Golfing Disasters Part 22: He was world number one for 331 weeks. He has won 86 tournaments worldwide including two British Opens. He has his own Boeing 737, a massive yacht, a 12,000-acre ranch and a string of successful business ventures which have made him fabulously wealthy.

But if you ever sit down with a bunch of golfers in the clubhouse bar and mull over the life and career of Greg Norman, the chances are that the most vivid memory will not be of a Norman conquest.

Inevitably the conversation will turn to the 1996 US Masters when Norman almost unbelievably squandered the best of several opportunities he had to win a title he coveted so much.

Norman started the final day six shots ahead of Nick Faldo and ended losing by five. My clearest recollection is of the near silence in which the final few holes were played. Norman wasn't beyond redemption after Amen Corner but when he drowned his tee-shot at the 16th he hadn't a prayer and the atmosphere was funereal. Faldo played a great round but rarely can such a brilliant effort at Augusta have been so little appreciated by the crowd. With the benefit of hindsight, his 67 is often lauded but on the day the story was Norman's 78.

The Australian opened the tournament by equalling the course record with a 63. He followed with a 69 and was paired with Faldo (69-67) for the third round. The previous time they had been last out on a major Saturday was at the 1990 British Open when Faldo outscored Norman 67-76 to set up victory. This time Norman had the better of it (71-73) but Faldo did hole a clutch 10-footer on the 18th to stay a shot ahead of Phil Mickelson and ensure that he would be paired with Norman for the final round. It may have been the most important shot of the tournament.

"If Greg had played with Mickelson he would have free-flowed it. Phil's no threat. He's a wee boy," surmised Colin Montgomerie a couple of days later. "Greg should not have allowed Nick to intimidate him. We are all taught to play our own game but Nick is the best in the world at creating an aura."

Norman's troubles started with a drive into the trees at the first and a dropped shot. He hit only three of the first nine greens in regulation and was out in 38 to Faldo's 34. His lead was just two and things were about to get far worse. Norman missed the 9th green and bogied. He three-putted the 11th to drop another shot. He then pushed his seven-iron tee-shot to the 12th and saw it roll back off the bank and into the water. A double-bogey and Norman was being sucked down like a man in quicksand. His desperate grasp for safety came in the form of birdies at the 13th and 15th but Faldo kept him down with a pair of matching fours. Norman finally went under with a wretched six-iron into the water at the 16th leading to another double bogey and his seventh five of the round. Faldo's birdie at the last was an unnecessary final nail in the coffin.

Afterwards Norman tried to put his collapse in perspective. "It's not the end of the world. I let this one get away. I'll wake up still breathing, I hope."

Someone mentioned the $40 million he had just made from his shares in equipment company Cobra. "You see, there's a good thing about life. I've got something that other people haven't got. I've got forty million bucks. God, I'd love to be putting the green jacket on. I'm sad about it, I'm going to regret it but it's not the end of the world for me."

Money can't buy everything and it certainly won't buy Norman the Masters title which he surely now will never win.