Greg Norman reveals Adam Scott gave him the Masters thrill he had been longing

VIDEO: Greg Norman features in a two-part Australian Story episode (ABC News)
Australian golfing great Greg Norman has opened up about the emotion that took over him when he watched his prodigy Adam Scott win the US Masters earlier this year.

In tonight's first episode of a two-part special on Australian Story, Norman reveals how much pain his own shock loss in the 1996 Masters caused him and how overjoyed he was when Scott won the green jacket at August National.

Scott had thanked Norman in his speech after the win at Augusta, a moment made all the more poignant by the fact that this was the scene of the Shark's greatest heartbreak.

But even before Scott thanked Norman in his winning speech for being such a big influence on his career, the Great White Shark showed how much the win meant to him.

Norman's wife Kirsten said he was overcome when Scott clinched victory.

"He just basically fell to the floor when he won. He was in tears. He was just so excited," she said.

Norman has taken great delight in seeing Australians Scott, Jason Day and Marc Leishman all challenging for the Masters title on the final day at Augusta.

"I said to myself, boy, wouldn't this be ironic," Norman said.

Australia never won the Masters before and there is a possibility of three Aussies being in a play-off to win the first green jacket. I'm thinking wow, how cool is that," he told Australian Story.

"So I was very into it right, and very emotionally tied up and you know I felt for Jason."

But he says he felt an immense amount of pride watching Scott, who he has mentored throughout his career, become the first Australian in 87 years to win the Masters.

He gave that tribute to me, of course there was a tear in my eye.
Greg Norman
"He gave that tribute to me, of course there was a tear in my eye," he said.

"It shows a lot about the integrity who Adam really is to be able to in his moment of glory take a step back and acknowledge who really paved the way for him to go there. And it was such a special moment."

The agony of the 1996 Masters meltdown

Norman told Australian Story the 1996 loss to Nick Faldo hit him harder than any other.

"I disappeared down to the beach after the US Masters. I laid on the beach and cried because I felt like I'd completely screwed up a tournament that I wanted to win," he said.

"So that would be about the only time I brought the emotion of a golf tournament back home."

Scott, Day and Leishman all spoke of the great respect they have for Norman.

"It was only natural to think of Greg at the end and the history that he's had there," Scott told Australian Story referring to his tribute to Norman in his Masters speech.

"He's been that close and meant that much to my game that hopefully my win really can satisfy him as well, that all the work and effort he's put into me is
something that he can take out of it."

"I think there is a generation of younger kids in Australia who are here because of Greg Norman."

Leishman dismissed the often repeated claim that Norman was a choker.

You try to emulate him because he was the best golfer in the world.
Marc Leishman
"You try to emulate him because he was the best golfer in the world. It's extraordinary to be number one for 300 weeks - that's six years," he said.

"I think the only people that were saying that [he was a choker] were people that had never been in that situation.

"It's really hard to win golf tournaments and the guys that beat him played well to beat him."

Part One of Greg Norman's Australian Story airs tonight at 8.00pm on ABC1.