Faldo/Norman by Andy Farrell Read Free Book Online

end?’ He replied: ‘Well, I don’t live in the past. I feel comfortable. Those were good tournaments I played in the past. People played some great shots to win some of them. So I’m looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and playing some great shots and finish the tournament like I know I can.’

Flowering Peach
Hole 3
Yards 360; Par 4

    A T THE START of Masters week, Greg Norman was one of the favourites for the title but hardly an overwhelming one. He might have been the world number one but he had missed the cut in his past two tournaments and was only one of a host of players expected to contend. ‘It’s anyone’s green jacket’ was the headline on the front page of the
Augusta Chronicle’s
special Masters section. Even a 20-year-old college student and a 56-year-old former champion were sharing the billing with Norman, as the subhead on the preview of the South’s oldest newspaper made clear: ‘Wide-open 1996 Masters features a young Tiger, an aging Golden Bear and a Shark’.
    Tiger Woods had yet to turn professional but he was already the centre of much attention. This was his second appearance in the Masters after finishing as the leading amateur in 1995, playing all four rounds and finishing tied for 41st. He returned in 1996 expecting to play a practice round with Arnold Palmer on Monday. But Palmer postponed until Wednesday so Woods played with Norman, with whom he shared a coach in Butch Harmon. At the 9th tee, Norman encouraged Woods to hit a drive over the trees on the left and down the 1st fairway. Withthe fairways mown towards the tee, the grass is usually growing against the ball when it lands. By going down the 1st fairway in the reverse direction, they could get the ball to run for ever down the hill and leave a shorter shot to the 9th green. ‘He’s exceptionally long,’ Norman said. ‘I think he’s longer than John Daly. He flights the ball so well.’
    On Tuesday, Woods again played a practice round with Norman, along with two former champions, Ray Floyd and Fred Couples. ‘These guys know the course like the back of their hands,’ Woods said. ‘I was listening to Raymond give some pointers out there. Ray’s been out here for a few years and has done pretty well here, and he was giving Greg some of his idiosyncrasies Greg didn’t even know about. These guys have a lot of knowledge and are willing to share their knowledge. That’s very nice on their part.’
    The reason Palmer had passed on a practice round with Woods on Monday was that he had lined up someone else to join them on Wednesday. Jack Nicklaus got his first close-up view of the game’s next superstar as they played nine holes on the main course and then moved over to the nine-hole, par-three course for the traditional pre-Masters appetiser. Nicklaus was impressed. ‘Very, very impressed, to say the least. So was Arnold,’ Nicklaus said. ‘This kid is the most fundamentally sound golfer that I’ve ever seen at any age. Hits the ball nine million miles without a swing that looks like he’s trying to do that. And he’s a nice kid. He’s got great composure. He handles himself very well.’
    If that was not enough to get his audience excited, then Nicklaus added: ‘Arnold and I both agree that you could take his Masters and my Masters and add them together, and this kid should win more than that.’ Palmer won the Masters four times and Nicklaus is the only person to surpass that with six titles. Together, that’s ten green jackets. Nicklaus was suggestingthat Woods might win at least 11, an extravagant claim that has become even more so with time. Woods has been stuck alongside Palmer on four since 2005, but the magnitude of the declaration merely added to all the Tigermania.
    Could he win this week, Nicklaus was asked? ‘I don’t know whether he is ready to win yet or not, but he will be your favourite for the next 20 years. If he isn’t, there’s something wrong.’ About that, Nicklaus was spot