With gusto, Norman meets stiff challenge
SOUTHPORT, England - With its century-old foundation holding sturdy in the third round of the 137th British Open, Royal Birkdale refused to give in to yesterday's ferocious winds. What did make it shake were thunderous roars for yesteryear's hero.
Greg Norman.
The name still resonates, but if dust and cobwebs flutter through the air, it is for good reason. At 53 Norman is some 10 years removed from any serious commitment to full-time golf competition, a legend working not so much with a script, but by an ad-lib feel that he rarely calls upon but trusts exclusively.
"I already saw the shot. I knew that was the shot," said Norman, explaining an uncanny finesse that is rarely seen in today's age of power golf, used to combat the fury of 35-mile-per-hour winds that gusted up to 48. "Just visualize the shot."
He let that thought sink in until finally a reporter cut through the silence. Was it possible that Gregory John Norman - the icon from Australia who helped serve as the bridge from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods, as much a legendary athlete as he is a midas-touch businessman - could hang on and win this British Open, even though he's three years removed from his last major championship appearance and 11 years from his last PGA Tour win?
Norman smiled.
"I can't answer that question now," he said. "We'll find out."
He had carved through beguiling winds and navigated his way around, over, and through some of the majestic sand dunes on this glorious links course, played his final eight holes at 2 under par to shoot a 2-over 72 and settle in at 2-over 212, good for a two-stroke lead over defending champion Padraig Harrington (72) and K.J. Choi (75), and by three over Simon Wakefield (70), but now, in the dim of a cold British evening, Norman had failed to execute for the first time all day. The sense was, it had nothing to do with fatigue but everything to do with a sense of history.
Sitting in a county where the greatest penman of all, William Shakespeare, made famous a lengthy list of tragic figures, Norman sat front and center, having once again - incredible as it seems - put himself in position to seize great glory. The fact that more times than not his attempts have ended in bitter heartache is part of the legacy he has never run from. But in a strange way, Norman suggested this time feels a bit different than his previous seven times as the 54-hole leader in a major, only one of which he carried through to victory.
"Players are probably saying, 'My God, what's he doing up there?' " said Norman.
There was grand laughter - from him, from media members, from his wife of three weeks, former tennis queen Chris Evert. It was a nice way to break the tension of a tedious day of golf that had been like few ever seen. So windy was it that on a number of occasions in the afternoon, players called for rules officials and 10-to-20-minute delays were required before balls could be replaced on putting surfaces without moving.
Rarely do players working in 25-m.p.h. winds feel they've gotten a break, but indeed it felt that way to two morning starters, Ben Curtis and Davis Love. They each shot even-par 70 to roar up the leaderboard - Curtis passing 33 players to settle into a share of fifth at 7-over 217, Love hurdling 54 players to sit joint 15th, though at 9 over he's seven back. They made those leaps, because by the time the afternoon crowd hit the course, the wind had intensified and one by one, players tried to put into words what their day had been like.
"Like fighting golf all over," said Henrik Stenson, who shot 70 -218 and is joint ninth.
"It was ridiculously tough out there," said Ross Fisher, who shot 71 -217 and shares fifth with Curtis, Alexander Noren (75), and Anthony Kim (71), the 22-year-old American. At the 10th hole Kim placed his ball down, picked up his marker, and prepared to putt when the ball got swept away by a gust of wind. Seven or 8 feet further from the hole, he had to play it from there, but not until he stood "for about 30 minutes."
Starting the day a stroke behind Choi, Norman didn't lose much ground despite three bogeys in his first six holes. At one point there were four players tied for the lead at 2 over - Choi, Norman, Harrington, and Jim Furyk - though early on the demanding back nine they got battered silly. Harrington made bogey at the par-4 11th and double bogey at the par-3 12th and Furyk came in behind him to go double bogey, bogey, bogey on 10-12. Choi and Norman followed with double bogeys at the par-4 10th and suddenly it felt as if the only one who could bring a semblance of order to this chaos was the ghost of Old Tom Morris.
Fortunately, a legend from not quite that far back did the honors. Norman had opened with a 70 Thursday and matched that number Friday, but after each day the doubters whispered it wouldn't continue. Not at 53. Not with so little golf in his world these days.
"I didn't hear any of that," said Norman, who turned the clock back to 1986, a year in which he was so good he led each major championship through 54 holes. With Furyk (77 -219, T-15) floundering, Harrington squeezing a bogey at the 16th in between birdies at 15 and 17, and Choi making a sloppy three-putt bogey at the par-5 15th, Norman looked like the dashing figure a generation remembers.
Drilling a 6-iron to 12 feet at the 201-yard, par-3 14th, he made his second birdie of the day to push to 3 over. Then, at the 572-yard, par-5 17th, Norman reached with a 6-iron from 205 yards, two-putted for another birdie, and seized a two-stroke lead. All he did to pull the curtain down on this third scintillating act of the week was get it up-and-down from just short of the 18th green, his deft pitch-and-run burning the left edge.
They roared with deafening approval, as if this were a British Open blast from 1986 when Norman put on a clinic at Turnberry, or 1993 when he closed with a blistering 64 and overtook Nick Faldo. Those remain Norman's two major championships, a shockingly small figure given the multitude of times he has put himself in position to seize glory, only to fall painfully short.
Playoff losses in all four majors? The six-stroke lead he squandered to Faldo at Augusta in 1996? The meltdown at Shinnecock? The miraculous bunker shot that stunned him in overtime at Inverness? It's all part of his legacy, every bit as important as the blond hair, the Shark nickname, the Aussie mystique, and the millionaire lifestyle complete with yachts and helicopters and planes.
Today, as Norman attempts to smash by five years the record of oldest major champion, he knows he has returned to a stage that has never treated him kindly - the leader of a major through 54 holes. What would he have said to someone had they suggested such a scenario two weeks ago?
"Oh, really?" laughed Norman.
Yes, really.
