AUGUSTA, Ga. -- As golf is a staggeringly cruel game that can drop the most resilient man to his knees, we have all been conditioned to avoid premature declarations of victory. Look at what happened to Greg Norman's 6-shot lead at the 1996 Masters, or to Arnold Palmer's 7-shot lead with nine holes to play while he chased Ben Hogan's scoring record at the 1966 U.S. Open.
I once reminded Jack Nicklaus about Palmer's ungodly collapse, and he nearly fell out of his chair when assured ol' Arnie was up 7 on Billy Casper through 63 holes at Olympic.