AUGUSTA, Ga. – Greg Norman will return to circulation at Masters this weekend. His last appearance at Augusta National was two years ago, when he bought a ticket and made the scene as a patroncheering on his LIV Golfers. He was the CEO of the fraudulent golf league then. Patrick Reed was one of his star players. Rory McIlroy was an enemy. For a while there, the distribution of Norman and LIV Golf was like a hobby for McIlroy. Norman returned fire as needed.
Norman’s return to the Masters this weekend will be in spirit, not in body. At the 1996 Masters, through 54 holes, Norman had a six-shot lead. On Sunday, in the final round, he played Nick Faldo, his closest follower. Norman struggled mightily on the so-called Clubhouse Turn, bogeying 9, 10 and 11. The final three holes felt more like a winter funeral than a spring golf tournament. The Englishman shot 67. He won not by 1 or 2 or 3 or 4. He won by FIVE. Norman shot 78. An 11-stroke swing.
And now McIlroy, the reigning champion, has a six-shot lead on his two closest followers. One is Reed, the 2018 Masters winner and now former LIV golfer in the process of rejoining the PGA Tour. Next up is Sam Burns, who is looking to win his first major title.
There’s a theory, and it’s legit, that it’s easier to earn a second green jacket than a first, because if you have one, you’re in the Tuesday Supper Club forever. You have your golfing immortality all sewn up. Now you are stacking and swinging freely. If you took that part of string theory all the way through, you’d only be looking at Reed and McIroy, the only two former Masters winners who are below par. Reed, at 6 under, and Justin Rose, last year’s runner-up and now at five under, will tee off at 2:40 p.m. Saturday. McIlroy, 12 under through two rounds, leaves Burns, six under, at 2:50 p.m.
Everyone asks the same questions: Can Rory McIlroy do anything but win this Masters? And is a six shot bullet proof?
Six, not nine. In 1997, the year after the Norman-Faldo final, Tiger Woods had a nine-shot lead through 54 holes. Six, not four, which was McIlroy’s lead through 54 holes in 2011.
“There is no humanly possible chance that Tiger is just going to lose this tournament,” Colin Montgomerie said on a Saturday night in 1997. He compared the event to the previous one, the famous/infamous 1996 Masters. “This is different – this is very different. Faldo is not second for starters. And Greg Norman is not Tiger Woods.”
Unless we’re talking about Woods and a nine-shot lead, the question in these situations isn’t whether a six-shot lead is safe, because we know from history that a six-shot lead is nowhere near safe. Faldo did what he did over 18 holes. Reed and Co. have 36 to remove. The real questions are what will be the winning result and who can get there? If 12 under is the winning score, Reed can certainly get there. (So ​​does Burns.) Two rounds of 69 will do that. If McIlroy stays calm – not likely, but golf is a funny game – and scores par today and goes 36 on Sunday, the tournament will be wide open.
Again, unlikely. But possible.
Greg Norman has been paying attention. In a text exchange, he was asked (in a manner of speaking) what he had learned from his experience in 1996. Along the way, he was offering insight into this 90th Masters and where McIlroy is now.
“In any circumstance, all you can do is run across the finish line, no matter where anybody is standing,” Norman said. “An impressive lead after 36 holes. Good for him.”
They both know how hard it is. How glorious too.
