by Andy Farrell
Following a 63 in a major championship, no one had ever scored lower than the 69 Norman returned on Friday. The Australian’s total of 132, 12 under par, was only one stroke outside the record of 131 set by Ray Floyd in 1976. Floyd, who had rounds of 66 and 65, still holds the record but in 1996 no one other than Floyd and Norman had ever scored better than 135 after two rounds of the Masters. Norman led by four from Faldo after 36 holes, one stroke short of the record halfway lead of five by Floyd and also Herman Keiser in 1946 and Jack Nicklaus in 1975.
But the one record Norman created that day which still holds good now is that it was his fifth successive Masters round in the 60s. In tying for third place in 1995, Norman had opened with a 73 but then posted three consecutive scores of 68. Now he had opened the 1996 Masters with returns of 63 and 69. That’s 24 under par for 90 holes at Augusta. The first four of those rounds, and the last four, would have broken the 72-hole scoring record for the Masters of 18 under par by Tiger Woods in 1997 by three, and two, shots respectively. No further proof is required of Norman’s ability to master Augusta National but it was his failure to find the right sequence in any one tournament that left him without a green jacket.
On Friday Norman was one of only seven players to break 70. He birdied the 2nd hole to get to ten under par and then had his first bogey of the tournament at the 3rd. He immediately had another at the short 4th, the first of three successive fours at the opening par-three. He failed to get up and down from the left bunker but it was his last significant mistake. He got back on track by birdieing the 8th and then completed four fours at the par-fives with birdies at the 13th and 15th holes. He finished the round in style by hitting a sand wedge to four feet at the last.
Yet the real drama of the round came at Amen Corner. Norman hit a fine eight-iron to four feet at the 11th but left the ball in the wrong spot, just above the hole. A shot struck marginally softer might have stayed below the hole, or rolled back down past the hole. ‘When you looked at it, all the spike marks were ten feet below the hole and no one was above it, so you know where balls were finishing,’ Norman said. The pin was cut on the front-left of the green, only four yards from the left (where the pond is) and seven yards from the front of the green. The surface slopes down to the front edge.
So Norman was left with a short putt but a devilish one. ‘That was the quickest putt I’ve ever had in my entire life and ever will have for the rest of my golfing days,’ he said. ‘I took the putter back maybe half an inch. There was no tension in my fingers. There was no pressure on my putter grip. The cops would have had a hard time getting a fingerprint. I hit it and it either had to go in or I knew I was going to have a six-footer.’ Six feet for the return putt might be generous, it might have been nearer eight but he sank the par putt so there was a happy ending. ‘I’d like to go back there now and knock it with my finger, move it a dimple and see what would happen with the ball,’ he added after his round. ‘That’s why we love playing here. I suppose we get situations like that that we’ve never gotten before in our lives.’
Not everyone was loving it and to some the testing pin positions for the second round, combined with a breezy day and greens that continued to be firm and fast, were a reaction to Norman’s course record-equalling 63 the day before. ‘That must have rattled their cages a bit. The pins could be in the traps by the weekend,’ said Masters rookie Mark Roe. The Englishman would not find out since he missed the cut, a premature end to his tournament and his fund-raising efforts on behalf of Rainbow House, for whom he wore a sunflower in his cap. Will Nicholson, the chairman of the Augusta competitions committee, was not going to do anything other than state that the pins were ‘difficult but fair’ and that they had nothing to do with the 63 on Thursday. ‘We get accused of that all the time,’ Nicholson said. ‘There are some more difficult positions but they weren’t in reaction to nine under. Friday’s pin positions had all been decided before the first player teed it up on Thursday.’
Roe might have benefited from the sort of insight into the greens Czech-born Alex Cejka, another making his debut at Augusta, received from Bernhard Langer during their Monday practice round. Cejka, who had won the Volvo Masters at the end of 1995, took it all on board as he safely made the cut and explained: ‘He showed me some crazy chips and putts. He showed me so many it took about eight and a half hours.’ Older hands were not surprised with Friday’s pin positions. ‘They were a little tougher, definitely,’ said former US Open champion Lee Janzen. ‘None of the pins we saw yesterday or today were anything new. They just used a few of the easier ones yesterday.’
