Norman Invasion

Edited by Richard O'Brien and Kostya Kennedy

May 06, 1996

A few days after Greg Norman's spectacular collapse in the final round of the Masters, sportswriter Frank Deford mused on National Public Radio about the impact Norman's nationally televised disintegration might one day have on the English language. "In my old dictionary from 2005," Deford said, "is the word normanfy, sometimes referred to in the vernacular as to 'pull a norman.' " Well, Webster's needn't wait until the next century to officially define norman as "the squandering, under pressure, of a large lead or advantage"—on both sides of the Atlantic, Norman's name is already being used in that sense. On April 17 London's Daily Mirror ran in bold type Newcastle United soccer striker Les Ferdinand's pledge, WE WON'T DO A NORMAN! before a critical match. The same day Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times assessed the shaky but triumphant performance of his city's Bulls in their record-setting 70th victory of the season that came against the Milwaukee Bucks: "At least they didn't do a Norman." The Masters disaster has even given Norman's name political currency. Looking back on the 1992 presidential race, in which the incumbent at one point led challenger Bill Clinton 54% to 34% in the polls, syndicated columnist John Hall last week referred to "President Bush's Greg Norman-like collapse."