Faldo/Norman Read Free Page A

take over televising the US Open in 2015. When the announcement was made that the US Golf Association was dropping NBC and Johnny Miller, Norman admitted he had been approached to become the lead analyst for Fox’s first venture into golf.
    Rose was the first Englishman to win the US Open since Tony Jacklin in 1970 – Faldo never managed it – and the first Englishman to win any major since Faldo at the 1996 Masters. ‘It was always a matter of time before one of us broke through,’ Rose said. ‘But I’m glad it was me.’ Rose had had lunch with Faldo two weeks before. ‘He’s a classy guy,’ said Faldo. ‘No matter how many times he got knocked down, he still had self-belief.’
    Scott won on his 12th appearance and at 32 was exactly the average age for a Masters winner. Norman was two months past his 41st birthday in April 1996 and was making his 16th appearance at Augusta. No one would have been older or taken as long to win their first Masters had the Shark won that year (although at 41 years and three months, Mark O’Meara would have taken the age record anyway in 1998).
    Only three players, Horton Smith, Gene Sarazen and Fuzzy Zoeller, have won on their Masters debut, and the first two of those were in the first two years of the tournament. Charl Schwartzel became only the third player to win on his second appearance in 2012.
    It took Woods three goes, Arnold Palmer and Ballesteros four each, Nicklaus and Gary Player five and Faldo six, which turns out to be the average number of appearances before a first Masters win. In all, Norman appeared 23 times in the Masters, with eight top-five finishes. Gene Littler and Tom Kite, who had nine top-fives, hold the record for the most appearances without winning (26). Without the winner’s lifetime exemption, all the other qualifications for receiving an invitation eventually run out. Faldo chooses not to play any longer; Norman does not have that choice.
    For Norman, the Masters was his favourite tournament of the year and Augusta National one of his favourite courses. Winning this event became something of an obsession, particularly after having had a chance to get into a playoff with Nicklaus in 1986, but flailing his approach deep into the crowd, and in 1987 when he was in a playoff down at the 11th when Larry Mize did the unthinkable and holed an outrageous chip from well off the green. ‘From the last day of the 1986 tournament, from the very moment I missed the putt for the par, for the next year, 24 hours a day, I thought about the Masters,’ he said. ‘Every day it was on my mind. More than anything else in my life, I wanted towin that one.’ Trying to get the Mize chip out of his head was even worse.
    But the 1996 Masters was all about Norman. Even the introduction to the final round on the BBC coverage hardly mentioned Faldo. Over pictures of Norman’s highlights from the third round, Steve Rider said: ‘The icy nerve of Greg Norman, six shots clear after 54 holes of the US Masters, form that rarely wavered, a putter that rarely failed. He’s led throughout. He’s always looked in control. Even the treacherous 16th held no fears and yesterday produced a vital birdie. They say yesterday was the day he won the US Masters. Today is surely not the day he’s going to lose it. It’s happened before, though. In 1986, needing a four to tie at the last he took five and Nicklaus won the title.’
    Cue the video of Norman’s four-iron diving right of the green and Peter Alliss’s commentary: ‘That really was a dreadful shot. Put to the test and found wanting, I’m afraid.’
    Rider again: ‘In 1987 victory looked assured. He was in control of a playoff only for Larry Mize to produce his miracle and Norman was second at the Masters once again.’ Cue video with Alliss’s succinct: ‘And they say the meek shall inherit the earth…’
    Rider, over a caption with the leaderboard: ‘Greg Norman, the world number one, seems poised to put all that