Throughout his career , Greg Norman has been an mystery . Winner of about 70 tournament worldwide and more than $ 10 million in prizemoneyon the U.S. PGA Tour alone , Norman still may go down in the game ’s annals for how many major championships he lost – more specifically , how he lost them .
In 1986 alone , Norman held the lead in all four of the majors go into the last round of gambling , yet he succeed only one of them , the British Open .
He is also the only golfer in history to have lost a playoff for each of the majors ( 1984 U.S. Open , 1987 Masters , 1989 British Open , 1993 PGA ) .
In the 1996 Masters , his collapse in the final round was one of the most staggering and perplexing of them all . He shot a course record - tying 63 in the first rhythm , then – with a six - shot lead snuff it into the final round – shot a 78 to end secondly , five gibe behind the victor , Nick Faldo . It was the large lead ever " squander " in the last round of a major patronage .
Yes , it ’s been a star - crossed career for Norman , full of amazing high and equally awing David Low . conduct in the mining town of Mount Isa in Queensland , Australia , in 1955 , Gregory John Norman was by his own verbal description a " cheeseparing , underweight " youth .
ego - conscious of his chassis and bound to overpower it , his first acrobatic interests were in the contact games – rugby football , Australian find football , cricket , squash , and particularly swim andsurfing . He also sour diligently at weight lifting to develop his soundbox .
He did indeed become an impressive physical specimen – just over six foot tall , weighing 180 lb , with broad shoulder , a trim waist , and strong branch . He developed an fast-growing , major power - tailor golf plot that would be adored by the golfing public .
Norman did not take up golf until he was 16 . His sire , a mining engineer , did not take on much , but Norman ’s mother was a three - hinderance linksman . While caddying for his mother , Norman decided to strike a few to see what it was like .
He was a longsighted - bollock hitter from the first , and with that as the Daucus carota sativa he consider up the plot . Within two years , he go from a 27 handicap to a excoriation golfer , and he became a meaning element in Australian amateur golf game .
He turned pro in 1976 and start contend on the Australian Tour . He then spread his wing to play the external circuits . From 1977 - 82 , " The Shark " won at least one tournament every yr , including such prestigious titles as the Australian Open , Australian Masters , French Open , and Dunlop Masters .
In his first U.S. Masters , in 1981 , he finish a very respectable fourth , only three shots off Tom Watson ’s winning scotch and one behind runners - up Jack Nicklaus and Johnny Miller .
In 1984 , Norman began spend more prison term on the U.S. PGA Tour , where that twelvemonth he bring home the bacon the Kemper and Canadian Opens . He also was in a playoff for the U.S. Open , where he exhibited for the first fourth dimension a tendency to self - destruct under ultimate force per unit area . Three shot behind Fuzzy Zoeller with nine holes to play , Norman drew even after 17 hole and then drove well on the 18th .
However , his6 - ironapproach was push some 40 yards correct of the green into a grandstand . After a free drop , he managed to write his equality ( 4 ) with an incredible 45 - foot putt over gravely wave terrain . In the playoff , though , he was overwhelmed , 67 - 75 .
In the 1986 Masters , Norman ’s propensity to fail at the second of true statement lift up again . postulate a par-4 on the last hole to tie Nicklaus , he attain a 4 - Fe approach far decently of the Green River and bogied the hole to finish tied for second . Three month later , he make headway his first major , the British Open , by five strokes .
But the undermentioned month , he permit Bob Tway back into the PGA Championship , shooting a concluding - round 76 to give up a four - shot trail with 18 to play and setting the level for Tway ’s peachy culture ; he holed a bunker sprout on the 72nd hole to gain , by two .
The pattern was settling in . Norman would either win big , dominating the airfield , or more often than not lease others beguile him with his mediocre to poor play against an opponent ’s fine play and periodic salient single shot . He lose the 1987 Masters when Larry Mize hole a 45 - yard chip shoot in sudden last .
Through all the shocking defeats and collapses , even as he has cut back his overly aggressive secret plan management , Norman has exert a unagitated public behaviour . He simply points to his overall disc , which is indeed singular . Over 14 seasons through 1996 on the U.S. Tour , he posted more than 100 top-10 finishes , include 17 victories , and won the Vardon Trophy for low scoring average three time .
The game is there , and of class themoneyhas followed . In 1995 alone , he set a PGA Tour time of year record for money deliver the goods with $ 1,654,959 . He soar to No . 1 on the career money list despite playing a modified docket .
And yet , he is found wanting . A golfer of his power is suppose to come through more major league , and certainly more than a few of those he guide going into the last round of play . He shrugs at the whim and articulate he will just keep hear . Of that , we can be certain .
Some have say he was never the same after the devastating collapse in the 1996 Masters . He did n’t shoot down another major win until June of the next yr . That victory was special in another direction : it made him the first golfer ever with vocation pay more than $ 11 million .
Shortly afterward , President Clinton took a tumble on the footprint of Norman ’s residence in Florida and tore up a knee joint tendon , and the problem seems to have been contagious .
Norman missed the cut at the 1998 Masters , and then he had shoulder surgery . Back problems and a pair of knee surgeries kept him out of active dramatic play for geezerhood . But he is a extremely successful bourgeois , purportedly worth as much as $ 500 million .
In the 14 season of his career he was ranked number one for 331 week . He finished in the top 10 in 100 tournaments and earned the Vardon Trophy for low average score three times . But Norman still shares a dubitable disc with Craig Wood – the only two gentleman’s gentleman to appear in a playoff for all four major and lose every one .
