It has turned out to be one of the great British sporting moments: the day, 15 years ago, when Nick Faldo hunted down and destroyed Greg Norman, famously the Great White Shark, in the final round of the Masters at Augusta National.
This week, in Georgia, the best British players for a generation will attempt to follow Faldo into the record books and don the green jacket that is the preserve of Masters champions.
Before they set off on their quest, however, they might wish to reflect on that April day in 1996 when Faldo came from six strokes behind at the start of the final round to win by a colossal margin of five. We are long overdue another British winner.
For Faldo, meanwhile, the memories are vivid. He can barely believe 15 years have passed, but remembers clearly his approach that day and how he took an iron grip on Norman’s fragile psyche and shook the life out of it.
“My aim was to get within three after nine holes because I knew that shots get frittered away on the back nine quite easily,” he said. “And when that went to plan, I began to notice that Greg was in trouble. He started to grip and regrip the club and was mis-hitting shots. He then tried to take on the flag up the narrow side of the 9th, which didn’t come off, and then he pulled a bad shot at 11.”
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At that point Norman was toast. The contrast to his opening round of 63, where he had nine birdies in his last 12 holes, was both stark and painful. Faldo had got inside his head and he was crumbling. This was car-crash golf, best watched through the fingers or from behind a sofa.
By the turn, Faldo had got to within two strokes of his man; and just three holes later he led by two. Norman had bogeyed the 9th, 10th and 11th and then threw in a double-bogey for good measure at the devilish par-three 12th.
It was impossible to know what to make of it. On the one hand we were witnessing the painful disintegration of one of the game’s greats, a public humiliation on a grand scale; on the other, we were watching a demonstration of golf at the highest and most pressured level, and from Britain’s finest player at that.
“It was all happening, but I still had to do my own thing,” Faldo said. “That was definitely the best mental round I have had in my life because I didn’t have quite the self-belief I’d had in ’89 and ’90.” Those were the years in which he won back-to-back Masters titles and became, at the time, only the second player, behind Jack Nicklaus, successfully to defend his title.
“My game hadn’t been on song at the start of the week and I had to talk myself through every shot,” Faldo said. “I used to be able to do it with a flick of a finger. This time I had to picture exactly what I wanted to do. It would usually start with me thinking the wheels were going to fall off and then telling myself: ‘No, no. Keep going.’ ”
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Looking back at his scorecard last week, Faldo was surprised to see quite how well he had played. Much of his round has got lost in the fog of Norman’s decline, but a 67 on the final day of a Masters is exceptional scoring in anyone’s book, particularly when put alongside Norman’s 78. Faldo said: “I made one five on the last day [at the 5th], but other than that it was all fours and threes and a two, and I thought: ‘Wow. Considering the greens were like concrete, that’s amazing.’ ”
One of the keys to Faldo’s success was a raft of long downhill putts. It was no fluke, mind. “I’d been practising lagging them short and I actually started holing them,” he said. And on the very last hole he signed off with one of about 18 feet for a birdie that brought to mind the matador’s killing thrust.
It is an intriguing thought, but how would Norman have fared if, say, he had been playing alongside anyone else? In his prime, Faldo could intimidate the best of them. And no one enjoyed playing with him.
In his two previous Masters victories — both in play-offs — Faldo came from five strokes behind Scott Hoch at the start of the final day and three behind Raymond Floyd. At the peak of his considerable powers, he loved nothing more than chasing players down.
“I didn’t know how the other players felt inside, but I just wanted to send the message that: ‘Hey, I’m all right, mate. I can handle this,’ ” he said. “When they knew I was on my game and that I wasn’t going to make mistakes, they’d realise that the only way to beat me was to make birdies, to shoot a lower score. I think that was my way of being tougher on the day. I don’t know if Greg was intimidated, but it just sent a message that I wasn’t going to go away.”
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Among the abiding images of the day was the long hug Faldo gave Norman on the final green and his quiet words of consolation. “As I walked towards him, I just said: ‘I don’t know what to say, mate,’ he said. “If I had been six ahead and had lost a major I’d have been scarred. I genuinely felt for the guy because I would have hated that to have happened to me.
“Greg has been great for the game and most people assumed he would become a Masters champion — and that that was his moment.”
A year later Faldo was draping the green jacket across the shoulders of Tiger Woods. The baton was being passed on. An era was drawing to a close. Ask him if he misses those heady days and Faldo answers in the blink of an eye. “If I could walk out at Augusta again and play it with skill and nerve, I’d take that in a heartbeat,” he said. “But we all move on. In every sport the day comes when you’re not fast enough, can’t hit it far enough, whatever. And that’s golf. I had my era.”
And of his three Masters titles, which is his favourite? “It’s impossible to separate them,” he said. “But I guess I remember that last one the most. It’s like one of my favourite movies, As Good As It Gets. I call it my ‘As Good As It Gets’ day. And I’ve got a 67 stamped on my golf ball to remind me of it.”
Still driving on
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• Knighted for his services to golf in 2009.
• Lead golf analyst for CBS Sport in the United States.
• Set up the Faldo Series, which provides highly competitive golf for junior boys and girls in the UK and Asia. The winners receive coaching, advice and help. This year the fifteenth Grand Final will be played at Lough Erne, in Northern Ireland. The fifth Asian Grand Final took place last month at Mission Hills, in China.
• Heads up Faldo Design and is building courses in Cambodia, Vietnam and China.
• Has set up a teaching academy in the United States and is taking it “global”, with academies in Ireland, Egypt, India, Cambodia and, potentially, China.