19th Hole
The club selection that lost Greg Norman the 86′ Masters; (Norman 1986 Masters WITB)
Greg Norman once described Augusta National as a “cruel temptress”, a course which offered up more heartbreak to one player than most would be able to handle.
In 1987, his heart sank as he watched Larry Mize chip in from an improbable position on the second playoff hole to deny him the green jacket. While nine years after that, Norman would suffer the darkest moment of his career, surrendering a six-shot 54-hole lead to Nick Faldo to eventually lose by five.
However, preceding both of those occasions was the 1986 Masters.
The tournament now so synonymous with The Golden Bear, could so easily have been the Shark’s, and down the years Norman has continued to cite one shot at the event as the biggest regret of his career.
Norman led going into the final round by one stroke, but down the stretch on that Sunday afternoon he found himself very much on the back foot. A barrage of birdies and an eagle from Nicklaus on the back nine looked to have secured an 18th major for The Golden Bear at the age of 46.
The Australian knew that only the most special of finishes could prize the tournament away from Nicklaus, and it sparked Norman into life.
After birdies on 14 and 15, Norman trailed Nicklaus by two. Stepping up to the famous par-3 16th hole, Norman struck a beautiful iron shot, and watched the ball land, spin and take the slope to set up his third straight birdie.
Nicklaus, now in the clubhouse, would say years later: “Norman started making birdies, and I said, ‘I’m not going to sit here and watch this, I’m going to get up and walk around.'”
His nerves would only ramp up on the 17th hole, after Norman having pulled his tee shot, pulled off a spectacular approach under and between two trees which ran up the fairway, on to the green and settled 12 feet away from the cup.
The birdie putt was all that remained between Norman and a share of the lead heading down 18, and the Shark made no mistake, pouring the left to right putt into the center of the cup to kick things into overdrive.
Tied for the lead on 18, Norman hit a perfect 3-wood off the tee, leaving himself 187-yards for his approach to the pin located on the back of the green. It was here where it all went horribly wrong for the Australian.
Norman settled on 4-iron, which would result in one of the worst shots of his career. Almost as soon as he struck it, he hung his head as the ball sailed high and right, landing amongst the spectators – leaving him with an almost impossible up and down.
Despite giving himself half a chance to save par and force a playoff, Norman’s putt never had a chance, damning him to the first of many heartaches at the iconic championship. Directly after his round, the Aussie asserted that he “just didn’t put a good swing on it.”
However, years on from the incident, Norman revealed how bitter a disappointment that 1986 Masters was for him – calling his 4-iron approach to 18 his ‘biggest regret in golf’, all down to choosing the wrong club.
“My first thought was to hit a hard-5, but I talked myself out of it. Wrong choice. I should have stayed in attack mode rather than trying to finesse a longer club. That’s what had been working for me all day. Unfortunately, I was so pumped that I hit it too hard and pushed it into the gallery. If I could have one career mulligan, I’d take it there.”
Playing partner Nick Price had a similar opinion, saying:
“If I’d been his caddie that day, I think I would have been more prone to give him the 5-iron. And see if he could have hit a hard one and run it up that slope. And if it got down to the bottom of that slope, see if he can make a 30-footer to win…He was so fired up. It was wonderful to watch.”
His nemesis at Augusta National that year, Jack Nicklaus, took all the glory, and it remains the most iconic of his record 18 major victories.
Later that year, Nicklaus found the Australian on the Saturday evening before the final round of the Open Championship. Per The Golden Bear, this is what he told the Queenslander who led the event by one going into Sunday:
“’Remember the swing you made at the last hole at Augusta, and the position you put yourself in? When you come down the stretch tomorrow, don’t put the club in that position again.’ Greg won the next day. I don’t know if my advice helped him, but I did want to pass it along.”
Norman led all four majors that year after 54-holes. The Open was the only one where he landed the title; he would win another Claret Jug in 1993 for his second and final major championship triumph.
Greg Norman 1986 Masters WITB
Driver: MacGregor M85 Eye O Matic “Bore Thru” (9 degrees)
Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold Steel X400 43.5″
3-wood: Toney Penna (13 degrees)
Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold Steel X200 42.5″
Irons: Spalding Tour Edition (1-PW) (52 degree PW)
Shaft: True Temper Dynamic Gold X100
Wedges: 56 degree SW Macgregor hand ground
Putter: Wilson 8802
Ball: Spalding Tour Edition 00 with SHARK
19th Hole
‘Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight’ – LPGA pro offers candid take following rough AIG Women’s Open finish
An opening round of 77 left LPGA pro Jenny Shin with a mountain to climb at last week’s AIG Women’s Open.
