Faldo/Norman
Page 24
‘To come back and finally be in contention for a major again and pull it off, it’s really pulling your nerves out there. I feel this has been more of a physical preparation. We’ve worked well, I’ve worked hard on how to practise and what I need to practise. It’s a process of putting all sorts of little things together and going out and doing it. But the big thrill, really, is to go out and do it on the day. You never know when you’ve got another win in you. It’s a great feeling to know you still have.’
Without tempting fate, how many majors do you think you might be capable of winning? ‘I’m just delighted to have scratched another on the board. You can’t say, can you? You can’t say what is going to happen. I like to think this is a springboard, that the game is going to go well at last and I can compete. If I can be competitive out there, then finishing them off is a different matter.’
Did you ever think what most of us were saying, I can’t believe this is happening? ‘To be honest, not really. I was out there doing my own thing. I’m in control of my golf ball and that’s it.’
Obviously, Greg’s had a lot of near misses. What do you think of his resilience? He keeps coming back. ‘I think he’s fantastic. He’ll go back and assess it all. The man’s got the drive and commitment, he’ll be back.’
To another question about Norman, he said: ‘He’s a great player, great competitor. He really is. Great guy, everything. He’s a credit to the game. And the game needs him out there all the time. You know, we’re all in charge of our own house. That’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s as simple as that. He’ll be alright. I’m sure he’ll be alright.’ Do you actually feel sorry for him? ‘Yeah, I honestly, genuinely do. What he’s been through is horrible. As I said, it’s hard to be plastered and repair that. If it happened to me like that… as I said, I feel sorry for him. He’s had a real rough ride today.’
Because of the circumstances of the day, are you more low-key about this championship than the others? ‘You can imagine, it’s kind of difficult. Emotionally, I was feeling for Greg. We’ve had a very strange day. I’m pleased with what I’ve done but it’s obvious it was a strange atmosphere out there the last few holes.’
Faldo was, of course, right about the day being remembered for what happened to Norman but an appreciation for his own performance grew with time. A year later, he reflected: ‘Oh, I’m more than happy that the way I played has been recognised, more than happy. A lot of people are saying it was one of the best rounds in a major.’ And his assessment: ‘I think as a total package, it may be right there. In a way it was a perfect round. Some people think the perfect round’s going to be a 60 or whatever. But you’ve got to piece together the score and play across the board and go through all the emotion. That’s as good as it gets.’
Faldo’s point was that it was not just a birdie-fest in the opening round of a relaxed tournament at a resort course. This was the final round of the Masters at Augusta National. This was hardly ‘less than a victory’, to use the Gladwell phrase, because of Norman’s blow-up. It was enhanced because of what happened to the leader, because Faldo showed how the course had to be played on that day and, in the process, was not put off by the distraction of Norman’s collapse.
He missed only two greens, one of them by only inches, and one fairway, and dropped only one shot. For the week, he was second in fairways hit (52 out of 56) and tied for fourth in greens hit (51 out of 72). He was fifth on the putting table, with 112 putts for the week, partly because he took 31 putts on Sunday – he did not need to take fewer as often solid two-putting was the order of the day. His 67 was the lowest score achieved at the weekend.
On Sunday, Larry Mize and Davis Love, who finished joint seventh with Corey Pavin and Jeff Maggert, had 68s, while Nobilo and Maggert had 69s. On Saturday the best scores had been the 69s of Duffy Waldorf and David Duval. While Norman had played the first 36 holes in 132 strokes, Faldo played the last 36 holes, with the course playing ever more tricky over the weekend, in 141 strokes, one better than Nobilo and Waldorf, with Norman taking 149 for the second half of the tournament.
In Life Swings, Faldo wrote: ‘I had felt anything but confident before that last round against Greg at Augusta. As it turned out, the round proved to be my finest in terms of sustaining the mental stamina you need to commit to your routine before each and every shot as the pressure and atmosphere grows. This is something I am very proud of.’
