Eurosport - Wed, 23 Jul 14:23:00 2008
Greg Norman's disappointment in The Open was the latest in a long line of near-misses in the Majors for the Great White Shark.
Given all his squandered opportunities, how many Major triumphs should he have?
Yahoo! Sports golf editor Michael Arkush and contributor Steve Eubanks discuss:
Eubanks: If he'd closed out half the Majors where he held the lead going into Sunday, he would have a total of six, but the number of titles he should have is actually eight or nine. He should have captured the 1986 Masters (the Nicklaus one), and at least two others where he played himself to the top of the leaderboard on Sunday only to let it get away.
Arkush: I wouldn't put the 1986 Masters in the Shark's pocket. Sure, he was tied for the lead on the 72nd fairway before his errant approach. But a birdie was still unlikely, which would have meant a playoff with Nicklaus. The way Jack was playing, there was no guarantee Norman would have pulled it off. In my calculations, he probably should have won an additional three Majors: the 1986 PGA (he was up by four over Bob Tway with nine holes left), the 1987 Masters, and, of course, the 1996 Masters. So the answer is five.
Eubanks: Six is the absolute minimum. I still go with eight or nine. He should have won the 1984 US Open and the 1989 British Open. And, yes, he should have at least made par on 18 at Augusta in 1986, which would have given him the edge in the play-off since Nicklaus had been sitting in an air-conditioned cabin for an hour. With all the talk this past weekend of Norman being "Tiger before there was a Tiger," it's worth considering how many majors Tiger would have won if he had been in the same positions. It's an academic exercise, but the answer is a lot closer to 10 than two.
Arkush: Let's not compare Norman to Tiger; nobody looks good in that context. Norman was a truly outstanding player who filled the void in the years between the Nicklaus and Woods eras. If not for Norman, with all due respect to Nick Price, the years between 1986 and 1996 would have been difficult to absorb. Could he have won eight or nine Majors? Perhaps. But, in Fuzzy Zoeller, Paul Azinger, Raymond Floyd, Corey Pavin, etc., Norman faced some pretty tough competitors. Five puts him even with Seve Ballesteros
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Put this right. Greg Norman could be Tiger Woods dad but still can pull out performance that showed the world he has not lost his touch. Well done, good luck for the Seniors Open.
As much as I love the guy I believe that he was never in the picture. I think the sentiments cannot take over the ability to assess ones performance.
He lost by a big margin and he should be really grateful for the place he took.
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