{"id":591415,"date":"2026-04-07T14:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591415\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T14:40:08","slug":"the-masters-2026-greg-norman-has-no-respect-for-nick-faldo-in-bitter-golf-feud-1996-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591415\/","title":{"rendered":"The Masters 2026: Greg Norman has \u2018no respect\u2019 for Nick Faldo in bitter golf feud, 1996 collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s been 30 years since Greg Norman\u2019s final round collapse at the 1996 Masters, and the two key players from that fateful day couldn\u2019t have drifted further apart. <\/p>\n<p>Etched into the memories of Australian sporting fans is the final-round meltdown, which saw Norman\u2019s six-shot lead evaporate in a torturous round of golf at Augusta National. <\/p>\n<p>FOX SPORTS, available on Kayo Sports, is streaming The 2026 PGA Tour LIVE &amp; Exclusive | New to Kayo? <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/kayosports.com.au\/?extcamp=ncaeditoriallink-ptr-nca-lnk-awr-acq-var-kyo&amp;channel=nca&amp;campaign=editorial\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"kayosports.com.au\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Norman won The Open Championship twice in 1986 and 1993, but he is best known for his near misses at Augusta and being arguably the greatest golfer never to win a green jacket. <\/p>\n<p>Aussie golf fans are still haunted by Larry Mize\u2019s impossible chip-in to beat Norman at the 1987 Masters, as well as Bob Tway\u2019s bunker shot at the 1986 PGA Championship, plus several others. Norman was also in contention at the 1986 and 1999 Masters, but it simply wasn\u2019t to be.<\/p>\n<p>His Masters collapse in 1996, which you can watch in the video above, will go down in history. Thirty years on, Norman and Faldo have reflected on the final round that changed both their legacies forever. <\/p>\n<p>For Faldo, his 2-iron approach shot at the 13th hole has gone down in golf folklore as one of the most clutch shots ever, after he spent minutes agonising over which club to use to clear the water.<\/p>\n<p>The five-shot victory was a crowning glory for Faldo, who shared a touching embrace with Norman on the 18th green and whispered in his ear: \u201cDon\u2019t let the bastards get you down\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Faldo, one of just three golfers to be knighted, is now reliving his 1996 Masters win, but Norman has teed off at the Brit over criticism directed at LIV Golf, which Norman helped establish before stepping away last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSport is bloody tough. The fear of failure is just as powerful as the quest to win. And I think when you\u2019re on a fail-free tour, you can\u2019t fail,\u201d Faldo said of LIV\u2019s 54-hole format that has since expanded to 72-hole tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt makes you go soft. I think some of those players have gone soft.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re the luckiest golfers in the world because you\u2019ve got half the field you haven\u2019t heard of playing in a $25 million tournament each week.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got the middle ranking guys who are either injured or about to retire, earning 10 times more than what they could\u2019ve earned on tour with the same golf.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen, you\u2019ve got half a dozen superstars being paid a fortune and haven\u2019t moved the needle, and the other golfers are locked out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those comments didn\u2019t go down well at all with Norman. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe never had any sort of relationship. We were chalk and cheese. He was a loner, I couldn\u2019t be like him,\u201d Norman told <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.canberratimes.com.au\/story\/9214675\/doesnt-love-me-back-normans-masters-heartbreakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.canberratimes.com.au\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Telegraph<\/a> in a recent interview ahead of The Masters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNick said some things about me during my time at LIV, some really nasty things. I don\u2019t have any respect for someone who gives their opinion on something in that sort of manner when they don\u2019t know both sides.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCome on, we have a history, he could have called me and asked for the other side of the story and I\u2019d have gladly given it. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd if he still hadn\u2019t agreed then fine \u2013 his opinion and as he knows the facts, he would have been entitled to say anything he likes. Happy days. But just to sound off? <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike I said, no respect for him. He still comes out with stuff that\u2019s interestingly stupid, to be honest with you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToo right, I\u2019ll bear a grudge, if somebody crosses paths with me, says something derogatory, tries to screw me over,\u201d said Norman, who said he doesn\u2019t have a relationship with Faldo.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, he was the one who came up to me, he\u2019s the one who hugged me (on the 18th green in 1996. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s the one who said, \u2018don\u2019t let those bastards get to you\u2019. But it didn\u2019t really mean much to me, because I knew he\u2019d soon go back to being the way he was before.