Posted April 9, 2016, 5:20 pm
BY

Sports Editor

Norman, Venturi victims of memorable Masters meltdowns

Final-round leads disintegrated for Norman, Venturi

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Greg Norman collapses after missing an eagle putt on No. 15 in the final round of 1996, where he blew a six-shot lead and lost to Nick Faldo.
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Greg Norman collapses after missing an eagle putt on No. 15 in the final round of 1996, where he blew a six-shot lead and lost to Nick Faldo.
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Greg Norman collapses after missing an eagle putt on No. 15 in the final round of 1996, where he blew a six-shot lead and lost to Nick Faldo.
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In 1956, Ken Venturi tied the 36-hole low and had a four-shot lead going into Sunday, then shot 80 to lose to a rallying Jack Burke Jr.
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Rory McIlroy reacts after missing an eagle putt on No. 13 during the final round of the Masters Tournament at Augusta National Golf Club, Sunday, April 12, 2015.
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The Tournament Practice Range at Augusta National, which opened in 2010, is about 400 yards long.
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Olazabal
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Nicklaus

The Masters Tournament is famous for delivering heroic shots from the top players in the world, often in the pressure of Sunday’s final nine holes.

Phil Mickelson’s shot from the pine straw at the 13th, Tiger Woods’ chip-in for birdie at the 16th, or Arnold Palmer’s closing birdies on the final two holes to win in 1960 come to mind.

But as much as those great moments have been celebrated, Augusta National has also produced its share of famous collapses.

Ken Venturi in 1956 and Greg Norman in 1996 suffered perhaps the worst meltdowns in Masters history.

Venturi fired 66 in the opening round to take a one-shot lead over defending champion Cary Middlecoff, and a 69 in the second round increased his lead to four shots and tied the record for
best 36-hole score in tournament history.

Weather had been a factor all week, and Saturday’s third round was played under challenging conditions. High winds raked the Augusta National layout and even blew down a scoreboard.

No player was able to break the par of 72, and Venturi’s 75 was a decent score.

It also maintained the amateur’s four-shot advantage over Middlecoff. Doug Ford was a distant third, seven shots behind Venturi, and Lloyd Mangrum and Jack Burke Jr. were eight shots back.

The weather for the final round was worse than the day before. Heavy winds, with gusts up to 50 mph, greeted the players.

Venturi soared to 80 in the final round, and that enabled Burke to mount the largest comeback in Masters history. His 71 was one of only two sub-par rounds that day.

Burke holed a 15-footer for birdie at the 17th with an assist from a gust of wind, then saved par from the greenside bunker at the 18th. Venturi could not birdie the final hole, and Burke was the winner.

Burke’s winning total of 289 is the highest (along with Sam Snead in 1954 and Zach Johnson in 2007) in tournament history.

Norman’s downfall in 1996 was equally shocking. He opened the Masters with a record-tying 63, and subsequent rounds of 69 and 71 put Norman six ahead of Nick Faldo and seven clear of Phil Mickelson going into the final round.

Norman’s failure to hold 54-hole leads in majors had been duly noted by the media. But veteran Augusta observers figured this would be the year Norman would get his green jacket. The headline in Sunday’s Augusta Chronicle read, “Shark Smells Blood.”

Faldo played flawless golf on the front nine to cut the deficit to two shots and put pressure on Norman, who promptly made bogeys on Nos. 10 and 11 to see the rest of his lead disappear.

At the par-3 12th, Norman’s collapse was complete when he hit his tee shot into Rae’s Creek and suffered a double bogey.

Norman matched Faldo over the next three holes with two birdies and a par, but he came to the 16th still trailing. He hooked his tee shot so far left that it found the pond that guards the green, and the resulting double bogey left him down four.

Norman’s day of celebration had gone worse than anyone could have imagined. His 78 to Faldo’s 67 left him five behind, and it set a record for futility as the biggest blown lead in major championship history.

