Latest installment in ‘30 for 30’ franchise about Aussie’s historic collapse at ‘96 Masters
The latest 30 for 30 film, about golfer Greg Norman, premieres on ESPN on April 19. Shark is directed by Jason Hehir and Thomas Odelfelt.
“Greg Norman played the game of golf only one way: aggressively. And he did it without regret,” ESPN said. “It led him to two titles at the Open Championship, and one of the most famous careers in the sport’s history. And yet his boldness and his uncompromising approach to every round he played also cost him in some historic moments, the most shocking of which unfolded at the 1996 Masters, when Norman gave up a six-shot lead in the competition’s final round. A quarter century after that infamous collapse, Norman headed back to Augusta, at long last ready to relive the worst day of his golfing career.”
Known as Shark, Norman is an Australian-born golfer whose heyday was in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
“There are places in sports that have such a mystique that they can forever shape the way we remember an athlete,” Hehir said. “Augusta National is one of those places. Greg Norman is by any objective measure one of the greatest golfers to ever play the game. Two-time major winner, 331 weeks at world No. 1, leading money winner in PGA history pre-Tiger [Woods], one of the few indelible players of his era. But despite all his success, he’s perhaps remembered most for his failure at the Masters, particularly his excruciating collapse on final Sunday in 1996.”
Hehir concluded, “I was excited for the opportunity to tell the story of one man’s career through the prism of such a sacred site, and to examine the power of one place to mold a man’s legacy, for better or worse.”
Hehir directed the ESPN docuseries The Last Dance, about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.