Biggest Threat to DJ Is Ghost of Greg Norman in 1996

You hear athletes say it all the time. I just have to get out of my own way. That’s what Dustin Johnson needs to do on Sunday at the Masters.

The biggest hurdle Johnson has to face on Sunday is his own good play through the first three rounds. He’s already tied the Masters tournament 54-hole record. He has a four-stroke lead.

The supposed biggest competitors, those closest to him in world rank, are well behind him in scoring. Jon Rahm is five back at 9-under par. Justin Thomas is six back at 10-under par. Both of them handed DJ shot after shot in round three.

Abraham Ancer, Cameron Smith and Sungjae Im are four behind Johnson on the leaderboard at 12-under par.

“If DJ goes out there and plays really solid like today, it’s going to be pretty much impossible to catch him,” Ancer said to media after his round.

“Anyone with a four‑shot lead is expected to win. You know, there’s going to be plenty of boys firing tomorrow,” Smith commented after he finished on Saturday.

“I think I’ve got a good game plan. I’m not going to change it,” Johnson said after completing the third round. “There’s a lot of really good players right around me, so as we all know here, if you get it going, you can shoot some low scores.”

More from Golf Tours

Justin Leonard, on Golf Channel’s Live from the Masters program Saturday evening recalled a time when he was four shots ahead of the field on Sunday. He said he’s never been so nervous in his life. The reason was because he was SUPPOSED to win. It wasn’t that he couldn’t win, it was that he had to carry the burden of what he was supposed to do in addition to what he needed to do. That trips up a lot of golfers on their way to victory. It has tripped up DJ in the past.

At the Masters, the most famous recent occurrence of that is something that many of today’s golf fans probably don’t even remember. It was the 1996 Masters when Greg Norman had a six-shot lead and lost.

At the start of play on Sunday, Norman was 13-under par. Next closest was Nick Faldo at 7-under. One shot behind Faldo was Phil Mickelson at 6-under. Faldo and Norman played together in the final pair.

Norman maintained his lead through the 8th. What seemed to be the tipping point of the afternoon was his second shot at the 9th. It landed too close to the front of the green. A shot that lands on that false front will roll back down the slope as much as 30 yards. That’s exactly what happened to Norman. He bogeyed the hole. It was his first big mistake.

Faldo, meantime, had made three birdies and a bogey on the front side. He was at 10-under at the turn. Norman had slipped to 11-under.

In retrospect, that shot was the beginning of the end for Norman who then bogeyed the 10th, the 11th and doubled the 12th. That’s where his six-stroke advantage finally evaporated. After the 12th, Norman was 7-under and Faldo was 9-under.

Norman birdied the 13th and 15th, like he was supposed to, but so did Faldo. Through the 15th, Faldo was 11-under and Norman was 9-under. To add insult to injury, Norman doubled the 16th.

At the end of the tournament, Faldo won his third Masters and sixth major, and Norman lost.

Really no one could believe it had happened, probably least of all Greg Norman and Nick Faldo. Faldo was at the top of his game then, but so was Norman.

There are plenty of differences between DJ and Norman on Masters Sunday. His closest competitors are not guys who have already won five major championships and know those nerves and know how to overcome them. That, plus the current state of his game, are the biggest advantages he has.

His closest pursuers, Sunjae Im, Abraham Ancer and Cameron Smith, certainly do not have the resume of Johnson. Nor do Dylan Fritelli (-11) or Sebastian Munoz (-9).

Justin Thomas, six shots behind at 10-under, and Patrick Reed, seven shots back at 9-under have the resume and the firepower to march into the victory circle should Johnson falter a lot. So do Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka who are both at 8-under par, but an eight-shot comeback would be a really big, big ask. Johnson would almost have to fall down on the fairway and stop breathing for McIlroy or Koepka to catch him.

Next. The Masters 2020: Top 10 Potential First-Time Winners. dark

If DJ can just pretend he’s playing round three on Sunday instead of round four, or play like he’s behind, maybe he gets to see a green jacket on Sunday afternoon.

Everything else is different about this year’s Masters, why can’t it be different for Johnson, too?

Home/Golf Tours