It could be argued that Jean Van De Velde was horrendously unlucky.
OK, given he was three shots clear, he was unwise to hit driver from the tee. He also didn’t need to go for the green with his second shot. But he was unlucky that his ball hit the stand and bounced back the other side of the burn.
If his ball had gone into the stands (which 9 times out of 10 it would have done), he would have had a free drop in the drop zone, an easy chip onto the green and then he would have had three putts to win the Open. Given the way he holed the putt to get into the play off, it would have been a formality.
As for Greg Norman, he was simply one of the very best I have ever seen when he was on song. Unfortunately he was fragile and particularly so when faced by Nick Faldo.
They were paired together in the third round of the Open in 1990. It was billed as a big showdown but Faldo shot something like 65 to Norman’s 75. I think Norman still had the scar tissue in 1996.
Perhaps it is significant that when Norman won his second Open so brilliantly in 1993, Faldo was in the chasing group but not in the same pairing. It might have been a different story if they had been paired together.
Norman undoubtedly blew it in one or two Majors but he had some bad luck as well, or rather some players had some outrageous good luck against him. Bob Tway holing a bunker shot in the PGA and Larry Mize holing the chip on the 11th at Augusta. That ball was heading for the water if it hadn’t hit the pin.