In sharp contrast to his dramatic collapse in the Masters, Greg Norman was at his best when he needed it most in a match-play struggle with Scott Hoch.
Norman, hurt by an erratic short game, holed a 15-foot birdie putt on the 36th hole Sunday to beat Hoch 1-up in the final of the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf."I read the green perfectly," Norman said. "There weren't any footprints in my line, the grass was perfect, I had a beautiful spot to aim at - there was a little off-colored piece of grass right on my line - and I had no other thoughts than to hit the putt solid."
Norman, who blew a six-stroke lead to Nick Faldo in the final round of the Masters, earned $1 million in the $3.65 million tournament.
"I'll start the year with a lot of confidence," said Norman, who will skip the PGA Tour early-season schedule to rest a degenerative back condition. "There was a lot of pressure here. There were four of five swings I didn't feel comfortable with. I'll go back and look at that."
He closed out Hoch after the American missed a 16-foot attempt. Hoch, who never led, made up a four-hole deficit from the 15th through the 21st holes, but wasn't able to take advantage of Norman's mistakes.
"I definitely need to get over the hump, one way or another, in a big tournament, and this was a chance to do it, and I just didn't play well enough," Hoch said. "I had my chance on the last hole, but that's the difference. I didn't convert, and Greg had an opportunity and converted. That's what the great players do."
Norman earned $675,000 in the final after making $325,000 in the International section and Saturday's semifinals. Hoch made $500,000, including $175,000 in the final.
In the third-place match, Japan's Hisayuki Sasaki beat Scotland's Sam Torrance 2 and 1, finishing with a 6-foot par putt on the 17th hole. Sasaki earned $350,000 and Torrance made $300,000.
Norman, who routed Sasaki 5 and 4 in the semifinals, shot a 3-under-par 69 in the first 18 holes against Hoch and added a 1-over 73 in the second round on the Grayhawk Golf Club's Talon course.
Hoch was uncharacteristically wild in the morning round, opening with a bogey to fall behind. Hoch also bogeyed Nos. 9, 10 and 18 to offset his four birdies, and matched par on the 6,973-yard layout.
But Norman three-putted the first two greens in the afternoon for bogeys, then ran into more trouble on No. 3.
His 5-wood second shot landed hole-high in rocks near the green. The lie was unplayable, costing him a one-stroke penalty. Then his chip shot dropped into a bunker next to a railroad-tie wall, and his next chip stopped short, forcing him into a third straight bogey.
Meanwhile, Hoch parred all three holes and caught up.
"I was just thinking that there was still a long way to go," Norman said. "You don't want to do that, but those things happen, and you just have to put them behind you."
After six straight holes where the margin changed, Hoch and
Norman halved Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.
The numbers failed to tell the story on the sixth hole, which Hoch birdied with a 30-foot chip from the deep fringe, forcing Norman to sink a 4-footer for birdie to stay even, or No. 9, where Norman made a 10-foot putt for birdie after conceding a short putt to Hoch.
On the 449-yard 12th hole, both players hit their second shots into deep grass above the pin, but Hoch took two chips to get on the green. Norman went 1-up with a 41/2-foot putt for par.
He missed greens on the next three holes, but Hoch only took advantage on No. 15, sinking a 51/2-foot for par while Norman two-putted for a bogey-5. They then halved the next two holes to send the match even to No. 18.