Greg Norman may be going through similar emotions to Shane Warne today.
Warne found out years after his dismissal on 99 in Perth that he was actually not out, due to a no-ball by Daniel Vettori.
Golf fan Rohan Walker was watching Foxtel’s 24-hour ‘Masters Week’ channel, engrossed in a re-run of the 1987 Masters, where Norman cruelly lost to Larry Mize after a chip in during the play-off.
Before the play-off though, Walker noticed Mize didn’t appear to follow the rules of golf, failing to drop a ball at shoulder height on the par five 15th.
Rule 20-2: A ball to be dropped under the Rules must be dropped by the player himself. He must stand erect, hold the ball at shoulder height and arm’s length and drop it. If a ball is dropped by any other person or in any other manner and the error is not corrected as provided in Rule 20-6, the player incurs a penalty of one stroke.
Incorrect drop by Mize 15th hole final day 1987.Can they now give the trophy to Greg?
Posted by Rohan Walker on Sunday, 3 April 2016
If it had been ruled an illegal drop at the time, Mize would have incurred a one-stroke penalty, and therefore missed out on the three-way play-off with Seve Ballesteros.
Thanks to social media the golf fan’s video has spread.
Norman needed social media, or at least an eagle-eyed viewer, to see it in 1987, as it’s not uncommon these days for the golfing community to spot the rules of golf being broken and alert the powers that be.
The most famous example in recent times was the 2013 Masters, where Tiger Woods’ ball hit the pin, also on the 15th, and spun into the water.
Woods took a drop a couple of yards back from where he hit his original ball, which is against the rules. Woods didn’t appear to realise his error and signed for a 71 instead of a 73. A television viewer called in his mistake, but even though Woods signed for an incorrect scorecard, he was allowed to continue.
He eventually finished four back from champion Adam Scott.
The video of Mize’s drop is even worse for Norman, when you consider the hardships he had on the famous Augusta course. Norman was also runner-up in 1986 and then lost to Nick Faldo in 1996 after taking a six-stroke lead into the final round.
After runner-up spots in other Majors (US Open, PGA Championship) Norman was labelled a choker, even though he’d won The Open Championship in 1986 and 1993, and spent almost seven years at the top of the world golf rankings.
If Mize was penalised for that drop in April 1987 it most certainly would have been a different story. After all, Phil Mickelson was always seen as a choker until he got the monkey of the back by winning the Masters for the first time in 2004.
Sadly, it never happened for Norman, but not through a lack of trying and some bad luck along the way.
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