In his 1999 book Beyond the Fairways, David Davies wrote: ‘In a career that is not yet over, nothing can be the absolutely definitive performance but it is safe to say that anything that beats the final day of the 1996 Masters will be something the like of which has not yet been seen on a golf course. On that day, Faldo did superlatively the thing that he does best. He set himself to play fault-free golf, play to the absolute limits of his concentration, bear down relentlessly on his opponent and give him not a glimmer of encouragement.
‘He knew that if he did all these things, and that if a few putts were to drop as well, he might have a very distant chance of catching and maybe even forcing a playoff with the world number one, Greg Norman, who led the championship after three rounds by six shots. Norman had been brilliant all week; Faldo by his standards merely humdrum. Norman confessed he wanted nothing more in the whole world than a green jacket; Faldo already had two of them. Norman’s game might have been made for Augusta, Faldo has won there in spite of not being, ideally, long enough.
‘On that Augustan Sunday, Norman disintegrated but Faldo stayed steadfast and ignored the burning building, the crashing car, the sinking ship that was alongside him and simply played his own game. No one in world golf was better suited to that task and without hitting any scintillating shots, but without making a mistake, Faldo got round in 67 and won by five shots. It was a stunning upset, achieved mostly in silence, not because people did not appreciate what Faldo was doing but because they were distressed at what Norman was doing to himself.’
‘There was in the years of his prime something quietly beautiful about the relentless, slow-burning courage with which he played golf,’ Hugh McIlvanney wrote of Faldo in Golf International. ‘His balls were unbreakable.’
It is an oversimplification to attempt to sum up two whole careers in a single day. Yet the final round of the 1996 Masters offered so many insights into the lives of Nick Faldo and Greg Norman. The one thing it lacked was a glimpse of the most scintillating player in the game from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s. But that was the point about Norman: when it came to grabbing hold of the very biggest titles, he was too often left grasping at thin air. Something was missing in his game, as were the trophies and a certain green jacket that should have sat beside his two claret jugs. This was his eighth and last runner-up finish in a major championship and only Arnold Palmer, with ten, and Jack Nicklaus (19) have recorded more. His conversion rate of chances into victories was at the opposite end of the spectrum from Faldo’s six wins from nine top-two finishes.
What happened that day? The mystery will remain whether Norman’s back was so much worse than the previous three days of the tournament, and not even he may be able to evaluate that now, being susceptible to hindsight. Tension was evident in his swing from the opening tee shot and in his regripping and fidgetiness the rest of the round. A couple of high-tariff shots, the second at the 9th, the chip at the 10th, were only marginally out but he had allowed himself no room for error. Then came the miserable splashes at the 12th and the 16th.
All the above were compounded by the unrelenting manner in which Norman was pursued by Faldo. The pressure the Englishman exerted was irresistible. It would be no consolation to the Australian that only an opponent of his calibre could have inspired Faldo’s performance. His round was the perfect one for the circumstances, very nearly flawless in terms of shot execution and spot on in his unyielding demeanour. Anything less and he would not have been able to force the long-time leader into a duel that, however subconsciously, Norman must have hoped would be unnecessary.
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p; But it was no devil-may-care, nothing-ventured-nothinggained, leaderboard-ignoring effort from a player coming out of the pack with no expectation and little attention and posting a number well before the leaders finished. No, Faldo knew exactly what was happening and what he had to do. The control of himself and his game needed to be all the greater for the element of calculation involved.
In contrast to his image of being blinkered and isolated from everything around him, it was his ability to feed off the situation and the signals of unease coming from Norman that enabled Faldo to complete such an epic comeback. And crucially, while many pursuers are spent by the time they draw level with their prey and allow the leader a second wind, Faldo was aware there would be a response from Norman at the two par-fives on the back nine and he was ready for him. With his magnificent two-iron at the 13th he outdid Norman at his own game and turned up the pressure on his opponent another notch.