Even Faldo said: ‘There were a couple of racy ones. If you hit it in the wrong place, then it’s scary.’ That was exactly what happened to Norman on the 11th green. But the Shark was not alone. There were 31 three-putts recorded at the 11th hole in the second round, so it happened to one out of every three players. No other green saw more than nine three-putts. Having survived without three-putting for a bogey, however, Norman had to step onto the 12th tee. The day before, the treacherous par-three had played as the easiest of the short holes, and there were no balls in the water. On Friday it ranked the hardest hole on the course.
Ben Crenshaw, the defending champion, made a triple-bogey six, as did Hal Sutton, Payne Stewart and rookie Paul Goydos, who managed it without going in the water. Crenshaw went in twice. His first effort with a seven-iron was 30 yards short and left of where he was aiming, ‘just the sickest looking shot,’ admitted the Texan. ‘That hole had the worst gusts I’ve seen,’ Crenshaw added. In a bowl at the far end of the course, the wind swirls around the trees and leaves players pondering which club to hit to the green that sits at an angle just over Rae’s Creek. Norman took a seven-iron and came up short, the ball rolling down the bank at the front of the green but stopping 14 inches above the waterline. It was the sort of moment of good fortune that helped Fred Couples to victory in the final round in 1992. ‘I thought about that,’ Norman said. ‘I said let’s do what Freddie did. He made a three, I made a three.’ His chip was exquisite, and left him a tap-in for his par.
In fact, six balls out of the 18 that came up short on the 12th on Friday stopped on the bank. ‘It was a little spongy there,’ Norman said. ‘There was a lot of water on the bank. They haven’t shaved it as they did last year, they left a little long grass there. I had 159 yards from the tee and the wind was swirling. I was trying to put it over the middle bunker but the ball ballooned a little bit. When it landed, it started trickling down but it didn’t come back with any force. I knew from the practice rounds that the grass was a little longer. I wasn’t concerned. Maybe a little bit but if it had gone in the water, I would have panicked. As it turned out, I think the putt on 11 was more important than what happened on 12.’
Afterwards, Norman was asked if he was looking forward to the next two days? ‘Oh, I’m looking forward to it. I feel very comfortable with myself.’ For the first time in his press conferences, he was asked about his back over the first two days. ‘My back is fine,’ he said. ‘It hurt a little yesterday.’ Asked if he had had treatment, he said: ‘I have treatment every day. Freddie [Couples] had been working with a guy named Tom Boers from Columbus, Georgia. I’ve seen Tom a couple of times.
‘Freddie’s back and my back are very similar, and this guy is good with what he does. When he first came here, I went to see him just to make sure I wasn’t out of alignment. I was stiff Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and Tom basically helped it out and loosened it up a little bit. And now I have my guy, Pete, who always works with me when he’s in town to make sure everything stays in place. You know, you just protect it and make sure nothing gets out of line.
‘I’ve got a pretty good feel going now and if I wake up stiff, you’ve got somebody there who can help me get unstiff. I like to say stiff in the right parts, not the wrong parts.’
Norman was also asked if he was surprised at doubling his lead from two to four strokes. ‘No, not really. It’s a nice feeling. Faldo pl
ayed good today. Phil [Mickelson] struggled a little today, but he kept it together coming in. There’s a lot of scores up there from the guys who have got the capability to shoot the low scores. All I do is shoot the best I can. And if it’s good enough at the end of the week to win, I’m a happy camper.’
Norman finished the day at 12 under par. Faldo was at eight under and David Frost and Phil Mickelson were at six under. With the leaders teeing off last in the second round, as was the custom at the time in the Masters, Mickelson had teed off in the last group alongside Norman. The left-hander bogeyed the first two holes and so dropped out of his overnight second place with a 73. As on Thursday, however, there was a dramatic birdie at the 18th, this time with a miracle recovery from the trees.
