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AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Greg Norman's fist was pumping and the crowd surrounding the final hole at Amen Corner was roaring. For the briefest of moments, it seemed like destiny would, indeed, finally rule Sunday at Augusta National.

Then José Maria Olazábal calmly stepped up and rolled his birdie putt across about 20 feet of the shaved 13th green right into the middle of the hole.

In the space of two strokes of the putter, the Masters at first seemed like Norman's to win. Then, just as suddenly, it became his to lose.

And once again he did, playing indifferently down the stretch as Olazábal took command for his second fitting of the green jacket that Norman so desperately covets yet can't seem to find a way to win.

"As soon as he hit his putt, I thought it would go in," Olazábal said. "I enjoyed the roar of the crowd. Then, as I was lining my putt up, I thought to myself, 'This is a putt I need to make. I didn't want to go one down.'"

With a sympathetic crowd cheering him on, Norman was coming off a bogey on the 12th hole and was a stroke behind Olazábal when he hit a 198-yard 4-iron second shot over the pin about 25 feet on the par-5 13th.

It was a putt he had made before in his 19 Masters. It was a putt he would make again, sending it down the hill and into the bottom of the cup as the gallery erupted.

"When I made that putt, it seemed like the roar was a little louder than usual," Norman said.

The eagle put Norman into sole possession of the lead at 7-under-par for the first time in this Masters. In a perfect golfing world, it would have spurred him on to win the tournament where he has felt such heartbreak.

Olazábal putts for birdie on the 13th green.(AP)

Then Olazábal, who had to lay up from the rough and hit a wedge in about 20 feet, stepped up and calmly stroked his putt into the cup.

Norman pointed at him, as if to say, nice putt. Olazábal pointed back.

"I looked at him and we both understood," Olazábal said. "It was just like saying to each other, 'Those were great putts.'"

Norman was still tied, but the momentum had changed.

The roars that rocked the lengthening shadows of Amen Corner would become fainter as he struggled in with bogeys on two of the last five holes.

"I just knew the game was on," Norman said. "When I made mine, I never doubted anything he would make his."

Norman would walk to the 14th tee and promptly hit his tee shot into the gallery. He made bogey there and then bogeyed the par-5 15th after laying up from the trees and then dumping his approach into the right trap from only 98 yards.

Olazábal, meanwhile, made routine pars on both holes to take a two-stroke lead. He birdied 16, then made a tricky seven-footer on 17 to close Norman out.

"That putt and the one on 13 were the ones that won him the tournament," Norman said. "They were both crucial putts after somebody had just done something."

Olazábal agreed.

"The putt (on 17) gave me a two-stroke cushion that I wanted," Olazábal said. "When I made it (on 17) I knew the green jacket was mine."