“Nick played good golf, and I played poorly,” Norman said. “You can make up a lot of shots when that happens. It’s not the end of the world for me. I’m not going to fall off the edge of the world because of what happened.”

a look at the 10 most dramatic collapses in the history of the masters tournament

1996: Greg Norman blew the largest 54-hole lead in Masters history, six shots, as Nick Faldo fired a final-round 67 to win his third green jacket.

1956: Ken Venturi couldn’t hold on to a four-shot lead in the final round as he slid to an 80 in windy conditions and suffered defeat to Jack Burke Jr.

1979: Ed Sneed started the final round five shots ahead of the field. With three holes to play, he was still up three, but he made bogeys on Nos. 16-18 to set up Fuzzy Zoeller’s victory in a sudden-death playoff.

1986: Rattled by Jack Nicklaus’ charge, Seve Ballesteros splashed his approach to No. 15 to make bogey. The Golden Bear claimed his sixth title.

1961: Needing only par on the final hole to win back-to-back Masters, Arnold Palmer hit it in the right bunker and made double bogey to allow Gary Player to become the first international champion.

1937: Ralph Guldahl struggled to a 76 on the final day, paving the way for Byron Nelson to win his first Masters. At Nos. 12 and 13, Guldahl played the holes in 5-6 while Nelson went 2-3 (birdie-eagle) for a six-shot swing.

2011: Rory McIlroy (left) started the day with a four-shot lead but shot 80 to finish tied for 15th place. McIlroy’s misadventures included a triple bogey at the 10th and a double bogey at the 12th.

1985: Curtis Strange was poised to make history after opening with 80. But with a three-shot lead and six holes to play, he found the water and made bogeys on Nos. 13 and 15 to finish two shots behind Bernhard Langer.

1954: Amateur Billy Joe Patton made double bogey at No. 13 and bogey at No. 15 in the final round, finishing one shot out of the Snead-Hogan playoff.

1989: Scott Hoch missed a short par putt on No. 17, then on the first hole of the sudden-death playoff he missed a 2-foot putt that would have given him his first major victory. Nick Faldo rolled in a long birdie putt on the next playoff hole to win his first green jacket.

– John Boyette, sports editor

THE FIRST DISASTER

In 1937, Ralph Guldahl carried a four-shot lead over Byron Nelson into the final round. But Guldahl found trouble at the 12th and 13th holes, carding a bogey and double bogey, and that paved the way for Nelson to mount his comeback.

Nelson went 2-3 (birdie-eagle) at those same holes for a six-shot swing, and he finished with 70 to Guldahl’s 76.

The Nelson Bridge was dedicated in 1958 to commemorate the feat.

– From staff reports

Course Changes

In 2010, Augusta National unveiled its world-class practice facility that duplicates the conditions found on the course.

The Tournament Practice Range enables golf fans to see their favorite players as they enter along the patron corridor at Gate 6A. The former range was outdated, with advances in golf ball and club technology necessitating a 105-foot-tall net to keep golf balls off Washington Road.

The new range stretches about 400 yards from center tee to the end - the old one was 260 yards long - and needs no net.

on this date

1949

Sam Snead closed with 67 for his first Masters win, and he also was the first champion to receive a green jacket.

1955

Cary Middlecoff established a record for largest margin of victory with his seven-shot win over Ben Hogan.

1960

Arnold Palmer birdied the final two holes for a one-shot win over Ken Venturi.

1961

South Africa’s Gary Player became the first international champion.

1966

Jack Nicklaus won a three-man playoff to become the Masters’ first back-to-back winner.

1977

Tom Watson finished with 67 to hold off hard-charging Jack Nicklaus for his first green jacket.

1988

Sandy Lyle birdied the final hole for a one-shot win over Mark Calcavecchia.

1994

Jose Maria Olazabal closed with 69 for a two-shot win over Tom Lehman. Jeff Maggert, using a 3-iron from 222 yards, made a double eagle on the 13th hole.

2005

Tiger Woods used a chip-in birdie at the 16th hole to force a playoff with Chris DiMarco, and he won on the first hole of sudden death with a 15-foot birdie putt.

2011

Charl Schwartzel birdied his final four holes to beat Australian’s Jason Day and Adam Scott by two strokes.