At 53 years of age and after 54 holes of the world's most prestigious tournament Greg Norman proved a few things.
He proved he could still match it with the world's best players. He proved he could still hit the ball as far as he ever could. He proved he still had the skills of yesteryear. He proved he was the same Greg Norman.
With the 54 hole lead he capitulated in the final round and another major went begging. He's the same Greg Norman alright..........

Well gold and silver to you two for being the first muppets to show a complete lack of understanding of the game of golf and the term Choke. Firstly to choke is to lose from a seemingly unloseable position. His 5 shot masters loss was a choke. This was not.

Here is Guy who basically kept the game of golf exciting for the best part of 20 years. Now at 53 he still puts himself in a position to win a major. Not one of the other players in that field will be participating in majors let alone putting themselves in a position to win the thing. It was a massive effort. Sure he came up short, again, but holy *****, lets give the guy a little credit.

I'm sick of all the self confessed experts on here pretty much bagging out all and sundry and toeing the line of the masses when it comes to critisism without offering any real commentary on performance.

This coming from a guy that's never posted on the golf forum before..............nice one, perhaps you should stick to the league forum, w4nker.

Choke?

Lol.

In a tournament where scores of 78, 79 and 80 were regulation, and where for the final two rounds Norman had the worst of some atrocious conditions, a 77 is no choke.

had he missed s$h1tload of 4-foot putts, and shanked his drives and approaches with routine efficiency, yeah it would have been a choke.

But to continually find a way to scramble at least a share of the lead until the 14th hole when you are 53 and playing against arguably the best links golfer in the world, that is no choke and anyone who thinks it is needs to learn a lot about psychology.

If anything, Norman was TOO casual in using drivers when perhaps some safe irons would have been better options. his short game was generally impeccable, and there were two par putts that were desperately unlucky not to drop - when the ball comes back at you after doing a lap of the hole you know you have pi$$ed off someone in high authority.

Full credit to the Shark, great stuff, you should be proud of yourself.

choke

Can't believe some people think this was a choke. I'm gutted that he couldn't get the win last night but lay off the guy.

Firstly, Padrig played an unbelievable back nine when you think about it, no matter how well norman could of played, it was a tough ask. Have to give Harrington credit, for hitting some of those shots he did on the back nine.

Greg is a 53 year-old part-timer these days, he was bound to shoot at least one score in the high 70's like he did. He putted alright, missed a couple early on but made some nice pressure putts, including that one at 14 to give some sort of hope which was wiped away not too long after. He might made a few poor choices off the tee and mi***** and misjudged some approach shots but again so did most players this week. It was a great effort from the man and he should be appaluded for his efforts. i was really hoping he could pull the fairytale off, watching him choke in the '96 is masters is my first golfing memory and as being too young or not even born to see his open wins, it would of been a great moment to see . Sadly, it didn't happen.

The one great thing is, that he gets another at augusta for this performance, he might go out and completely miss the cut but always wanted to see him give it one more go at the Masters.

He did fantastic.. showed up a lot of the younger brigade who were expected to contend. It wasn't a choke but regardless of how cool he tried to play things after the third round, he buckled given the situation - but then again anyone his age, playing the amount of golf he does would have run out of gas as well.

i think norman can breath safely on the tag of biggest aussie dud, thanks to mark webber;

http://forum.sportal.com.au/yaf_postst27063p3_Is-Mark-Webber-the-biggest-Dud-in-the-history-of-sport.aspx

Even when he shot sub-par at Shinne***** Hills and sub-70 to Azinger at the 93 PGA and had a championship put do a lap of the hole?

Even when he shot 64 at the Open in 1989?

Granted, some of his failures have been self-inflicted. But he hasn't exactly been favoures by lady luck either.

KJ Choi doing his best Linda Lovelace impersonation (choking on the big ones)....needs a par on the last to finish top 3.......a big fat snowman and he ties for 16th. A 79 to boot after starting the day = 2nd.
Sure Sharkey's choked on a few, but today wasn't one of 'em.

Choke = Jean Van der Velde '99 Open (7 on the last)
Sharkey '96 Masters (Final round)
Sean O'Hair at Sawgrass a couple of years ago (2 in the drink on the par 3 17th in the last round of the Players Championship).

Sharkeys stiff luck:
'86 PGA - Bob Tway out of the bunker.
'86 Masters - The Golden Bears back 9 (30 I think).
'87 Masters - Larry Mize (what a lucky *****)
'89 Open - Calcavecchia slam dunked a 25m lob shot from deep rough in the last round...made the playoff and won....fat c***.
In a regulation PGA event back in the late 80's, Robert Gamez holed a bloody 7 iron on the 72nd hole to beat Sharkey by a shot.....that'd pi55 me right orf!!!