Fuzzy View Of Norman Australian Leads Hartford By 3 Strokes; Triplett 4 Back

Fuzzy Zoeller went through something similar in The Players Championship at Ponte Vedra, Fla., last year, breaking the tournament record for a round but becoming engulfed by the long shadow of Greg Norman.

“I’m not sure it gets much better than that match,” said Zoeller. “I shot 67 in the final round and never got on TV. It was The Greg Norman Show.”

Those images will be with Zoeller in today’s final round of the Greater Hartford Open at the TPC at River Highlands when he and Norman will be side by side. The pairing was set up in Saturday’s third round when Norman went out and opened up a lead that stretched to five shots with one hole to play.

Proving he was human, Norman missed a tap-in from 10 inches on the 18th green and ended up 14-under par, at 67-64-65-196. Zoeller, who broke the Sawgrass course record in their epic match in Ponte Vedra, birdied the last hole and trails by three, 70-63-66-199.

The two-shot swing on 18 left the door ajar. New Zealander Grant Waite, whose beloved All Blacks lost the World Cup rugby final to South Africa Saturday, birdied the final hole and stands at 67-200, joining Pullman’s Kirk Triplett (69).

This was a wild day of continued low scoring and it was set up by Rhode Island’s Billy Andrade, who shot a blistering 31-31-62 to lower the course record Zoeller had set 24 hours earlier. Andrade is tied for fifth at 201 with Dave Stockton Jr. (68). Andrade was 3 over par after six holes of the tournament and is minus 12 since.

The roll Norman is on is remarkable, though perhaps not as imposing as the one in 1986 when he won six tournaments in a row. This year, he won the Memorial, finished tied for fourth at Kemper, was runner-up to Corey Pavin in the U.S. Open and now sits atop this leaderboard. Twelve of his last 15 rounds have been in the 60s and two that weren’t were at rugged Shinnecock Hills.

The round started off with a birdie on the first (9-iron, 6 feet) and included four more en route to a front-nine 30 that put him on target to challenge Andrade’s record. The way he was going, nothing seemed to slow him down. He tapped in an 18-inch putt on the sixth for one of his birdies. He had two bogeys and two birdies on the incoming nine in a round soured only by the miss on 18.

“You need a kick in the pants,” said Norman. “It was just one of those careless things. I was hitting it pretty close to the hole. I feel comfortable around this golf course. The more I play, the more I’m learning my angles and lines back and I’m swinging at it good. The confidence is getting better and better. I enjoyed it (Friday) when I was shaping my shots and moving the ball all over the golf course.”

Zoeller, who is seeking to end a nine-year victory drought, had seven birdies and three bogeys in his round.

“You know me,” he said. “I’m all over the golf course. The 18th was the two-shot swing hole and Zoeller made it possible when he rolled in an 8-foot birdie from behind the hole. As he was talking, Norman missed the tap-in.

“Even the best guys mess up once in a while,” said Zoeller. “We’ll have fun tomorrow.”

The presence of Norman at his best is obvious to even his peers.

“I was watching TV yesterday with Paul Azinger and he said he thought Greg Norman was the most focused player right now,” said Andrade. “I thought about that a little bit today. That’s what I need to do.”