AUGUSTA, Ga.-- In all his years stalking fairways and winning tournaments, even during some of the darkest moments a player can endure on a golf course, Greg Norman has never kissed his caddy. At least, not on the lips.

But there he was the other day, getting a big smooch on the lips from his caddy, Chris Evert, who also happens to be his equally famous wife. She was on the Shark's bag for par-3 tournament Wednesday at the Augusta National Golf Club -- her first visit to the Masters site -- and she got to see her husband make a hole in one at the sixth hole.

Evert was so excited she jumped into Norman's arms and planted a big one on him.

"Chrissie said, 'Is that what normally happens?' " Norman said.

Of course not.

Nothing normal ever seems to happen to Norman at Augusta National. For 22 years, there has been the sweet and the strange, the maddening and macabre. But normal?

Only if you consider tragic heroes to be normal.

Norman was back at Augusta National yesterday, playing his first competitive round in the Masters since 2002 and bringing a sense of normalcy to -- how do they say it here -- the tuna-mint. He turned the front nine in 34, missed a short 3-footer for birdie at the final hole and shot 2-under 70, leaving him four shots from the lead in the tournament where he finished in the top six in nine of his 22 starts. But never won.

"My whole objective was to come here and play solid and keep expectations low," Norman said. "I did that. I really could have shot a nice mid-60s score. I didn't. I'm not complaining."

Norman had several good chances to go even lower. He missed a 10-foot birdie at the first hole, a 4-footer at the par-5 second, an 8-footer at No. 3 and a 10-foot birdie at the par-3 16th, right after he rolled in a 3-foot birdie at No. 15. In between, he made a 22-foot birdie at the par-4 sixth and a 10-footer for birdie at the ninth, not to mention going for 3 for 3 in sand saves.

He rarely missed a fairway (11 of 14), hit 12 of 18 greens and, were it not for a tentative putter, might have put his name near the top of the leader board. Not that being five shots back, at age 54, is anything at which to blanch.

"I played my way back into the golf tournament, which very few people can say at the age of 54," Norman said. "It's a feather in my cap, to say the least."

At the end of the day, there was no kiss for his caddy this time. His wife, an 18-time major tennis champion, had been replaced on the bag by Norman's son, Greg Jr., who will loop with him for the tournament.

Young Greg was seven months old when his dad lost to Jack Nicklaus in 1986, the victim of a bogey at the final hole. He was 19 months when Larry Mize beat his dad with an improbable holed chip on the second playoff hole in '87. And 11 years old when his pop blew a six-shot lead on the final day and lost to Nick Faldo in 1996.

Yesterday, he got to watch the crowd at the 18th green rise to its feet when his dad approached the putting surface, effectively blowing a kiss to the man who has known so much Masters heartache.

"Hey, everybody loves me," Norman said, smiling. "Nothing wrong with that. You jealous?"

Then he added: "When I come here, people probably feel for me for some of the things that happened here. I think they respect what I've done over my career and how I've handled some of the things that happened around here."

Not many of which were normal.