I admit, I thought Norman was retired, and apparently he basically is. But after deciding to play this year's British Open the Shark is a mere one stroke out of the lead halfway through the British Open behind K.J. Choi. Its funny for me because I spent years rooting against Norman, but he's reached that stage of his career where now he's the sympathetic underdog, and I would love to see him keep up the run for 2 more days.
And then he shoots 72 in gale-force conditions for a two shot lead heading into the final round. Amazing.
Oddly, this puts him smack in the position that caused so much heartache in the past - I still think a win is too much to ask for - hopefully the Shark can make a respectable go of it tomorrow, rather than following David Duval's example from today, and going into the tank early.
At the turn, even though his is showing some jitters, the Shark leads by one. I really hope he pulls this off. People will remember him more for this win then for all of his failures.
Well, nevermind. Norman had a tough day and finished tied for third, well behind harrington, who wins his second in a row. But this has to be a major accomplishment for Norman, especially since he missed the cut in the only three tournaments he has played this year. And by finishing in the top 4, he qualifies for the Masters, if he so chooses.
(edited by Wpob on 20.7.08 1043) "Marriage is like that show ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’, but it’s not funny. All the problems are the same, but you know instead of all the funny, pithy dialogue, everybody is really pissed off and tense. Marriage is like a tense, unfunny version of 'Everybody Loves Raymond', only it doesn't last 22 minutes. It lasts forever."
Norman really did relive past glories...by blowing a final-round lead. The announcers were giving him hell all day for playing for birdies when going for pars would've (probably) won him the championship, but Norman's aggressiveness is what got him in good position to begin with. Can't blame him for going back to the well. Anyway, it's still a huge accomplishment for a guy who has literally been a part-timer in the last five years.
And a good guy won in Harrington. Hopefully now people will recognize him as one of the world's truly elite golfers. Winning back to back Opens on two of the world's hardest courses in Carnoustie and Birkdale is enough to cement anyone's rep.
Tiger who?
“How is it that I am a good actor? What I do is I... pretend to be the person I’m portraying. You’re confused. Case in point: in Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson comes to me and says ‘I would like you to be Gandalf the Wizard,’ and I said ‘You are aware that I am not really a wizard?’ and Peter Jackson said ‘I would like you to use your acting skills to portray a wizard for the duration of the show.’ So I said ‘Okay’ and then I said to myself ‘Mmm.. How do I do that?’ And this is what I did: I imagined that I was a wizard, and then I pretended, and acted, in that way on the stage. How did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in a script. How did I know where to stand? People told me where to stand." -- Sir Ian McKellen, Extras