It was the ultimate performance from a professional golfer on the ultimate stage, strategy and execution in perfect harmony. In victory he showed due compassion for the loser and changed perceptions of himself as an emotionless machine. Norman, too, felt that the day changed how people thought of him, thanks to the dignified way he handled his bitter disappointment. With his business empire, Norman moved past being a professional golfer, in the sense of no longer needing to earn money from the game, and could play like an amateur. That is not to decry his dedication to the game but to suggest that a love of competing drove his golf and still drives the way he attacks much of his life. Some you win, some you lose. Whatever happens, you dust yourself down.
Not long after the 1996 Masters, Faldo said: ‘When my day is done I want people to say: “I saw Nick Faldo play.” ’ There were many days that people were excited and thrilled to see Norman, or others such as Seve Ballesteros, play golf. But on certain days, when it mattered most, when the test was at its sternest, when technical precision needed to be married with artistic flair, when, it goes without saying, determination, perseverance and concentration were essential requirements, when the game’s ‘little cups’ were up for grabs, those were the days to say, ‘I saw Nick Faldo play.’
Such a day was Sunday 14 April 1996, the final round of the 60th Masters, an epic contest that defined an era of the game dominated by a larger-than-life Australian and an Englishman with an unshakable belief in himself.
SCORES
1996 Masters Tournament
April 11–14
Augusta National, Augusta, Georgia
The following missed the 36-hole cut (146):
Prizes
Nick Faldo
Gold Medal
Sterling Silver Replica Masters Trophy
Crystal Vase (Low score, R4, 67)
Greg Norman
Silver Medal
Sterling Silver Salver
Crystal Vase (Low score, R1, 63)
Phil Mickelson
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 15, R4)
Duffy Waldorf
Crystal Vase (Low score, R3, 69)
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 8, R3)
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 2, R4)
Davis Love
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 15, R4)
Cory Pavin
Crystal Vase (Low score, R2, 66)
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 13, R2)
Mark Calcavecchia
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 8, R3)
David Duval
Crystal Vase (Low score, R3, 69)
Tom Lehman
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 8, R3)
Loren Roberts
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 15, R1)
Ray Floyd
Crystal Bowl (Hole-in-One, Hole 16, R4)
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 15, R1)
Jim Gallagher Jr
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 15, R2)
Vijay Singh
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 8, R3)
Jack Nicklaus
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 15, R3)
David Gilford
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 13, R1)
Tom Watson
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 8, R1)
Fuzzy Zoeller
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 13, R2)
Hal Sutton
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 13, R1)
Paul Stankowski
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 2, R2)
Woody Austin
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 15, R2)
Costantino Rocca
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 13, R1)
Pair of Crystal Goblets (Eagle, Hole 13, R2)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My thanks are due to so many people without whom this book would not have become a reality, starting with everyone at Elliott & Thompson, including Lorne Forsyth, Olivia Bays and Jennie Condell. I am particularly grateful for the endless dedication and patience of my editor, Pippa Crane.
In obtaining specific source material on the 1996 Masters, I am indebted to Steve Ethun and Melissa Lyles at Augusta National, Brian Eldredge at T3Media and the BBC’s wonderful Hazel Irvine. Thanks to all.
This book would not have got finished, or even started, without the love and support of family and friends, while so many colleagues have made a contribution, directly or indirectly, along the way. Among them: Tony Adamson, John Barton, Hugh Bateman, Ken Brown, Colin Callander, Iain Carter, Matthew Chancellor, James Corrigan, Peter Corrigan, Bob Davies, Patricia Davies, Peter Dixon, Carolina Durante, Mark Garrod, Kevin Garside, Tim Glover, Robert Green, Glenn Greenspan, David Hamilton, Michael Harris, John Hopkins, James Lawton, Lewine Mair, Michele Mair, Paul Newman, Richard Simmons, Alan Page, Paul Trow.