Janzen and Bob Tway were at five under after rounds of 71 and 72 respectively. Like everyone, Janzen was asked about trying to catch the runaway leader. ‘He’s the best player in the world and he’s going to be tough to catch,’ he said. ‘No one’s invincible. I know he wants to win this badly. The good news is that everyone else wants to win it badly, too. It’s quite a challenge. I think I’ll have to play the best 36 holes of golf I’ve ever played.’
At four under were Scott McCarron, Vijay Singh and Scott Hoch and at three under were Corey Pavin and Ian Woosnam. Pavin had the best round of the day with a 66 that included an inward half of 32. In the first round the 1995 US Open champion had bogeyed four holes in a row from the 2nd hole to be four over after only five holes of the tournament. He had played the next 31 holes in seven under. From 60th place after round one, he was now tied for tenth. He said he was inspired by Curtis Strange in 1985, who led during the final round after opening with an 80. ‘I had nowhere to go but up,’ Pavin said. ‘I like where I’m at, considering yesterday. If it doesn’t rain at all, we could very likely have single digits winning this tournament. I would not be surprised to see that happen.’ As it turned out, only one player finished better than single digits under par.
After Pavin’s 66, the next best score was the 67 of Faldo. Then came the 68s of Frost, despite a double bogey six at the 10th hole, and Couples, while there were 69s for Norman, Woosnam and Steve Stricker. Couples had teed off at 8.36 in the morning after his opening 78. It was an hour he was not accustomed to playing at during Masters week. A fan favourite even before his victory in 1992, he would usually be selected for a later tee time on Thursday and would then be faring well enough in the tournament for the remainder of the week to be teeing off nearer, or after, lunch than breakfast. ‘First time in a while I’ve teed off before noon,’ Couples said. ‘The greens were really smooth. It was a lot of fun.’
His four-under round, including a double bogey at the 12th where he found the water, meant Couples made the cut, as he did for 23 years in a row between 1983 and 2007. That streak tied the record by Gary Player whose span was from 1959 to 1972. But what people were actually talking about was a rumoured altercation between Couples and Woosnam on the practice range before Thursday’s round. It was all denied, of course, with Woosnam calling it ‘rubbish’. Couples said: ‘I don’t know how I could get in a shoving match, maybe with some spectators but not with Woosie. He’s so easy-going and happy-go-lucky. I don’t know where that came from.’
Some suggestions were made. Woosnam said there might have been some ‘f-words’ flying around over some confusion with starting times for the par-three contest, while Couples said that he did have a playful shouting match with Davis Love’s wife Robin, a friend of long standing, and perhaps ‘someone was mistaking Woosie for Robin Love?’ Unlikely.
After going out in 37 in the second round, Woosnam was another to come home in 32. The 1991 champion and former world number one, all five-foot-four of him, was asked: ‘People have said your hunger’s not there, but you showed today it’s still there, isn’t it?’ He replied: ‘Absolutely. I want a green jacket that fits me.’ ‘What, your jacket doesn’t fit?’ ‘I’m just kidding. It does fit.’ It is not always possible to tell when Woosie is joking. He was not when he was asked about Norman storming away with the tournament, giving short shrift: ‘Norman’s not won until the 72nd hole.’ What, he was further asked, was a realistic gap at the halfway stage to still win? ‘Six or seven shots. Anything can happen on those scores.’
How far back was too far back? Certainly, those on a 145 total, 13 strokes behind Norman, were too far back. John Daly, the reigning Open champion, said after rounds of 71 and 74: ‘Greg has the potential to run away with it. I don’t see anyone catching him the way the course is.’ Jack Nicklaus was two shots better at one under par after rounds of 70 and 73 and admitted he was ‘not in a great position’. Inevitably, the six-time champion was still asked if he could win? ‘I’m in a better position right now than I was in 1986,’ came the reply. In 1986 he was tied for 17th place at one over par but only six shots behind Seve Ballesteros. This time he was tied for 16th at one under par but 11 strokes behind Norman – and at 56 he was ten years older than when he became the oldest ever winner of the Masters.
