Could this really be Norman's green Sunday?
By Melanie Hauser
GolfWeb contributor
AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He's about to play the most intriguing round of his career.
Not the most important. Not the most historic. Maybe not even the most sentimental, historic or passionate.
You keep asking yourself if it's possible. You keep wondering if it isn't finally his time. If he hasn't been through enough. If the most star-crossed superstar of our time is about to be loved for something he accomplished rather than for what he has failed to do in the past.
You're tempted to say no, it's not going to happen. But every time you do, your heart tugs back at you big-time and says oh yes it will.
Norman can't really leave here Sunday night without that green jacket can he? Augusta National can't tear his heart out once again, can it and take ours along for another heart-wrenching, humiliating ride?
Enough is enough, right? It's time for all those dreams and expectations to come true, not die another excruciatingly slow death. Time for those magical shots and moments to belong to the man whose passionate, on-the-edge game is made to win here, not to someone else.
Norman never doubted his ability to come back here and contend. Not after those ugly losses. Not after shoulder surgery last year and the subsequent eight months on the sidelines. And if you had even the slightest doubt, it took just one look in those piercing blue eyes this week to know you were dead wrong.
This is a man who has taught us that winning isn't everything. He's made us realize it takes even more for a player to keep putting himself in position to win a tournament that keeps breaking his heart; to square those broad shoulders of his and admit the way he did in 1996, wishing he could hate this course he loves so dearly.
No one deserves to win here more than Norman. For all those close calls. For all those last-second shots. For all that talent that's been humbled through the years. For all those great shots he envisioned but never pulled off.
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| Norman had the walk back across the bridge to the 12th tee.(Allsport) |
All too often we see him as bigger than life -- a dashing, swaggering hero whose yearly budget is bigger than that of some nations. Yet Augusta has always been there to remind us he's all too human.
But this year, maybe not.
Norman is one shot behind José Maria Olazábal going into the final round, but knows the important thing isn't where he stands, but rather that he has it all in perspective. He realizes life is the most important thing, not golf. No matter what happens Sunday, life will go on. His family will be at his side. What happens over these final 18 holes won't be life or death. Yet you can bet he'll still play like it is.
"Tomorrow I'm going out to play and win," he said, with an exclamation point in his voice, "because that's what I'm here for. "
So many times, he's built us up, only to then let us go crashing head-first into the ground. Yet there's no one we want to believe in more; no one we would rather see win. You can see it in the faces that line the fairways, in the voices of the crowds that cheer him on.
He was on the prowl Saturday afternoon when his tee shot at the 12th flew some 25 yards past the spot he expected -- and way over the green. He thought the ball landed in a bush above the bunker, but, after everyone from Norman to Lee Janzen and his caddie launched a futile search, he had no choice but to chalk another one up to the gods at Amen Corner.
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| Norman says he has put the heartbreak of '96 behind him.(Allsport) |
He snapped his towel as he grabbed it to clean his hands and wipe his face. He threw it down, then took that long walk over the bridge to cool down and tee it up again. And then something magical really did happen.
"When I walked onto the tee, it seems like there wasn't one individual in that group of people back there who didn't want to see me not hit the green," Norman said with a smile. "They wanted me up there. You could actually feel the emotion coming out of them.
"It was the same going down to 13, the same walking to 15 and 16. That's the most I've ever felt on the course."
Norman doesn't hit shots, he wills them. He winds up that chiseled 44-year-old body of his and dares the ball not to snap to his command. There's a passion in his shots and an urgency -- but one that's finally under control.
Instead of forcing the ball into the hole at 12 Saturday, he hit his third shot. He played it exactly as he envisioned from a spot next to the other divot. It landed 25 yards closer and he made the putt for a bogey-four.
"I guess at the end of the day, four was going to be the score," he said, still mystified at where his ball -- which was found later by CBS analyst Bobby Clampett -- landed. "It would be a good score getting up and down from where I thought I was anyway."
A few minutes later, his patience was tested again -- this time when he laid up at the 13th and his ball landed in a divot. "That's where I found it hard to keep my composure, after making six there," he said.
But he did.
A year or two ago, the incident at 12 would have cost him more than a shot. He would have gotten irate, pulled out a driver instead of an iron and whipped it around the corner. He would have let expletives fly down the secluded fairway. Who knows what number he would have taken.
Instead, he went with the flow. He took his bogey, let caddie Tony Navarro calm him down and allowed the crowd to carry him. He ripped it at 15 and walked away with a birdie. He had 137 yards to go to the 18th green and stiffed his shot for another birdie.
If you glanced as those piercing blue eyes for just a second, you knew how badly he wanted the birdie and the lead. You understood what it has taken to come so close so many times and let that drive him, not break him. You knew the way he stalked to the green he had no questions that he was ready to grab this tournament by the throat; to give himself another chance at that jacket.
And as for the past? It's behind him. The chip-and-run from Larry Mize in 1987. The closing 78 in 1996. The shot he blocked to the right in 1986.You might think about them, but he won't.
"What's done is done.," he said. "I've never been a believer in crying over spilled milk."
He paused ever so slightly and stared straight ahead. "All I can tell you is I'm here right now with a chance to win tomorrow."
But will he finally finish what he's started? Our hearts say he will. That it's time for him to take the final shot and make it count; time for him to slip on that green jacket.
Yet no matter what happens, Norman will be back. Whether it's to slip the jacket on the first winner of the Millennium or to search for his own once again.
To remind us again that he's got it all in perspective; that no matter what happens Sunday, he's won more than he's ever lost.
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