Last, but by no means least, it would be remiss not to mention the much-missed Bev Norwood, friend, mentor and editor on a myriad of projects over two decades. It was Bev who first offered me the chance to try longer-form journalism and he was characteristically encouraging when I first outlined this project during the 2013 Masters. It was to be the last time we met in person, he was unable to travel to the Open at Muirfield and died shortly afterwards, though not before editing the Open Championship Annual for a 30th year. Many memories remain, especially of sharing digs at many recent Opens, along with his childhood friend, Vernon Averett. Good times. Thanks, Bev.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Concannon, Dale, Nick Faldo – Driven (Virgin, 2005).
Dabell, Norman, Winning the Open – The Caddies’ Stories (Mainstream, 2002).
Davies, David and Davies, Patricia, Beyond the Fariways (CollinsWillow, 1999).
Dobereiner, Peter, Dobereiner on Golf (Aurum Press, 1998).
Eubanks, Steve, Augusta, Home of the Masters Tournament (Broadway Books, 1998).
Evans, Alun, The Golf Majors (Evanstar Publishing, 2012).
Faldo, Sir Nick, Faldo – In Search of Perfection (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994).
Faldo, Life Swings, The Autobiography (Headline, 2004).
Farrell, Andy, The 100 Greatest Ever Golfers (Elliott & Thompson, 2011).
Green, Robert, Seve, Golf’s Flawed Genius (Robson Books, 2006).
Hopkins, John, Fore! (Elliott & Thompson, 2013).
Jenkins, Dan, Jenkins at the Majors (Anchor Books, 2010).
Mackintosh, David, ed., Golf’s Greatest Eighteen (Contemporary Books, 2003).
McCormack, Mark H., The World of Professional Golf (IMG Publishing, various editions).
Norman, Greg, The Way of the Shark (Ebury Press, 2006).
Owen, David, The Making of the Masters (Simon & Schuster, 1999).
Price, Charles, A Golf Story (Aurum Press, 2001).
Roberts, Jimmy, Breaking the Slump (Harper, 2009).
Rotella, Bob, Golf is Not a Game of Perfect (Pocket Books, 2004).
St John, Lauren, Fairway Dreams (Mainstream, 2001).
St John, Greg Norman
– The Biography (Partridge Press, 1998).
Tresidder, Phil, The Shark Bites Back (Ironbark, 1993).
Venturi, Ken, Getting Up and Down (Triumph Books, 2004).
Vigeland, Carl, Stalking the Shark (Michael Joseph, 1996).
Ward, Andrew, Golf’s Strangest Rounds (Robson Books, 1999).
Sources also included the Masters Annual 1996, the Masters Media Guide, various editions of the Masters Journal and the Open Championship Annual, as well as assorted issues of the following magazines: Golf Digest, Golf International, Golf Monthly, GolfWeek, Golf Weekly, Golf World, Golf World (US), Sports Illustrated, Today’s Golfer. Today, as in 1996, the Augusta Chronicle’s special daily Masters section remains required reading.
INDEX
Aaron, Tommy 85
Acushnet 228
Akubra golfing hat 8–9, 54, 207
Alfred Dunhill Cup 157
Alliss, Peter 14, 153, 233
Amateur Championship 59, 84, 118, 157, 186, 198, 212
America see United States
America’s Cup 114
Ammon, Lizzy 232
Aoki, Isao 39, 63
Appleby, Stuart 213
Atlanta 45, 141, 198; Athletic Club 65
Augusta National 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12–14, 17, 20, 23, 24–26, 35, 39, 40–48, 51, 53, 57, 58–61, 65, 69, 71, 73–77, 84, 87, 97, 98, 103, 104–6, 116, 118, 120, 122–24, 127, 129, 131–34, 137–46, 148, 151, 156–62, 165, 174, 175, 180, 184–88, 190–96, 198, 200, 201, 202–4, 206, 207, 209, 213, 215, 216, 219; Amen Corner 60, 76, 107, 133–34, 138, 154, 155–56, 178, 213–14; Invitation Tournament 156, 199