Nicklaus had at least made the cut, unlike Player and Arnold Palmer, who both had rounds of 76. Tom Watson had a 72 to miss by one after bogeying three of the last four holes. It ended his streak of made-cuts at the Masters at 21, two short of the record. The cut fell at two-over-par 146, only one stroke higher than what remains the lowest cut-score seen in the Masters. Brad Faxon holed a 15-footer on the 18th green to save par and knock out those at three over.
Until the recent change to the top 50 and ties (and anyone within ten strokes of the lead) making the weekend in the Masters, the long-time tradition was for the leading 44 players and ties, plus anyone within ten strokes of the leader, to qualify. The ten-shot rule did not apply, as there were only 15 other players within ten of Norman’s lead, and there were exactly 44 qualifiers for the weekend. Among those who just made it thanks to a birdie at the last hole were Ballesteros, despite his poor recent form, Colin Montgomerie, one of the favourites at the start of the week, and joint course record-holder Nick Price.
David Gilford missed the cut by following his opening 69 with a 78. Sandy Lyle, the 1988 champion, missed out on five over and others not to qualify included Strange, Stewart and Ian Baker-Finch. It was a 22nd consecutive missed cut on the PGA Tour for the engaging Australian who triumphed at the 1991 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale but is now more familiar as a commentator. Swing changes and playing through injuries had ravaged Baker-Finch’s game, especially his driving, and on this occasion a hooked drive into the trees at the 13th hole cost a quadruple-bogey nine and he finished at 13 over par.
Tiger Woods, unlike on his debut in 1995, missed the cut with twin rounds of 75. He was one of those to three-putt at the 11th, where his second putt was longer than his first, and he was one of those to find the water at the 12th. The 20-year-old Stanford student was not yet a professional but his post-round summary was of the seeking-the-positives variety that would become familiar throughout his career. ‘The score didn’t show it but I played better this year than I did last year,’ Woods said. ‘I was a bit more comfortable, I knew what to expect this year.’
He had been lauded by Nicklaus and Palmer earlier in the week as a future multiple winner of the Masters and despite the early departure, his six competitive rounds as an amateur over the 1995 and 1996 tournaments clearly held him in good stead. ‘It’s like Jack Nicklaus told me, you have to be patient here,’ he said. ‘Jack said he missed the cut his first year and had eight three-putts. It took him five years to win it.’ Woods was not so patient. He returned in 1997 to win the Masters on his third appearance and his first as a professional (and in record-breaking fashion).
As he left Augusta in 1996, he had to get back to college. ‘I’ve got an economics paper due Wednesday and I haven’t even started,’ he explained. In contrast, Gordon Sherry was met by his mother Anne behind the 18th green with the words: ‘Welcome to your professional career.’ Sherry against Woods was meant to be the big amateur battle of the week. In
1995 ‘Big G’, as the six-foot-eight-inch golfer from Kilmarnock was known, had finished fourth at the Scottish Open, had a hole-in-one in practice alongside Nicklaus and Watson at the Open at St Andrews, won the Amateur Championship and starred in Great Britain and Ireland’s Walker Cup victory over Woods and the Americans at Royal Porthcawl.
Like Woods, Sherry missed the cut with scores of 78 and 77, playing alongside Couples for both days. ‘It’s been a good experience,’ the Scot said, ‘although my first impression would be to say it’s been the worst experience I’ve ever had on a golf course.’ Not to worry, it seemed certain that there would be plenty more Woods-Sherry contests.
Except there weren’t. At Augusta, Sherry was already feeling the effects of as-yet-undiagnosed glandular fever. He had to miss his proposed pro debut at the Italian Open and his career never got going. The next big thing that can’t miss did just that. While Woods was acquiring a green jacket in April 1997, Sherry was still awaiting the result of a blood test that would give him the all-clear on his illness.
As the defending champion, Crenshaw had to stay around even though he missed the cut. He would be required to present the green jacket to the new champion at the close of play on Sunday. ‘I’m going to stay right here and be an interested bystander,’ said the Texan. The last defending champion to miss the cut was Lyle in 1989, while Nicklaus (1967), Tommy Aaron (1974) and Ballesteros in 1981 and 1984 had all suffered the same fate. It would happen to Faldo in 1997, his only weekend duties being to present Woods with his first green jacket.
