AUGUSTA, Ga. — Greg Norman will be used again at the Masters this weekend. He was last seen at Augusta National two years ago, when he bought a ticket and made a scene as a manager, cheering on his LIV Golf players. He was the CEO of the rogue golf league at the time. Patrick Reed was one of his most famous golfers. Rory McIlroy was the enemy. For a while there, denying Norman and LIV Golf was like a pastime for McIlroy. Norman returned the volley as required.
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, a close runner-up. Norman struggled on the Clubhouse Turn, making bogeys on 9, 10 and 11. The last three holes feel more like a winter funeral than a spring golf tournament. The Englishman shot 67. He didn’t win by 1 or 2 or 3 or 4. He won by FIVE. Norman shot a 78. 11 swings.
And now McIlroy, the defending champion, has a six-point lead over his two closest rivals. Another is Reed, winner of the 2018 Masters and now former LIV golfer, who continues to join the PGA Tour. Another 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 win a second blue coat than the first, because if you have one, you’re already in the Tuesday Night Supper Club forever. Your golf immortality is all sewn up. Now you’re stacking it up, and you’re swinging freely. If you played that string theory all the way through, you’d only be looking at Reed and McIroy, the only two Masters winners below the division. Reed, at 6 under, and Justin Rose, who finished second last year and is now at 5 under, will tee off at 2:40 pm on Saturday. McIlroy, 12 under through two rounds, joins Burns, six under, at 2:50 p.m.
Everyone asks the same questions: What can Rory McIlroy do without winning the Masters? And does a lead bullet have six bullets?
Six, not nine. In 1997, the year after the Norman-Faldo finale, Tiger Woods had a nine-way lead through 54 holes. Six, not four, was McIlroy’s 54-hole lead in 2011.
“There is no human possibility that Tiger is going to lose this tournament,” Colin Montgomerie said on Saturday Night Live in 1997. He compared the event to its predecessor, the famous/infamous 1996 Masters. “This is different – this is very different. Faldo doesn’t lie twice. And Greg Norman is not Tiger Woods.”
Unless we’re talking about Woods and a nine-putt lead, the question in these situations is not whether a six-putt lead is safe, because we know from history that a six-putt lead is nowhere near safe. Faldo did what he did over 18 holes. Reed and Co. they have 36 to go. The real questions are what will be the winning points and who can get there? If 12 under is a winning score, Reed can definitely get there. (That’s how hot it can be.) Two rounds of 69 will do. If McIlroy slows down – almost impossible but golf is a funny game – and plays even today and goes 36 on Sunday, the tournament will be wide open.
Again, it’s impossible. But it is possible.
Greg Norman was paying attention. In a text exchange, he was asked (in a rhetorical way) what he had learned from his 1996 experience. Along the way, he was giving insight into the 90 Masters and where McIlroy is now.
“In any situation, all you can do is run to the finish line, no matter where you stand,” said Norman. “Amazing lead after 36 holes. Good for him.”
They both know how hard it is. How glorious, too.
