Worst Fall of All : Norman Is Living Proof That No Lead Is Safe at Augusta, but He’s Back for More

“Choke.”

It’s the dirtiest word in sports.

Call an athlete greedy, and he’ll tell you how everything he earns is for his family. Call him fat and he’ll tell how he has hired a personal trainer to help him get back into shape. Call him washed up and he’ll tell you how he is going to launch a comeback.

But look him in the eye, grab your neck and make the choke sign, and you’d better beware.

Athletes pride themselves on their ability to perform in the clutch. They convince themselves that, when they fail, it’s because of extenuating circumstances.

For some, it’s the only way to remain sane.

For that reason, Greg Norman may be facing the toughest week of his career. From the moment he sinks his spikes into the hallowed grass of Augusta National Golf Club, he’ll be confronting not only the best golfers in the game, but his own worst collapse.

Norman had experienced more than his share of breakdowns before last year’s Masters. Five times previously, he had started the last round of a major tournament with a lead, only to lose it. His worst previous performance was in the 1986 PGA Championship. Norman, leading by four strokes, shot a final-round 76 and finished second, two strokes behind Bob Tway and his bunker-shot miracle.

But nothing compared to the 1996 Masters. Norman, well, choked. No other word will suffice.

It had all begun so brightly for the Australian. He shot a blistering 63 in the first round, tying the course record. He came back with a 69 and a 71, and began the final day of play with a seemingly insurmountable six-stroke lead over Nick Faldo, who had shot 69-67 before stumbling in the third round, apparently shooting himself out of contention with a 73.

Through the first nine holes on Sunday, Norman struggled, shooting a two-over-par 38. Faldo, regaining the form that had abandoned him the day before, made the turn at 34, two under.

The comfortable six-stroke lead had shrunk to two.

Norman lost another stroke on the 10th hole and then fell into disaster on the 11th, which sucked away whatever shred of confidence Norman had clung to. Faced with a 12-foot putt for a birdie, Norman instead three-putted for a bogey. Faldo got a par and moved into a tie with Norman.

On the par-three 12th, Norman put his ball in the water and a double bogey on his scorecard. Faldo parred the hole, moving into the lead, and Norman never got even. He finished with a 78, a startling five strokes behind Faldo.

When it was over, Nick Price, one of Norman’s closest friends, said of the collapse, “I think everyone’s nauseous.”

Faldo, although elated with his sixth major title, certainly wasn’t gloating.

Just the opposite. He gave Norman a hug and whispered encouraging words into his rival’s ear, a gesture that brought tears to both men’s eyes.

Now, a year later, Norman knows he must face the questions, the doubts and the stares that will hang over him like a cloud of doom as he makes his way over the Augusta course.

But he says he’s ready for it.

“I’ve always stood facing the music,” he said. “And I accept the fact that there’s going to be a minority of guys who want to talk about it and make an issue out of it. . . .

“I accept that. . . . I accept the fact that I made a mistake. It was all my fault. It wasn’t anybody else’s fault. If you want to keep talking about it, writing about it, so be it. It’s not going to affect me.

“I look forward to going back to the Masters with just as much passion as I had before things happened last year. . . . I anticipate giving myself the same opportunity [to win]. I hope I do have a six-shot lead going into Sunday again. . . . I don’t run away from things. I accept my responsibilities and fate.”

And in some strange way, Norman actually has welcomed what fate has dealt him.

“I can categorically say this: If I had won the Masters last year, it wouldn’t have changed my life. Not one cent,” he said. “But losing the Masters last year has changed my life. So there’s a positive out of a negative.”

Norman was referring to the outpouring of support after the collapse. He was getting up to 10 boxes of sympathetic letters a week.

“And now the emotion is returning,” he said. “I’m getting the same 10 boxes of mail a week. It’s all come back again.”

Has a year’s worth of analysis given Norman a better idea of what happened on that black Sunday?

“I just screwed up,” he said.

He doesn’t buy the idea that he had trouble handling the big lead from a mental standpoint.

“My mental application, my preparation that Sunday was excellent,” Norman said. “But the physical aspect of my game was not. There was a minor flaw in my game, and it showed through the more I tried to push it.

“Every golfer says the same thing about Augusta. You can’t force the issue. The more I forced it, the worse it got away from me.”

Norman said he first realized there was a problem with his swing on the ninth hole of that last round, and he might have compounded it by trying to fix it.

“I don’t normally do that on the golf course,” he said. “That’s when it became a real physical thing, trying to correct the problem. You don’t do that in nine holes on a Sunday at the Masters.”

And Faldo? His third Masters title tied him with Jimmy Demaret, Sam Snead and Gary Player. And his six major titles leave him trailing only Tom Watson among current regular players on the PGA Tour.

“I hope I’m remembered for shooting 67 and storming through, and not just for what happened to Greg,” he said.

Doubtful. More likely, Faldo’s finish will forever be seen as flotsam from the sinking of the Great White Shark.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Major Downfalls

Major tournaments Greg Norman didn’t win when leading after three rounds:

TOURNAMENT (LEAD): FINISH

‘86 Masters (1 shot): T-2, 1 back

‘86 U.S. Open (1): T-12, 6 back

‘86 PGA (4): 2nd, 2 back

‘93 PGA (1): 2nd, lost playoff

‘95 U.S. Open (Co-leader): 2nd, 2 back

‘96 Masters (6): 2nd, 5 back