REMATCH IS A MISMATCH : Tway, Norman Get Together Again, but It’s No Replay of PGA

Remember Bob Tway’s brilliant shot out of the sand on the 18th hole to win the 1986 PGA Championship? A shot that Tway said could happen “only once in a lifetime”?

Remember whom he beat?

Most of the gallery in attendance at Friday’s third round of the MONY Tournament of Champions at La Costa sure did. And they turned out in droves to see Tway face off against Greg Norman for the first time since the two played together at the Inverness Country Club in Toledo, Ohio, last Aug. 11, the final day of the PGA.

And who could blame them? Never mind that both Tway and Norman started the third round of the Tournament of Champions at five under par, four shots behind the leader, Rick Fehr.

The fans remembered Tway’s shot rising out of the sand on No. 18, sliding across the green at Inverness and falling somewhat miraculously into the cup. They remembered Tway jumping around gleefully at the site of his first major championship, then later wiping away a tear of joy at the awards ceremony.

They remembered, too, the crestfallen Norman, the Shark, beaten by two strokes, the third time last year that he had lost a major tournament after leading through three rounds.

The gallery may have also remembered that the players finished one-two on the PGA money-winning list last year, Norman hanging on to win that championship by $516 when Tway lost in the second round of the Seiko-Tucson Match Play Championship, the final event of the year.

The gallery obviously understood that this was to be the big moment of this year’s championship. Tway and Norman, striding side by side, for 18 holes. The top two players of 1986. Golf’s version of Penn State-Miami. Or Lloyd-Navratilova.

And, so, as often seems to happen when two giants collide, the big confrontation turned out to be just a little more than a dud. Norman shot an uneventful two-under-par 70, scoring two birdies and 16 pars. It had to be a disappointing day for the Shark, considering the fact that he missed on five birdie attempts from inside 10 feet. Even one of his birdies was a downer, considering that it came only after he missed a 20-foot putt for eagle on ninth hole.

But, at least Norman is still in the hunt. If some of his putts drop today, he could catch third-round leader Mac O’Grady, who is two shots ahead of him.

The same cannot be said for Tway, who seemed to visit nearly every crevice of the La Costa layout en route to a six-over-par 78. The day certainly wasn’t as memorable for Tway as was the last time he played with Norman.

“I guess a lot of people made a big deal out of me playing with Norman, but to me it was just another round of golf,” Tway said. “I have a lot of fun playing with Greg because he’s such a great player. However, it was tough to have too much fun the way I played.”

Norman, too, downplayed his meeting with Tway. When asked if the two shared any memories of their last meeting at Inverness, the Shark said: “Why should we? You don’t reflect on what you’ve done in the past. All I know is that I’m trying to win this tournament.”

Despite the fact that the players weren’t hyped and that the play wasn’t always of championship caliber, the gallery remained intact throughout, perhaps in part to see what fate would await Tway on each ensuing hole.

A sampling of Tway’s bad day:

--He hit into six bunkers and two water hazards. Most of the time, however, he was able to recapture some of his Inverness magic and chip close to the hole to save par or bogey.

--On the 10th hole, he drove to the right between three trees. As he lined up his second shot, a woman walked in his path to the hole. Tway had to pull back as the woman realized her mistake and returned to join the majority of the gallery.

--At 16, his second shot carried over the green and landed underneath a television camera stand. Undaunted, Tway was allowed to remove his ball from the man-made hazard and he got up and down in two to save par.

--On the par 5 17th, his second shot went awry and the ball burrowed its way underneath the turf of the left rough. Again he scrambled for par, but only after his third shot found its way into the sand at the left of the green.

“It was one of those days where all I could do was keep plugging away,” Tway concluded an hour later after he had tried to work out some kinks at the driving range. “I don’t think I’ll remember this round of golf for long.”