1986 Open Championship - Sharkive - Sharkwatch

No one had spoken more confidently before the championship began than Greg Norman. He had come to Turnberry having taken a two week holiday which he most certainly could afford since he was leader of the United States money list with already three tournament wins under his belt. To Norman, an Australian now living in Orlando, Florida, this was assuming ever greater importance for no man had ever in different years been top money winner in Australia (more than once), Europe (1982) and America. It was therefore all the more perplexing that he had still not won a major championship, though in all conscience he had had the opportunity. Nor was he allowed to forget, by an often merciless American media, that he had "collapsed" in a play-off for the 1984 U.S. Open, "choked" in the Masters when he had a chance of catching Jack Nicklaus and "blown" another U.S. Open only a month before when he failed to hold on to a one-stroke lead going into the final round.

Maybe because he is so used to them, Norman rides these barbs with an easy manner and a flashing smile. In fact he is ideal media material for if he cannot come up with something of interest when being quizzed, he will invent it. Once, when playing in the European Open at Sunningdale, he blamed a topped drive on a worm which popped its head out of the. ground beside his ball just as he was commencing his downswing. I am not even sure that he did not say it winked as well! For all that Norman still had to be taken as a serious contender. By chance I had watched him playa few holes of practice. Everything seemed to be going plumb centre and when he conceded that he was playing "pretty good," there was no need to question it. Norman had consulted Bruce Devlin, a fellow Australian who knows his game backwards, and had got the "go ahead." All Devlin checks in Norman is his ball position at the address for it does have a tendency to move either too far forward or, again, too far back. It was, it seems, perfect.

And so was his golf on this second day of the championship for as the wind eased so Norman, the Great White Shark as he is known in some quarters, bared his teeth and tore a 63 from the Ailsa course. It was not the first time such a score had been returned in an Open Championship but only two men had ever done it before: Mark Hayes here at Turnberry in 1977 and then by the Japanese player, Isao Aoki, at Muirfield in 1980. Norman was therefore into the record books, though he should have re-written them. Needing a par four at the last for a 62 and a new landmark in the history of the Open, he took three putts.

After all the trials and tribulations of the first day, when only Ian Woosnam matched par, it was almost ridiculous that Turnberry should yield such a score. It was still not that much of an easier day. In a field of now one hundred and fifty-one (Andrew Broadway pulled out and Craig Stadler reported injured with a damaged wrist), only fifteen players still managed to score in the 60s. Ten of them moreover had 69s, the next best to Norman being 67s from Raymond Floyd and Tsuneyuki (Tommy) Nakajima.

So it was Norman who hoisted himself to the top of the leader board, his 63, which was an eleven-stroke improvement on his opening round, making him three under par for the championship. It gave him a two-stroke lead from Gordon J. Brand, otherwise known as Brand senior, who played with splendid composure for a 68. On 139, Brand was the only other player under par.

Four strokes behind Norman came Nakajima after his 67 and Nick Faldo (70), followed by Bernhard Langer (70) another stroke away on 142 and then, on 144, a group of four Jose Maria Canizares, of Spain, Anders Forsbrand, of Sweden, Greg Turner, of New Zealand and Ian Woosnam, the overnight leader who had fallen back with a 74. There was therefore not a single American in the top nine. What q contrast that was to 1977 when the leading eight at the end of the championship were all American and eleven out of the top twelve.

Best placed now were Floyd, whose 67 had advanced him from equal seventy-first to equal tenth, Donnie Hammond, Gary Koch, Payne Stewart, Bob Tway and D.A. Weibring, all tied on 145 with Andrew Brooks, Roger Chapman, and an Australian, Ossie Moore. But the thirty six-hole cut was not without its casualties and nearly some very famous ones.

The guillotine had fallen on 151 and right on that borderline were such notables as Sandy Lyle, the defending champion who had scraped home with a second round of 73, Seve Ballesteros, the favourite with another rather disappointing 75, and Jack Nicklaus, who made it only by dint of an eagle-three at the seventeenth on the way to a 73.

But out went Peter Jacobsen, the usually very consistent Tom Kite, former champions Johnny Miller and Bill Rogers, and Scott Verplank. All these Americans missed by a stroke while others who had to make an early departure were Deane Beman, who had otherwise come out of retirement with a fair degree of success, Joey Sindelar, Mark Mouland, winner of the Car Care Plan tournament the previous week, and four European Ryder Cup players in Howard Clark, Paul Way, Jose Rivero and Ken Brown. Turnberry had indeed taken its toll.

This second day nevertheless belonged to one man and one man alone: Norman. He had in fact been a little concerned that the strong winds of Thursday might have affected his rhythm. It can happen. But from the very outset his set-up was right and his tempo, to use his own description, "fabulous." He said later that every time he stood over the ball "I knew the clubhead was going into the perfect position."

