British Open: Ranking the 25 most dominant performances of all time
By Bill Felber
13. Greg Norman, 1986, -2.97
This was the year when Norman famously led all four majors after three rounds before losing three of them. At the British Open held at Turnberry, Norman applied the lessons he had learned in letting the Masters and U.S. Open leads slip away to Jack Nicklaus and then Ray Floyd.
The win was Norman’s first major championship.
Turnberry presented a wind-swept setting in 1986, frustrating many. Alone among the field, Ian Woosnam produced a par round on the first day.
Norman stepped forward on Friday with a breathtaking 63 that thrust him two shots ahead of Gordon Brand. Woosnam managed only a 74 and fell seven strokes back.
“I don’t want people to think that the score I shot today makes the course easy,” Norman said. “It was still tough, just not brutal like yesterday.”
Scoring was just as challenging Saturday, the field averaging 74.8 strokes. That made Norman’s 74 acceptable. At one point in the round he held a five-stroke lead, but stumbles on the homeward nine reduced that advantage to a single shot over Tommy Nakajima.
A pep talk from Jack Nicklaus may have given Norman the final boost.
“He came over last night at dinner…he told me, ‘nobody in the world wants you to win more than I do,” Norman told reporters. “That got me a little choked up.”
When Nakajima double bogeyed the first hole Sunday, momentum shifted firmly in Norman’s direction. Buoyed by Nicklaus’ vote of confidence, he cruised to a final 69 that beat Brand by five strokes, Woosnam and Bernhard Langer both six back.