Greg Norman storms back with reminder of glory days

GREG NORMAN recaptured some of the form that almost made him the oldest winner of the Open Championship last year at Royal Birkdale when he fired a 64 in the Senior Open Championship at Sunningdale for a 10-under-par total and a one-shot lead going into today’s final round.
The 54-year-old Great White Shark was seven shots behind overnight leader Fred Funk when he began his third round but a couple of birdies on the front nine holes and not a single dropped shot set him up for a blistering back nine which conjured images of the famous charges that were once his trademark. Driving the ball long and straight and striking his iron shots at the pins, Norman made a third birdie on the short par-four 11th before three successive birdies from the 13th gave him a share of the lead.
Funk, who once donned a pink skirt during a Skins Game in California after Sweden’s Annika Sorenstam drove her ball comfortably past his on a par-five hole, led his “round belly” rivals by seven strokes midway through his round. But a double bogey on the par-four 12th, where he pulled his drive into the heath, brought him back to the field and he surrendered the lead miserably by missing a putt from three feet on the par-three 15th. Recognised by his peers on the PGA Tour as one of the straightest drivers ever to play the game, Funk is also one of the shortest but lack of length off the tee is no serious handicap on the over-50’s circuit. Funk’s failings came on and around Sunningdale’s subtle greens.
Norman missed an opportunity to increase his advantage on the 17th as he failed to hole from nine feet for another birdie and an indifferent approach with his wedge to 18 feet on the last followed by a putt which lipped out of the hole denied him a glorious finish. For Tom Watson, that missed putt to win The Open at the age of 59 last week at Turnberry became a recurring nightmare as chance after chance slipped by on the greens. He missed from six feet on the 11th, from the same distance on 16 and another on the last — all for birdies — and a level par 70 for a four-under-par total has left him too many shots back to challenge.
Larry Mize, who stole The Masters from under Norman’s nose in 1987 when he chipped in from off the green on the second extra hole in a sudden-death play-off, made six birdies on the back nine as he came home in 29 strokes to close to within three of the lead.
Fellow American Loren Roberts was alongside Funk, a shot behind Norman while Bernhard Langer and defending champion Bruce Vaughan both fired 65 to lie four shots back alongside Mark McNulty.
Sam Torrance shot 71 after a triple- bogey seven on the second hole to finish alongside Mize on seven under.
Source:The times