Yet he felt that the course had "played tough." There was still enough wind around, particularly for nine holes or so, to make the fairways quite difficult to find, but therein lay the key to making birdies. Only on the inward half did opportunity really beckon and it was then that he took advantage. Yet the signs had been there much earlier.

A straight-forward par at the first where, because of the angled fairway he settled for a four iron off the tee, was followed by three successive birdies. Norman hit a drive and eight iron to eighteen feet at the second, a drive and six iron to five feet at the third and then another six iron even closer at the short fourth. Each time single putts found the mark.

There was a slight lapse at the fifth, which consistently proved one of the more difficult holes, having been lengthened to 441 yards. Norman was marginally short with a five iron second and took three putts, albeit from thirty yards or so. But he made up for it almost immediately with an eagle-three at the seventh. A drive and one iron fairly whistled up the long, narrow gully and in went the putt, this time from around twenty feet. Disappointingly he was then short again with a five iron to the eighth but despite a second dropped shot was still out in 32 and right back in contention.

At once came a drive and six iron to five feet at the tenth, a nine iron almost stone dead at the eleventh and those two birdies hoisted red figures beside his name on the leader boards for the first time. All eyes were on him now and when Norman then moved to six under par for the round with a three at the fourteenth, where this time a three iron came to rest not a yard from the flag, the crowds seemed to converge on him from all directions.

Norman has long been a popular figure in Europe, it being here that he first began to expand as a world-class player. When at the sixteenth he pitched an eight iron beyond Wilson's bum to six feet or so and bottled that putt as well to go seven under, anything seemed possible. An eagle-birdie finish, which had to be "on" with the seventeenth such a vulnerable par five, would put him round in 60.

Nor did that possibility immediately diminish, as at the seventeenth Norman launched into a drive and then a five iron to lie eighteen feet away, with that putt for the eagle. The whole golf course seemed to come to a halt, holding its breath in expectation, but the ball slid by. For all that it was still a four at eighteen for a 62 or, for that matter, a birdie for a 61. It was totally unpredictable that he should manage neither. A two iron and seven iron to nine yards or so gave him a chance but the first putt was strong, the one back wide and that was a bogey-five and a 63.

Norman said that he did not know a 62 would have broken the championship record. All he was thinking on the eighteenth green was not leaving his first putt short. He simply mis-read the speed of the green, failing to notice the gradient on past the hole. When he had seen how close he was at seventeen, he was thinking very much in terms of a 60.

The first man into the interview tent that day was Jose Maria Olazabal, a young Spaniard who has been making quite a name for himself in his first season on the European circuit. It was not however his 69 that was a matter of attention, but a presentation by Alastair Low, Chairman of the Championship Committee, to recognise Olazabal's unique distinction as an amateur when he won the British Boys, Youths and Amateur championships. Last year he had also been leading amateur in the Open at Royal St. George's, but this time the medal remained in its wrapper since no amateur qualified for the last two rounds.

A more significant appearance seemed at the time to be that of Langer, whose 70 had seemed enough to put him right up near the top of the leaderboard, since Norman was only just getting on his way. Langer even speculated that he could be leading at the end of the day and indeed it was more than another hour before Nakajima overtook him.

Langer had what he described as a rather "sleepy" start it was soon after 8 a.m. that he drove off and he dropped strokes at two of his first three holes. He missed the green at both the first and third. However the West German quickly settled with no further mishaps to the turn. And then, with two substantial putts at the tenth and thirteenth, he pulled back both those lost shots and, with the seventeenth to come, was looking for a round in the 60s. It was an intense disappointment to him that he failed.

From a good drive, Langer could not make up his mind whether to hit a three iron or a one iron for his second. The lie was slightly uphill and at length he went for the bigger club, hoping to cut his ball into the green. But it was a poor shot, well to the right of the green and though he was still able to putt, he misjudged an intervening mound and barely made the front of the green. "1 felt very bad," said Langer. "It is the easiest hole on the course."

Payne Stewart, who was runner-up a year ago at Sandwich, eighth in this year's U.S. Masters and then fourth in the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, was well satisfied with his 69 for a total of 145. His most prophetic statement was that even par was going to be a good score and could even win. Having gone out in 33, Stewart dropped three shots at the tenth, fourteenth and fifteenth, but he did manage to eagle the seventeenth and hoped that at the end of the day he might be only four or five strokes behind.

