Tway's sand play sees off the Great White Shark

GREATEST SHOTS: Number 19 ... Bob Tway 1986 US PGA at The Inverness Club

If the golfing gods, those most fickle of divine beings, are with you, then they're very much with you.

And if they're against you, there's nothing at all you can do about it. Greg Norman, of all people, should know after what happened to him during most of the 1986 season, but especially after what occurred on the 72nd hole of the year's final major, the US PGA Championship at The Inverness Club.

Remember, this was the year that Norman could, without unduly stretching the imagination, have won all four majors, the Grand Slam of Golf.

In the end, all that he walked away with was the claret jug as British Open champion - and, in many ways, he was glad to at least get that, particularly after some of the audacious things that afflicted him in that year of 1986.

Norman had also led going into the final round of the US Masters - and lost out to Jack Nicklaus by a shot - and was the 54-hole leader at the US Open where he collapsed on the final day as Raymond Floyd went on to win. But he seemed to have ended his run of bad luck when winning the British Open in stunning fashion over the links at Turnberrry - the same venue for last weekend's Women's British Open - before heading on to the US PGA in Ohio.

But even compared to the Australian's collapse in the Masters and the US Open, what happened in the US PGA took some beating and caused much head scratching among golf watchers the world over.

For the fourth time that season, Norman carried a lead going into the final round of a major - what became known as Norman's "Saturday Slam" - but this time it was by four shots and on that Sunday it looked for all the world that he would claim back-to-back major successes and prove beyond all doubt that he truly was the world's number one.

It wasn't to be, and while much of it had to do with Norman playing poorly and dropping shots on the inward nine, there was also much to admire about the way that Bob Tway - seemingly undaunted by the challenge that faced him - kept his game together to such an extent that, when he stood on the final tee, the American had drawn level with the Great White Shark.

The 18th hole would be crucial, although a play-off seemed the more likely scenario, especially after both players failed to find the green with their approach shots.

And if there wasn't to be a play-off, then it seemed that the cards were very much in Norman's favour.

Norman's approach actually hit the putting surface but spun off, but he was still much better placed than Tway, whose approach found a bunker too close to the hole to allow much hope of an easy up and down.

In fact, with heavy rough between Tway - who was only visible from the chest up - and the flag, it seemed that he would do extremely well to make par and that a bogey was not out of the question. His back was really against the wall.

Tway, though, was undaunted; and although he took his time over deciding how to execute the shot, it was worth the wait.

His sand shot splashed out of the bunker, hit the flagstick and fell into the hole.

Tway was transformed in an instance, his cool demeanour replaced by a man jumping up in the bunker with his arms raised aloft and the cherished sand wedge held firmly by the shaft in his left hand.

What looked like tears were flowing down his face. What was more, his followers in the gallery - aptly named Tway's Troops - voiced their approval for the wonder shot with roars that would have done justice to a Superbowl as the American's hole-out bunker shot gave him a finishing 70 to Norman's 76, and a two-shot win.

Watching it all was Norman, who remained stoical, but who knew that the golfing gods were inflicting suffering on him all over again and he couldn't even salvage his par.

What had just happened was unbelievable. In fact, Tway became the first player in modern history to win a US PGA championship with a birdie on the 72nd hole.

But it was the manner of it that was the most unbelievable thing of all.

• At the end of the series, readers will be able to vote for their Five Greatest Golf Shots Ever - the reader whose selection corresponds with the shots selected by an Irish Times panel will enter a draw to win a custom-fit Titleist 975J Driver.