Open-ended: Disappointing Finish at Royal Birkdale

Enamored as we are with the many of idiosyncrasies of links golf (the wind, the rain, the bunkers capable of consuming humans as well as golf balls) the prevailing thought headed into this year's Open Championship is that it would take something special for us to forget who wasn't at Birkdale. That was not a reference to Kenny Perry.

Padraig Harrington's eventual repeat victory is a monumental story in Ireland and is being celebrated across the European continent but we were all sucked in by the Shark. Greg Norman's presence on the leaderboard captured our attention like that monotone music signaling the beginning of the end in Jaws. 

Everything that has been written about Norman's week is true - he did thrill the crowds and television audiences with his performance over 54 holes and for a man of his age to be in contention was nothing short of minor miracle.

But I refuse to side with those who have asserted that Norman was playing with house money on Sunday, already having accomplished what he set out to do. Norman set out to warm-up for the British Senior Open without ever having dreamed of being penciled into the final group on Sunday at Birkdale. It was an opportunity so rare that it should've been handled with more of a delicate approach.

History urges us recall improbable comebacks in sports and in golf, such as Jack Nicklaus' win in 1986 at Augusta National but in more recent Major Championships, golf's grandest events are lost on Sunday more than they are won. Harrington himself tried to give away last year's Open Championship before Sergio Garcia handed it back to him. Shockingly enough, the great Tiger Woods has never rallied to win a major championship when trailing after 54 holes but he has hung on to 14 of 14 leads when leading after three rounds. The name of the game is making par and forcing the field's hang; holding on for dear life until you're walking up the 18^th fairway with the tournament won or a chance to win.

2008 Masters Champion Trevor Immelman shot a 3-over 75 on Sunday but he had already recorded three rounds in the sixties to give himself a commanding lead over his most formidable challenger, Tiger Woods (six back after 54 holes).

At least three shots clear of everyone except for K.J. Choi and Norman, Harrington likely felt his score may have been the one to beat and I bet Norman knew it too. Harrington began with six straight pars and the three bogies that followed his initial steady stretch turned out to be an aberration. Once Norman's two-shot lead disappeared you felt as if he would never recover.

Harrington plodded along until two spectacular long-iron approach shots on No. 15 and No. 17 set him up to score. And score he did, recording birdie and eagle respectively on those holes. His aggregate score of 4-under on the back nine was more than enough to win comfortably. But Norman's early trouble allowed Harrington to stick with his strategy. No pressure was ever applied.

Par is the play on Sunday when you're ahead. Norman's refusal to play it safe, at least more cautiously off the tee, exacerbated the already tough conditions and his age disadvantage. If you were rooting for Norman on Sunday, his repeated approach of reaching for driver must have made you cringe, especially when the winds wildly swept the ball into the tall, fescue grass on either side of the fairway.

This last failure to win with the 54-hole lead will only remind us of his tragic luck in Major Championships. With a chance to re-write his personal history and transform his legacy, Norman didn't choke; certainly at 53 years of age nobody envisioned this scenario. But he could've made the latter holes more interesting and pressed Harrington further with a more conservative strategy on Sunday. If you can think your way around the course for 54 holes, using your mind and putter to keep your competition in the rearview mirror, why do things have to change over the course of 72?

The majority of us will remember how a 53-year-old man, re-married and reborn in a way, fell just short of history. For Norman, it was one more chance to play golf at its highest level and he seemed to really relish that opportunity.

"I can walk away from here being disappointed, but I can walk away from here with my head held high because I hung in there," Norman said after his final round 77 left him tied for third place. "It looked like it was going to get away from me and I got a couple of unfortunate lip-outs. Maybe if on 11 and 12 they lip in instead of lip out, it's a totally different score. It wasn't meant to be, and you've got to take that with a grain of salt."

I'll remember a remarkable story that deserved a better ending and might have received one had the author exorcised better judgment over the final 18 holes.

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