking was his loss? So shocking it’s still difficult to believe.
This week’s Masters is the 25th anniversary of Norman’s most famous result. Not the sort of anniversary he’d be clinking a champagne glass over. His website these days says, “Victory is sweet, but how you handle yourself in defeat is often more telling.”
That makes you think of the ‘96 Masters. I remember waking early to watch television coverage of the back nine. Norman would be home and hosed by then. He’d led by two shots after the first round, four shots after the second round, six shots after the third round.
Surely he’d win by eight. He lost by five. He was still three shots ahead of Nick Faldo on the ninth tee. He went bogey, bogey, bogey, double-bogey as Faldo went par, par, par, par, birdie to lead by two on the 13th tee.
His loss is as famous as Adam Scott’s win in 2013. To mark the, erm, occasion this week, Norman has told The Observer newspaper: “I don’t reflect on it. Time goes by, it’s the only thing you cannot stop. It only really comes up when other people want to speak about it. I don’t lie in bed of a night thinking back to what happened 25 years ago.”
Norman is more a part of the Augusta story than most of the champions. Ten top ten finishes in 23 years of openly pining to win there. Three seconds. Three thirds. A fourth, a fifth and a sixth. Larry Mize’s miracle/nightmare chip-in.
“I still love Augusta,” he says. “It’s only a sport, right? It’s only a game. It’s nothing else. It didn’t affect my health where I was suddenly incapacitated for the rest of my life. Things happen in sport. If you are going to let a negative result affect you then you aren’t a very strong person. I have never been that way. I’ve never cried over spilt milk. You move on in life.”
His biggest memories? Waking up and his body feeling out of whack. His swing being off kilter on the range. An English golf writer telling him on his way to the first tee, “Not even you can f... this up.”
His wife organising for friends to fly in from Florida on Norman’s private jet to watch his victory march. The plan was to celebrate on the plane on the way home. He thought that was unnecessarily tempting fate. He remembers the closing holes feeling like a funeral march. And Faldo being not such a bad bloke after all.
“Whether it’s the members of Augusta National, the people who live in Augusta, anyone who went to watch that Masters or saw it on TV; I had a such a good following,” he says. “They sent me a lot of well wishes and messages of support. That’s no different today when I walk through the streets there. There is a legacy of what you have done, people respect how you handle yourself. Maybe 1996 was a big part of that.”
Norman had a hand in Dustin Johnson’s triumph at the Asterisk Masters five months ago. It was the Asterisk Masters because watching Johnson and his brother stroll up the 72nd fairway in peace and quiet was like watching him winning a Sunday arvo Stableford. He didn’t have to handle the nerves always created by a packed gallery screaming themselves hoarse. The course was soft and easy because of wet November weather, allowing his course record of 20-under-par.
Of all the sporting events that were slated to have an asterisk last year, I think the Masters was the one that really did.
Johnson credited a 90-minute discussion with Norman about putting for helping him beat Australia’s Cam Smith to the jacket. “I’ll help him whenever he asks,” Norman said. “I like DJ. I’m a fan of his. I don’t like seeing great players with something that I see as very fixable.
“It was great that he reached out to me and I’m glad it was so positive for him. He’s a very intelligent golfer. He gets a very good feel for golf courses, he understands golf, understands his own characteristics.
“He eliminates a lot of white noise. He also has one of the most athletic frames, so when you combine that with his hand-eye coordination, he has done a phenomenal job.”
The Masters begins on Thursday. Five Australians are in the field: Scott, Smith, Jason Day, Marc Leishman and Matt Jones.
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