SOUTHPORT, England – Was anybody wondering where Tiger Woods was this week?
How about the concern that the 137th British Open at Royal Birkdale, the first major championship since 1996 played without the greatest player in the world competing, was going to be a faceless, buzz-less dud without Woods in the field?
Make no mistake, we all miss Woods and can’t want until he gets back next year when his knee is right. In the interim, however, we bring you what has the potential to be one of the most memorable major championship results in the game’s history as today’s final round unfolds.
We bring you Greg Norman, age 53 and essentially playing ceremonial golf these days, leading the British Open by two shots entering the final round.
A Norman win would make him the oldest major championship winner in the modern era, surpassing Julius Boros, who won the 1968 PGA at age 48.
A Norman win, too, would leave nary a dry eye around blustery Royal Birkdale, where the winds that gusted to 45 mph yesterday seemed to blow everyone off his axis – except Norman, who looks as relaxed as if he were playing a casual round with friends in Florida under ideal weather conditions.
How unlikely is this?
When asked what he would have said if someone told him two months ago that he would be leading the British Open through 54 holes, Norman said, “Oh, really?”
“The players are probably saying, ‘My God, what’s he doing up there?’ ” Norman said. “At the same time, these guys have known that I have played golf before and I’ve played successful golf before.”
Indeed, Norman has had success before, winning two British Opens. But his last win was 15 years ago at the 1993 British Open.
Norman, yesterday playing with the unflappable K.J. Choi, who led entering the third round, shot a 72 and is 2-over for the championship, two shots clear of defending champion Padraig Harrington and Choi.
Norman will tee off with Harrington in today’s final pairing and the world’s eyes will be upon him.
“When he’s interested, Greg Norman can really play,” Harrington said. “He’s as fit a 53-year-old as there is and he hasn’t lost any ability. He’s well capable of putting it together as he’s shown in the first three rounds and I don’t think anybody should expect anything but good play out of him [today].”
Norman refuses to look ahead, though he clearly understands the scope of the incredible story that’s unfolding.
Asked what it would mean to him to win, he said: “Well, I’m not going to get ahead of myself. Ask me that question (tonight) if that happens, OK?”
Then he was asked, “Can you hang on?”
“I can’t answer that question now,” he said. “We’ll find out.”
If there was a day when Norman was going to tumble down the leaderboard, yesterday seemed like it would be it because of the brutal winds that produced not a single round under par.
“I’ll be honest, I walked to the first tee nervous,” Norman said. “It was a good indicator for me that I was nervous as I felt. I haven’t felt that way probably for 10 years. So I was excited about being there. I wanted to be there.
“I hope I feel the same way (today). I’m pretty sure I’m going to because it’s a different situation, and I hope I can keep going.”
Norman showed signs of stumbling early, with bogeys on Nos. 1 and 3 to fall three shots behind Choi. But he rebounded on the back nine, tying for the lead on No. 14 with a birdie and taking over the lead for good on 15, when Choi bogeyed with a three-putt.
A Norman birdie on the par-5 17th gave him the two-shot lead.
When he walked toward the 18th green the fans jamming grandstands stood and cheered wildly.
“I’d put this in the top three hardest rounds I’ve ever played under the circumstances,” Norman said.
“The imagination came in (yesterday) because some of these balls were going 60 yards sideways out there,” Norman’s caddie, Linn Strickler, said.
Asked if his man can “finish it off” today, Strickler said: “Yes, most assuredly, because he’s been there so many times. Count the number of times there other players have been there.”