Can Master Of Golf Finally Master Augusta This Spring?

The answer will come late on a Sunday afternoon, perhaps in the form of a 90-yard sand wedge shot to the 17th green at Augusta, or maybe disguised as a 6-iron into the 71st hole at the U.S. Open.

Is this really a new Greg Norman, mentally tough enough to move from being the best golfer of his time to deserving mention with the best of all time?

Or is this still the Norman who, as much as he has won, still finds ways to lose, especially in major championships?

And to hear him talk, Norman knows it.

Without ever mentioning the Masters, Norman made it clear that the four consecutive tournaments he is playing in Florida are preliminaries to the first of the year’s major championships.

Norman said it was good to win at Doral “especially with five or six weeks to go to April.” His short game was solid but he said “there’s a lot I can work on before April.”

He’ll hit balls with his teacher Butch Harmon over the next couple of weeks “and get things sorted out there and get ready for April.”

Is he a little preoccupied with the Masters? “No, I just know that April is five weeks away, six weeks, maybe and it flies,” Norman said.

Norman had a sensational year in 1995, winning three times and leading the money list with a record $1.6 million despite playing in only 16 tournaments.

But it was once again tainted by the majors. Norman was in contention in the Masters, needing a birdie on No. 17 on Sunday, when he pulled a 90-yard sand wedge shot 45-feet left of the hole and three-putted.

He had a chance in the final round of the U.S. Open at Shinnecock but missed the par-3 17th green with a 6-iron and couldn’t get up and down from the bunker.

Add two more disappointments to his record in majors.

Yes, he has won the British Open twice. But he has never won a major championship in America. He has finished second in majors seven times. And he is the only player to lose the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA in playoffs.

Maybe things have changed for Norman. Last year he lost Doral by plopping a 6-iron approach on the last hole into the lake next to the green.

“I’m not going to say I’m not going to do that again,” Norman said, looking back at that blunder. “But I think under those circumstance, it was a bad shot to try and play. I think that’s the part of my game that has improved the most. Has that come with age? I guess it has.”

Norman puts a lot of emphasis on a new mental focus.

“I feel like I’m much more at peace with myself and I don’t have to go out there and prove anything,’ he said.

If that sounds familiar, it is.

The last new, more together Greg Norman was after he won The Players Championship with dominating 24-under-par performance in 1994.

“I’m working harder now that in my mid 20s, not only physically but mentally,” Norman said then. “Maturity and experience are wonderful things in life.”

Norman didn’t win another tournament that year.

Certainly, he did win at Doral without his best game. He wasn’t knocking down the flagsticks with precision iron shots. But he made every putt he had to make and his incredible chipping touch bailed him out time after time.

Being able to win without your best game is a sign of maturity.

“I think that’s the part that improves the most right now,” Norman said, “my mental aspect. How you get the job done when you’re not really playing the way you know you can play. I make myself figure out a way to get the job done, and I think that’s what changed about me over the last couple of years.”

Maybe this really is a new Greg Norman, one still building on what he learned when he hit rock bottom in 1991.

“The best thing that ever happened to me was going 27 months without winning,” Norman said about the stretch from the 1990 Memorial to the 1992 Canadian Open when he was winless and dropped to 53rd on the 1991 money list.

He’s No. 1 again and is a youthful 41 who has kept himself fresh by restricting the number of tournaments he plays.

He is in fantastic physical condition, working out up to 2 hours a day six days a week.

Maybe this is a new, more together Greg Norman. We’ll see in April.