However, fighting back with rounds of 69 and 67, Shin found herself six shots off the lead and just outside the top 10 heading into Sunday as she went in search of her first major victory.
Shin, who won the US Girls’ Junior at just 13, couldn’t back those rounds up on Sunday, though, and after playing her opening nine holes of the final round in level par, she then bogeyed three holes coming home to slip down the leaderboard and eventually finish T23.
Taking to X following the final round, Shin offered a frustrated and honest take on how she was feeling, posting: “Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish.”
Don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight. What a crappy way to finish
— Jenny Shin (@JennyShin_LPGA) August 3, 2025
Shin has made 11 cuts in 13 starts on the LPGA Tour this season, but has been plagued by frustrating Sunday finishes throughout the year. Shin ranks 102nd on tour this year out of 155 for Round 4 scoring in 2025.
Miyu Yamashita won the 2025 AIG Women’s Open with a composed final round of 70 to win her first major of her career by two strokes.
Cameron Young won the Wyndham Championship on Sunday for his first victory on the PGA Tour.
Young dominated all weekend at TPC Sedgefield, running away from the pack to win by six strokes and put himself in contention for a Ryder Cup pick in September.
Ahead of the event, the 28-year-old switched to a Pro V1x prototype golf ball for the first time, following recent testing sessions with the Titleist Golf Ball R&D team.
Interestingly, Young played a practice round accompanied by Fordie Pitts, Titleist’s Director of Tour Research & Validation, at TPC Schedule early last week with both his usual Pro V1 Left Dot ball and the new Pro V1x prototype.
Per Titleist, by the second hole Young was exclusively hitting shots with the Pro V1x prototype.
“We weren’t sure if he was going to test it this week, but as he was warming up, he asked to hit a couple on the range,” Pitts said. “He was then curious to see some shots out on the course. Performance-wise, he was hitting tight draws everywhere. His misses were staying more in play. He hit some, what he would call ‘11 o’clock shots,’ where again he’s taking a little something off it. He had great control there.”
According to Titleist, the main validation came on Tuesday on the seventh hole of his practice round. The par 3 that played between 184 and 225 yards during the tournament called for a 5-iron from Young, or so he thought. Believing there was “no way” he could get a 6-iron to the flag with his Left Dot, Young struck a 5-iron with the Pro V1x prototype and was stunned to see the ball land right by the hole.
“He then hits this 6-iron [with the Pro V1x prototype] absolutely dead at the flag, and it lands right next to the pin, ending up just past it,” Pitts said. “And his response was, ‘remarkable.’ He couldn’t believe that he got that club there.”
Following nine holes on Tuesday and a further nine on Wednesday, Young asked the Titleist team to put the ProV1x balls in his locker. The rest, as they say, is history.
Rickie Fowler fired an opening round of one-under par on Thursday at the Wyndham Championship, as the Californian looks to make a FedEx Cup playoff push.
Fowler is currently 61st in the standings, so will need a strong couple of weeks to extend his season until the BMW Championship, where only the top 50 in the standings will tee it up.
Heading into the final stretch of the season, Fowler has made an equipment switch of note, changing into new iron shafts, as well as making a switch to his driver shaft.
The 36-year-old revealed this week that he has switched from his usual KBS Tour C-Taper 125-gram steel shafts to the graphite Aerotech SteelFiber 125cw shafts in his Cobra King Tour irons, a change he first put into play at last month’s Travelers Championship.
Speaking on the change to reporters this week, Fowler made note that the graphite shafts offer “something that’s a little easier on the body.”
“I mean, went to the week of Travelers, so been in for, I guess that’s a little over a month now. Something that’s a little easier on the body and seemed to get very similar numbers to where I was at. Yeah, it’s gone well so far.”
Fowler has also made a driver shaft change, switching out his Mitsubishi Diamana WB 73 TX for a UST Mamiya Lin-Q Proto V1 6 TX driver shaft in his Cobra DS-Adapt X, which he first implemented a couple of weeks ago at the John Deere Classic.
However, according to Fowler himself, the testing and potential changes are not done yet.
“Probably do some more testing in some different weight configurations with them once I get some time. Yeah, I feel like we’re always trying to search, one, to get better but are there ways to make things easier, whether that’s physically, mentally, whatever it may be. So yeah, I thought they were good enough to obviously put into play and looking forward to doing some more testing.”
Fowler gets his second round at TPC Sedgefield underway at 7.23 a.m ET on Friday.
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