A MASTERS LOCK? Norman Might Finally Have Winning Combination at Augusta

Greg Norman is favored to win the 58th Masters.

So what else is new?

Norman has been the favorite of golf's four major championshipsone time or another since the mid-1980s, but has won only two BritishOpens.

Never has he won the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship or theMasters.

Norman's 14th visit to Augusta National Golf Club could be thecharm, however. A "new Norman" is expected at the first tee todaywhen the Masters starts its annual four-day run.

Second in two previous Masters and a top six finisher fivetimes, Norman is coming off the best 72-hole performance of hiscareer. Two weeks ago he beat the world's best golfers in ThePlayers Championship, touring the rugged but rain-softened TPC ofSawgrass course in Jacksonville, Fla., in a stunning 24-under-par.

Playing in eight tournaments world-wide in the first threemonths of 1994, Norman has already earned $789,673. And that came ontop of a 1993 in which he won four times, finished second in anotherfour tournaments and cashed $1,359,653.

Never has Norman been this hot. And the timing could beperfect to win the event he calls "the greatest golf tournament weplay and probably ever will play."

But, as most golf fans know, nothing is ever perfect with this39-year-old Australian. There has always been the "head factor" withNorman and it's evident again. Anticipation of the Masters alreadyhas him playing mind games with himself.

Last week, for the first time in three years, he skipped thePGA Tour stop at New Orleans. He didn't practice much, either.

Instead, he assembled a batting machine for his children at hisFlorida home and tried, usually without success, to hit 85 m.p.h.fastballs.

"I didn't think I needed to hit a lot of golf balls," Normansaid Wednesday. "If I looked for a need to practice, I might havecreated something I didn't need."

Like self-doubts. He's been gripped with them before, as shownby his shaky first rounds here. Though Augusta National is set upeasy for the first 18, Norman has opened over par nine times,including six of the last seven years.

Today's round could be the most important for Norman in hisquest for the coveted green jacket, which goes to the championSunday. Had Norman shot par in the first round of all his previousMasters he would be a three-time champion.

"Being favored is a big compliment," said Norman. "It doesn'tbother me. I put all the pressure on myself.

"This is the Masters championship. That's all I need to say.I've never hidden my feelings about this tournament. It's No. 1 onthe priorities of tournaments I want to win."

Norman's most disappointing loss came here in 1987, when LarryMize chipped in to beat him in a sudden-death playoff. That was justone in a series of miracle shots that deprived him of titles in the1980s, and they combined to send Norman into a funk in 1991 and 1992.

"When I went through those poor times those were the best timesof my life because I realized what I missed," Norman said. "Forevery negative there's a positive. I became analytical andprioritized what I wanted in my business affairs and practiceschedule. Then I had to see that my family didn't lose any more ofmy time and take care of Greg Norman himself."

He also got into reading, particularly about Chinese survivaltechniques.

Nick Price, one of Norman's top rivals here, believes theturning point was the 1992 Canadian Open.

"I noticed a big change in Greg when he won that," Price said."He took me from there to Milwaukee in his airplane and we were inthe cabin having a beer.

"He was more at peace with himself. He said he had gotten to astage `where I'm just going to enjoy my golf.' When he won theBritish Open last year, that squashed all the negatives that had gonethrough his mind."

There were a lot of those - playoff losses to Fuzzy Zoeller inthe 1984 U.S. Open and Mark Calcavecchia in the 1989 British Open,Mize's chip-in, Bob Tway's bunker shot at the 1986 PGA, Robert Gamez'holed 7-iron at Bay Hill and David Frost's bunker shot at New Orleansin 1990. They would wear on any athlete.

"I made a decision not to talk about that," Norman said. "I'velearned to deal with it. There's a gray twilight in between theecstasy of victory and the agony of defeat. I don't want to live inbetween."

If Norman does succeed this week, he'll be the tourney's sixthforeign winner in seven years. Germany's Bernhard Langer is thedefending champion.

"There's no dominant force in the game of golf country-wiseanymore. It's an international sport now," Norman said. "Plus, alot of guys you (the American media) call foreigners have spent adecade of our lives living here."

With that in mind, the only thing foreign about this Masterswould be a Norman victory.