Norman Comes Storming Back in Shark Shootout

Two feet. That was all that remained for Greg Norman at the end of a long and painful journey which began seven months ago.

After undergoing major shoulder surgery in April, after working his way through a long rehabilitation, after coming back to play in his tournament, the three-day Franklin Templeton Shark Shootout, after 18 holes Sunday followed by three playoff holes, Norman calmly tapped in the final two-foot putt to give him and his partner, Steve Elkington, the tournament victory over Peter Jacobsen/John Cook at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks.

This was the eighth year that the tournament has been known as the Shark Shootout with Norman as the host. But it is the first time that, when all the shooting was over, Norman finished with a share of the championship.

It wasn’t easy. Behind the smile beneath his trademark hat, Norman had to deal with the understandable anxiety over what the long layoff had done to his game.

“He was tiptoeing on Friday,” acknowledged Elkington, his close friend and fellow Australian. “Then, he was taking bigger steps. Now, he’s striding.”

But it was Elkington who took the biggest strides in Sunday’s scramble format in which each player shoots and the team then uses the best ball of the two for the following shot.

Jacobsen/Cook, who began the day four strokes back of leaders Davis Love III/Brad Faxon, shot into the early lead. Powered by four eagles, they finished the regulation 18 holes at 27-under-par 189.

Norman and Elkington, who has been part of the winning team in this event twice before, stayed in contention by birding holes No. 14, 15 and 16. Both missed the potential match-tying birdie putt on 17 by inches.

But on the par-four 18th, Elkington, after watching Norman’s second shot roll into a bunker, hit a 150-yard shot that left his team a 10-foot putt to tie the match.

Norman sunk it.

The two teams went back to the 18th tee to begin the sudden-death playoff.

Again, Norman’s second shot was in the bunker. Again, Elkington’s second shot from 167 yards landed on the green, leaving a putt of about 12 feet.

Again, Norman sunk it.

But because Cook was able to make a difficult downhill birdie putt of just over 20 feet, the foursome marched over to the 10th hole, still deadlocked.

This time, Cook made the biggest shot, coming out of the rough with his second shot from 82 yards out, leaving a six-foot birdie putt which he made.

After Norman was successful as well on a birdie putt of about six feet, the two teams went back to the 18th in the fading sunlight. This trip down, however, Jacobsen/Cook left them themselves with a 25-foot downhill shot for a birdie.

“With about 12 to 15 feet of break,” Cook said.

“It was the only hole all week where we were on the outside looking in,” Jacobsen said.

Looking at the masterful stroke of Elkington, who used a nine-iron from 146 yards out to plunk the ball in the shadow of the flag.

Both Jacobsen and Cook took a shot at the long putt in front of them and missed.

Norman wasn’t about to miss in front of the record crowd of 12,502. Not after what he has been through.

He and Elkington each won $160,000 and Jacobsen/Cook split $180,000.

While Norman said he feels he needs five to seven rounds to get his game back to where it had been, he couldn’t have imagined a better comeback.

“There is not,” he acknowledged, “a whole lot in my life going wrong.”