The Shark stirred the waters and some emotions, too
By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
What will you remember about the 2008 season? That was the simple question we asked PGATOUR.COM staffers and freelance contributors, who responded with a series of short essays that we will post during November (click here for the archive link).
To this day, we're not sure where the golf came from, but it really doesn't matter, does it?
What does matter it that 15 years after his last major championship, seven years after he left the PGA TOUR and in the middle of his honeymoon, Greg Norman had us believing yet again.
Magic? Lord it felt like it. For three days, Norman played like he was 33, not 53. His blue eyes bored through the relentless wind, making paths for those superb shots. His mind, his focus, made up for a lack of competition and all those months when golf was secondary to board meetings and tennis.
He was glowing -- downright giddy at times -- over his recent marriage to Chris Evert and everyone was wondering just how much that happiness was playing into what was unfolding at Royal Birkdale.
Two up with 18 to play? It was strange, but there was something different this time around. It felt different. Norman felt different.
Maybe this was -- finally -- the fairy tale that wouldn't shatter into a thousand tiny pieces. Maybe this would be golf's way of saying so-well-done on a career that is all too often remembered for the bad things, not the good. Maybe this wouldn't be another in a line of seven blown leads going into the final round of a major; maybe it wouldn't be yet another close call.
Maybe ... then again, maybe not.
Perhaps it was just too much to expect.
Norman was Tiger before Tiger. Bigger than life. Blonde hair flying from underneath his cap. A smile the width of Australia that flashed at the darnedest of times. A man with seemingly everything -- the most toys, an empire with the budget of a small nation, a picture-perfect family, a charisma beyond compare.
Yet Norman was also golf's greatest victim -- of his own judgment, of his poor shots and others' improbable shots. How many times did he sit in the corner of the locker room at Augusta National, shaking his head and wondering why a course he loved so much had shredded his heart again?
We'd been there so many times before, but it didn't stop us from wondering if he was going to pull this off. Life had given him a second shot at love with Evert, so why not another major, too? Heck, a month after the most riveting major championship of our time, he was trying to one-up Tiger and Rocco.
Could he really win his third Open Championship at 53?
Of course, he didn't. Gave it a run on the front nine but hit the wall, closing with a 77 to tie for third.
Ticked? You bet. About the 77. But what the hell.
Norman did what no one expected. He went off at 500 to 1; a nice-to-see-him-out-here afterthought.
He became the story of the week.
Norman came to Birkdale in a good place in his life and exited in a better one. Even if he couldn't take advantage of those chances.
"I think at the end of the day, a lot of people should take stock no matter how old you are, if you really want to chase something and chase a dream, you can go do it,'' Norman said.
The next two weeks, he rode magic to a tie for fifth at the Senior Open Championship, then a fourth at the U.S. Senior Open.
But that tie for third at Royal Birkdale was simply one of those magic moments in sports.
And, oh, it also put him in the 2009 Masters.
Another shot at Augusta? At 54?
Admit it. You're already thinking about the possibility.
Too much to expect?
With Norman, you just never know.
Melanie Hauser, a PGATOUR.COM contributor, was disappointed she didn't get invited to the Norman-Evert wedding, but she realizes that space was limited.
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