During a long, illustrious career, Greg Norman won 91 professional tournaments, including 20 on the PGA Tour. However, his two wins in major championships – both in the Open Championship, at Turnberry in 1986 and Royal St. George’s in 1993 – were scant return for the 331 weeks he spent as the number one ranked golfer in the world, according to Official World Golf Rankings.
‘The Great White Shark’, as Norman was known in his heyday, finished runner-up in major championships on eight occasions during his career, losing in a playoff four times and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory more than once. Of course, it wasn’t always entirely his fault, as was the case when, in 1986, 46-year-old Jack Nicklaus played the back nine at Augusta in six under par to win the Masters by a single stroke, but he did experience more than his fair share of misfortune.
The following August, Norman surrendered a four stroke lead after 54 holes of the PGA Championship at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, eventually finishing two strokes behind Bob Tway, who holed out from a greenside bunker for an unlikely birdie on the final hole. Back at Augusta in 1987, Norman was involved in a three-way playoff with Severiano Ballesteros and Larry Mize, but lost out again in extraordinary fashion. On the second playoff hole, the par-4 eleventh, Mize ‘bailed out’ to the right of the green with his approach shot but, from what has become known as ‘Larry Mize Country’, holed his pitch shot to win the Green Jacket. Last, but by no means least, in 1996 Norman led the Masters by six strokes heading into the final round, but shot a disastrous 78, finding water from the tee at the twelfth and the sixteenth, eventually suffering a five-stroke defeat by Nick Faldo.