Free Faldo/Norman by Andy Farrell

contoured on the course. The ball scooted forward off a downslope, ran up the front of the green and then started taking the left-to-right break in such a manner that it finished no more than three feet from the hole. All Norman could do was listen. ‘It was the gallery that told me I’d hit it close,’ he said. Long before he crested the rise in the fairway and could see the green, all the spectators were standing up and applauding.
    Norman was now six under for the day but he was not finished. His fourth birdie on the trot might have been an eagle at the 15th. He only needed a seven-iron for his second at the par-fiveand he had an 18-footer for a three. He was ready to chase after the putt but when it swerved off-line at the last minute, he ended up on his knees. ‘I hit it right on the pitch mark I wanted to hit and four feet out I thought I’d made it. That is why I straightened up. I was ready to go for a walk. Then all of a sudden, it just kind of veered a little to the right.’
    He two-putted at the 16th, where the pin was in a tricky spot that caught out plenty of others, and then he finished in style by making a 10-footer at the 17th and a 24-footer at the last. On the 18th green, the hole was close to where it was when Price made his 63. From a similar line, back right of the green, but from around 30 feet, Price saw his birdie putt for a 62 hit the hole and spin out back towards him. Norman’s only problem with his putt came as he looked at the line and noticed a hot air balloon rising in the distance. No matter, he refocused and in the putt went.
    Afterwards, he was asked: ‘What does an opening round like this do for your mind-set for the rest of the week? Do you think I still have to keep attacking or…’ Norman cut in with his reply: ‘Well, I didn’t attack today. I played the way I wanted to play. You just wake up tomorrow and keep the momentum going. You obviously know you are not going to shoot four 63s. It would be nice but it would be a very tall order to do. You don’t let it get away from you and get too excited about it. I’m happy and excited but there’s a long way to go.’
    After Norman had talked about visualising his swing while out fishing, there was an obvious follow-up and it turned out to be the last question of the press conference. ‘Greg, you’ve visualised the swing. How many times have you visualised putting on the green jacket?’ Answer: ‘I don’t know. Probably a few.’

    The opening day of the 60th Masters began as tradition demands, or at least as most have since 1963, with the ceremonial tee shots by a handful of honorary starters. Gene Sarazen and Byron Nelson had performed the duty since 1981 and Sam Snead joined them in 1984. The sign by the 1st tee showed not their caddie numbers but their ages: Sarazen 94, Nelson 84 and Snead 83. Sarazen was not being taken in by all the hype about 20-year-old amateur Tiger Woods. ‘When I was 20,’ he said, ‘I won the US Open and the US PGA Championship.’ At Augusta, they keep records even for the honorary starters and Sarazen had overtaken Fred McLeod as the oldest ever. He tried to stop earlier, complaining to an Augusta chairman that he had difficulty swinging the club, only to be told: ‘People don’t care how you swing, they just want to see you are still alive.’ He would get to perform the task for three more years, while Nelson continued until 2001 and Snead until a year later.
    These days another of golf’s great triumvirates, the Big Three themselves, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, perform the task. But back in 1996, they were all playing for real and Palmer’s 74 was his best score for 12 years, which was how long it was since he had last made the cut. Player was on 73 and, on the heels of his Senior Tour victory at the Tradition, Nicklaus had a 70. His score included only 23 putts, the lowest mark of the day, but the Bear was not happy with his driving. ‘It wasn’t a very hard day