Norman Chokes - Once Again!

April 11, 1999 / 10:34 PM EDT / AP

Greg Norman said he didn't believe in destiny.

Over and over, through all four days of the Masters, he kept insisting what's done was done. To prove the point, he went out and showed he could play Augusta National differently from the way he had every time before. This time, he was patient. This time, he was prudent. And purposeful, too.

Somehow, the result was the pretty much the same.

He finished close enough to the man for whom the green jacket was destined to know his measurements by heart. On this day, it was slipped over the shoulders of Jose Maria Olazabal. Three years ago, it was Nick Faldo. Nearly a decade before that, the names were Larry Mize and Jack Nicklaus.

The one thing that has changed, Norman said one more time Sunday, is his perspective on the losses. Shoulder surgery sent him to the sideline for nearly a year. He rediscovered his family and his motivation, and found the calm that a hectic schedule and the pressures of competing had kept hidden all these years.

"I feel very much like I did yesterday and the day before, like I did a couple months ago," Norman said after a closing round of 73 left him in third place, two strokes behind Olazabal and one back of Davis Love III.

"I wish I had done this 20 years ago, have this kind of fresher approach on life. Because this has been very, very good for me. And if it's been good for me," he added, "then it's going to be good for me in the game of golf."

That, of course, remains to be seen.

If Norman arrived at Augusta no longer tortured by his past, he has to be leaving it brave words aside with some lingering concerns about his future.

Climbing into contention in his first major back must be satisfying to Norman, especially given the long and painful rehabilitation. Finding a new way to lose, though, has to be gnawing away at the edges of his self-assured new self.

Let's be clear: Norman didn't collapse. No single flaw in his game proved fatal. He didn't fire at sucker pin positions and he didn't pull the wrong club from his bag. He didn't put too much spin on his approach shots at the wrong holes or make a loose swing in a tight situation.

But he was tied for the lead at 7-under when he stepped onto the 14th tee Sunday and he bogeyed that hole and the next. Even though he made eagle at No. 13, a par-5 of 485 yards, by going for the green in two, Norman showed enough maturity to play No. 15, a par-5 of 500 yards, as a three-shot hole.

The strategy wound up backfiring when he hit his approach shot into the right bunker, then exploded to 12 feet and missed the par putt when the ball curled on the lip and spun out. And his explanation for the wedge shot that found the right greenside bunker at No. 15 was the only time all day he sounded like the old Norman, the one who never lacked for an alibi.

"I had mud on the ball, it was 94 yards, and I tried to squeeze a sand wede in there," he said. "The ball seemed to sail a little bit right."

On some other day, against someone less opportunistic than Olazabal, Norman might have gotten away with it. He started the day two strokes behind, shot 73 to Olazabal's 71, on a day when only seven players in the entire field broke par.

"I think he deserves the jacket as much as anybody else," the Spaniard said afterward. "When we were in the scoring tent, I said, `I really enjoyed your company today. Just keep on trying. You have the game and you deserve the jacket. Hopefully, you will get it."'

That same scene, with a different cast of characters, played itself out all day long. One after another, Norman's fellow pros fell out of contention and came to the interview room after their rounds were complete to say he was now the guy they were rooting for.

This was not the horrible collapse of 1996, when Norman squandered a six-stroke lead to Faldo, but what made even the toughest of his competitors reach out to him then is the same bit of character that made them do so one more time.

For lack of another word, call it grace a quality that hadn't been observed around Norman until that humbling loss three years ago. Before that, he made excuses when he lost, he was arrogant and not beyond flaunting his wealth. Sometimes, in private, he unfairly trashed reputations.

Grace is a funny thing that way. Lose it once, and usually it's gone forever. Now that Norman has it in his grasp, he'd better hold on tight. He said after 1996 that he was certain all those freakish losses had been a test for something, though he didn't know what.

The suspicion is that he was being tested, all right, by losing over and over until he got it right. On Sunday, he demonstrated that part of the lesson is over. Now we will find out if Norman will ever be ready to start winning the big ones.