Feud between Greg Norman, Nick Faldo explodes 30 years after infamous Masters collapse
It’s been 30 years since Greg Norman’s final round collapse at the 1996 Masters, and the two key players from that fateful day couldn’t have drifted further apart.Etched into the memories of sports fans is the final-round meltdown, which saw Norman’s six-shot lead evaporate in a torturous round of golf at Augusta National.Norman won The Open Championship twice in 1986 and 1993, but he is best known for his near misses at Augusta and being arguably the greatest golfer never to win a green jacket.Golf fans can still recall Larry Mize’s impossible chip-in to beat Norman at the 1987 Masters, as well as Bob Tway’s bunker shot at the 1986 PGA Championship, plus several others.Norman was also in contention at the 1986 and 1999 Masters, but it simply wasn’t to be.His Masters collapse in 1996 will go down in history.
Thirty years on, Norman and Faldo have reflected on the final round that changed both their legacies forever.For Faldo, his 2-iron approach shot at the 13th hole has gone down in golf folklore as one of the most clutch shots ever, after he spent minutes agonizing over which club to use to clear the water.The five-shot victory was a crowning glory for Faldo, who shared a touching embrace with Norman on the 18th green and whispered in his ear: “Don’t let the bastards get you down”.Faldo, one of just three golfers to be knighted, is now reliving his 1996 Masters win, but Norman has teed off at the Brit over criticism directed at LIV Golf, which Norman helped establish before stepping away last year.“Sport is bloody tough.The fear of failure is just as powerful as the quest to win.
And I think when you’re on a fail-free tour, you can’t fail,” Faldo said of LIV’s 54-hole format that has since expanded to 72-hole tournaments.“It makes you go soft.I think some of those players have gone soft.
They’re the luckiest golfers in the world because you’ve got half the field you haven’t heard of playing in a $25 million tournament each ...