However the first of the real fireworks came from Nakajima, who scarcely looks a golfer with his glasses and rather drooping shoulders. His record in Japan, where he has won more than £2 million and is rapidly becoming as famous as Jumbo Ozaki and Isao Aoki, belies all that. Nor is he exactly unknown beyond those shores, though his principal claim to fame has come with the thirteen he once took at the thirteenth in the Masters and a nine he had at the Road hole in the 1978 Open at St. Andrews. There he was on the green in two but putted into the horrid little Road bunker and took four to get out.

No such disaster overtook him in this second round at Turnberry. Far from it. Nakajima came home in 30 for his 67 and, beginning at the ninth, he had nine single putts in a row. That provided a transformation, for there was not much sign of a score in the 60s when he went through the turn in 37. But then came a whole flood of birdies: a two at the eleventh, a three at the next and then a run of two, three, four from the fifteenth with not one of them putts of less than ten feet. In between there had been a pretty good "save" at the thirteenth as well. Talk about some Oriental magic with the putter!

It was the first time in a major championship that Nakajima had got himself into such serious contention and, in very passable English, he said that half of Japan would be sitting up the following night to watch him in the third round. His lead on 141 for the 36 holes was nevertheless short-lived. Hard on his heels came the elder Brand with a 68 for 139, the only man so far under par, though Norman was still to come.

For someone whose best finish of the year had been fifth in the Carrolls Irish Open, this was something of a surprise, if less so to Brand himself. He had, he said, been playing well all season and he did not take fright when he got away to another good start with two birdies in his first six holes. All through his rhythm was good and his very noticeable pause at the top of the backswing remained uninterrupted.

Both of those two early birdies were the result of good shots to the green rather than putting and his two iron to the sixth, which came to rest not much more than a yard from the flag, was the one that gave him the greatest satisfaction. Later there was another birdie at the tenth; either side of which he admittedly lapsed into bogeys at the eighth and thirteenth, but the momentum was maintained through to the seventeenth where, from a sidehill lie in the rough, he struck a majestic metal spoon to the heart of the green for the last of his birdies.

Brand deliberately avoided looking at leaderboards while another key to his performance lay in his restricted use of the driver. It was not until the seventh that he pulled the cover off it and altogether he used it only five times. He was surprised how much Tom Watson had used his and was not surprised how often it led him into trouble. Watson, with a 71 for 148, was clearly losing touch with the pacemakers.

Woosnam felt that his 74 was hardly a disaster, but admitted that he had not struck the ball anything like as well as he had in the first round. It took him seventeen holes before he managed ~ birdie and by then he had dropped five shots, two of them at the eighth. Bogeys at the fifteenth and seventeenth were due to his taking three putts.

More cheering news from a British point of view was a 70 from Nick Faldo, one stroke better than on Thursday. Out in 36 with a six at the seventh, he got the stroke back with a birdie at the 11 th only to drop strokes at both 'the twelfth and sixteenth, where he hit a pitching wedge into the burn. A twenty-foot putt saved his five and encouraged him sufficiently to hole another long putt for an eagle at the seventeenth. The weakest part of his game, he felt, was his driving and instead he had resorted to the one iron for much of the time.

As only five players have ever won the British and U.S. Opens in the same yearBobby Jones, Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino and Tom Watson it was good to see Floyd coming back with a 67. He did it in the company of Norman, which may have meant that not too many people noticed. But he generously said that it had been contagious to play with the Australian when in full flight.

Lyle, relieved at least to have qualified for the last two days, admitted that his golf had been scrappy but he did not regret having taken off the two weeks leading up to the Open. He was happier with his swing but felt it was proving a difficult course to attack.

Nicklaus was even more disappointed, hitting too many bad shots and then missing too many short putts. Langer observed that Nicklaus was catching the ball rather "fat" and leaving himself short too often. Ballesteros was not a happy man either. Nothing was right, he said: his driving, irons, chipping or putting. The only way he could think of improving was to change his head. "But you never know, two 65s in the next two days," he mused. Even he could have had little idea how close that would have come.

1986 Open Championship Archive
Foreword	By Greg Norman
The Venue	By Donald Steel
The First Day: A Cold And Windy Start	By Michael Williams
The First Day Commentary: Fickle Nature, Fickle Memories	By Mark Wilson
The Second Day: The Great White Shark Hits For 63	By Michael Williams
Second Day Commentary: Norman Lives By The Sword	By Renton Laidlaw
The Third Day: A Test of Everyone's Patience	By Michael Williams
Third Day Commentary: The End Of America's Dominance	By Alister Nicol
The Fourth Day: A Major Victory, At Last	By Michael Williams
Fourth Day Commentary: A Triumph Of Positive Attitude	By Norman Mair

Writers Renton Laidlaw Norman Mair Alister Nicol Donald Steel Michael Willams Mark Watson	Photographers Lawrence Levy Brian Morgan
	Editor Bev Norwood