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By Brett Avery
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

It¹s a low number that causes low whistles of amazement: 259.

Or this: 25 under par.

That¹s a 72-hole total you¹d expect from a seasoned professional, someone taking advantage of every opportunity to blister an established PGA TOUR layout.

But it was the product of Tim Norris, a 24-year-old trying to edge his way up the food chain in the summer of 1982. Norris had spent his two seasons in rabbit mode, trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to earn a spot in each tournament through Monday qualifiers.

So the numbers he put up at Wethersfield CC in the Sammy Davis Jr. Greater Hartford Open (63-64-66-66) were almost inconceivable. Norris went without a bogey for 80 consecutive holes, from the 18 qualifying holes through the eighth in the final round.

"We kept waiting for him to fall down and break a leg,² Hubert Green said after finishing six shots back in a tie for second with Raymond Floyd. "Maybe he had four or five legs. I want to shake his hand and get his autograph."

Norris nearly broke Mike Souchak¹s 72-hole scoring record, a venerable 257 that had stood since the 1955 Texas Open at Brackenridge Park GC. Souchak¹s week included an 11-under-par 60 in the first round. Only three bogeys over the last 10 holes, after he had wrapped up the victory, cost Norris a shot at the mark.

As it was Norris became only the fourth player in TOUR history to better 260, also joining Byron Nelson (259 at Broadmoor GC in the 1945 Seattle Open) and Chandler Harper (259 at Brackenridge in the 1954 Texas Open).

"He got a few breaks when he needed them," Floyd said, "but believe me

folks, that¹s the way you win golf tournaments." This from the guy who the previous week had gutted a PGA Championship field by shooting 272 at Southern Hills CC in Tulsa, Okla.

Norris sat out that event, not that anyone missed him. And he didn¹t make much of a splash early in the week at Wethersfield, which first hosted the Insurance City Open over Labor Day weekend in 1952.

Tucked into a residential area a few miles south of downtown, the club was known asreceptive to solid play -- the last winner to score above 270 was Charlie Sifford in 1967.

Norris took that reputation to the extreme.

"You don¹t think of bogeys here," he said. "It¹s not in your vocabulary."

Norris went into the week scraping through his second TOUR season, struggling to make ends meet and shoot low enough scores on Monday to get a Thursday starting time.

By comparison, spending more time on the course than in the classroom at Fresno State University, where he¹d been a first-team all-America in 1980, was cake.

He¹d attempted to make 42 starts from the start of 1981 but didn¹t get past qualifying 10 times, missed 16 cuts and withdrew once. He was disqualified from his first start of 1982, the Joe Garagiola-Tucson Open, when he sprained his right wrist, costing him 14 important weeks.

Official earnings: $35,974 overall, $3,550 in 1982.

Oh, and the next season the new and improved all-exempt TOUR would bestow automatic playing privileges to the top 125 money earners in 1982.

"I was off last week and got my attitude in shape," Norris explained. "I told myself I better get myself in gear or I wouldn¹t be around next year."

Norris notified the field of his intentions with eight birdies in Thursday¹s first round, taking the attention off Floyd, who had the number "3" penciled on his card 10 times.

And when Norris came back Friday with five birdies and an eagle he not only cracked the tournament¹s 36-hole record (64-64 by Phil Hancock in 1978) but matched the season-best 127 by Bob Gilder in the Westchester Classic.

And then he uttered perhaps the most notable quote of a career in which he tossed out tons of comments that kept writers scribbling. Asked about having Floyd three back in second place, Norris prompted laughs by shooting back, "He doesn¹t scare me a bit. Bring them all on."

Paired with Floyd in the third round, Norris was expected to fold. He did anything but, canning birdies at the last two holes for a 66 that kept him four up on Floyd and Mark Calcavecchia. Adding to the haul of records Norris' 193 was now the 54-hole mark in Hartford (Bill Kratzert, 196 in 1977).

Norris kept banging at the flagsticks in the final round. His drive at the par-5 second looked as if it was going to sail past the out-of-bounds stakes but caromed off a cart path and came back into play. He wound up plopping his third in a greenside bunker and, looking his wobbliest, holed out for birdie.

Although he three-putted the ninth for his first bogey of the week he

churned out four unbroken birdies to get to 27 under, Souchak¹s legendary score. He three-putted the 15th and could not save par from a bunker at the 18th.

"I¹d like to have broken Souchak¹s record," Norris said, "But maybe I¹ll do it in my next tournament."

The $54,000 payday immediately changed his career trajectory. It wiped out the credit card bills that fueled his travels and locked up his place on the all-exempt tour.

The Hartford stop moved on in 1984, setting up shop at the TPC Connecticut, later known as the TPC River Highlands. It remains one of the oldest stops on TOUR.

Norris also moved on a few years later. He stopped playing full-time after 1989, becoming head coach at the University of Texas-El Paso. In 1997 he moved to Kansas State University and helped that program pull out of a never-ending funk.

To this day, however, Norris remains the answer to a trivia question: Who was the last "rabbit" to win a PGA TOUR title?

Don¹t forget, when you¹re telling someone how he did it, to emphasize the low score with an equally low whistle.