By John Oehser
Florida Times-Union sports writer
Morris News Service

PONTE VEDRA BEACH - The tee shot flew high and pure over the ninth fairway. Greg Norman watched silently. The crowd, of course, did not.

``You're back,'' one yelled, and another yelled the same.

Both were wrong.

He wasn't back then and won't be today, either. He was two over par then, still the same when he finished Fridayday and, for the first time in 11 years, the 1994 champion missed the cut at The Players Championship.

``I said to (caddy) Tony (Navarro) out there,'' Norman said, smiling, after he was one of 68 players at even or over who failed to qualify for the final two days. ``I said, `Man, I can't believe we're going down the road two weeks in a row.'

``I'm in a bit of a funk, mentally more than anything else,'' added Norman, who shot one-over 73 for a second consecutive day. ``If you're not mentally sharp, you're not going to get the score. I got what I deserved.''

The failure was the first time in Norman's PGA Tour career he missed two consecutive cuts. He missed the cut, too, in the last tournament he entered Ä Bay Hill two weeks ago.

Norman was among several notable names Ä including two-time Masters champion Nick Faldo Ä who had consecutive bad days on a course Norman referred to as ``easy'' compared to last year, when the cut was five over.

Among the players joining Faldo, who hadn't missed a cut since last year's Players, and Norman were Paul Azinger (even), Ian Woosnam (even), Peter Jacobsen (even), Tom Kite (even), Curtis Strange (five over) and Ian Baker-Finch (six over). No players from Northeast Florida missed the cut. The closest to doing so were Mark McCumber and Rocco Mediate, who made it at one under.

Woosnam, who rarely plays well at The Players and uses it as a warmup for the Masters, was even giddier afterward than Norman, who left the scorer's tent joking. Woosnam switched from a metal to a wood driver mid-round. His first shot with the new club, on the 10th tee, went into the bushes.

``My irons are pretty good I couldn't hit any putts,'' Woosnam said, ``but I finally started getting comfortable with (the iron driver) late in the day, from 16 on'' and birdied the final two holes to miss the cut by a stroke.

Norman's failure was far more surprising than Woosnam's given his history at the Players, and it ended his 11-year streak, a tournament record for consecutive cuts made he shares with Tom Kite and Bernhard Langer. His round was the eighth consecutive in the 70s for Norman. He had made 40 consecutive cuts, and missed none last year, before beginning his current streak of two.

``As long as I don't make it three in row,'' Norman said, referring to his next tournament, The Masters, in two weeks.

``Three strikes I'll be out. As long as I come into Augusta feeling pretty good -- which I think I will be. Maybe it's a good sign. Everything's meant for a reason. Why that is, I don't know, but everything's meant for a reason.''