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All bad blood aside, the cold reality is Faldo has three green jackets and Norman doesn\u2019t have a seat the Masters\u2019 Champions Dinner. <\/p>\n<p>He began the final round in 1996 with a six-shot lead that evaporated courtesy of wayward shots that went into the water or fell short of the green. <\/p>\n<p>Faldo recalled: \u201cI just said to myself, \u2018Get within three shots after nine, anything can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew he was in trouble because he made a mess of (hole) 10. He had a really straightforward 8-iron into 10, pulled it left.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGreg was leading \u201886 Masters, going down 10 and made a horrendous swing with an 8-iron. \u201cThat might have gone through his mind. By the time we get to the 12th tee we\u2019re tied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/content.api.news\/v3\/images\/bin\/47bad2e1da9bd61927f12216646f0279\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"Moment Nick Faldo knew Greg Norman was 'in trouble'\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Faldo played a flawless 18 holes, while Norman put his tee shot at the 12th in the water and sunk to his knees at the 15th when his chip went just past the hole and any chance of winning went up in smoke.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Faldo added: \u201cI felt for the guy. Greg was a heck of a golfer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Norman\u2019s collapse is the subject of a 2022 ESPN documentary in which he <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/sport\/golf\/greg-norman-painfully-relives-worst-golf-collapses-in-new-documentary\/news-story\/7131f7004eba430bcbdffb40f040f1f6\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"www.news.com.au\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"7131f7004eba430bcbdffb40f040f1f6\" data-tgev-label=\"sport\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">grimaces watching back footage of his Masters collapse<\/a>, and even returns to August National for a round, managing to hit shots much better than he did back on that fateful day in 1996.<\/p>\n<p>In the documentary, which you can watch on Kayo, legendary ESPN host Scott van Pelt said Faldo, with his \u201c100-yard Liam Neeson stare\u201d, was the worst possible playing partner for Norman.<\/p>\n<p>These days, Norman is surprisingly philosophical about his relationship with the Masters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not going to ruin your life \u2013 unless you let it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou must accept it, take responsibility for it and understand it, because that\u2019s what you owe the game. It teaches you that nobody is above golf. So I have no problem with talking about it. Even though I never won.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to take it on the chin and that\u2019s the way I am. That resilience is in my DNA. That\u2019s what got me there. You can\u2019t be selective. Look, I can remember the sights and sounds of that Masters. Vividly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember on the Saturday evening when I was leaving the locker room and Peter Dobereiner (the late British golf writer) was standing at the corner of the bar you had to walk past. \u2018Not even you can f*** this up,\u2019 he said to me. And I replied \u2018Thanks, Peter\u2019. I laughed. Peter was my friend. Because that\u2019s part of it. That\u2019s sport.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHate it? I don\u2019t hate it,\u201d Norman previously said when asked how he feels about Augusta National.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love it. The problem is, it doesn\u2019t love me back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Watch The 2026 Masters on Fox Sports\u2019 dedicated 24\/7 Masters channel via Kayo Sports.<\/p>\n<p>Thursday April 9 \u2013 Round 1 \u2013 Featured Groups from 11:00pm AEST <\/p>\n<p>Friday April 10 \u2013 Round 1 \u2013 Amen Corner from 12:45am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Friday April 10 \u2013 Round 1 (World Feed) from 3:00am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Friday April 10 \u2013 Round 2 \u2013 Featured Groups from 11:00pm AEST <\/p>\n<p>Saturday April 11 \u2013 Round 2 \u2013 Amen Corner from 12:45am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Saturday April 11 \u2013 Round 2 (World Feed) from 3:00am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Sunday April 12 \u2013 Round 3 \u2013 Featured Groups from 12:00am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Sunday April 12 \u2013 Round 3 \u2013 Amen Corner from 1:45am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Sunday April 12 \u2013 Round 3 (World Feed) from 2:00am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Monday April 13 \u2013 Final Round \u2013 Featured Groups from 12:00am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Monday April 13 \u2013 Final Round \u2013 Amen Corner from 1:45am AEST <\/p>\n<p>Monday April 13 \u2013 Final Round (World Feed) from 2:00am AEST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been 30 years since Greg Norman\u2019s final round collapse at the 1996 Masters, and the two key&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,288807,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-591415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-ncaeditorialprogram","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}