Philadelphia ? I left the couch in disgust for the first time Sunday at about 9:26 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

That’s when Greg Norman’s second shot of the day at the British Open found a bunker as deep as a sinkhole.

I returned to the couch in time to see the wind-blown sand slap him in the face as he splashed the ball 20 feet from the hole.

I left the couch for the second time at 9:33.

Norman brought back a whole lot of feelings over the weekend. Feelings of warmth, feelings of awe, feelings of gnawing annoyance.

And annoyance. And …

Let’s say I got up and down more than he did Sunday.

Sunday marked the eighth time Norman had the lead entering the final round of a major. He has won one of them, 22 years ago, his first of two British Open victories. Those two victories, the only majors of his perplexing career, were one reason I got up early to watch Sunday.

The other was that he is 53.

No one that old has ever won a major. In the modern era, no one has come close. That he came to Royal Birkdale from a honeymoon, that he plays more tennis than golf these days with his new bride Chris Evert, that he competed in this prestigious event mostly to warm up for next week’s Senior event in Scotland, all added layers that sounded like one of those trying-too-hard Disney scripts.

All that should have given him a mulligan for this latest fade. At the least it makes this one hard to measure against those others. Because for three of the four days in Southport, Norman came to golf’s rescue, gave it a storyline that didn’t include “Tiger.”

Padraig Harrington won the British Open with a solid final round. Norman’s presence allowed him to enjoy it more, though, saving him and the others from the necessary but tedious questions about Woods’ absence.

Here’s another reason Norman gets the mulligan: He said his legs tired after playing the last two days in cold and blustery conditions that repeat winner Harrington, from Ireland, called, “As tough as I have ever played.”

Still, it didn’t completely erase those feelings of deja vu that Norman’s previous collapses on the last day of major tournaments conjure. Using woods off the tee into the fickle winds, chancy shots that aren’t always needed – he can and does drive even his greatest well-wishers nuts at times.

“It’s a tiring thing to watch,” ABC commentator Tom Watson said.

After 10 holes, Norman had five bogeys, had given away the lead, then taken it back.

Norman all but eliminated himself with his sixth and seventh bogeys on 12 and 13. As he walked the final holes he smiled repeatedly and saved his warmest ones for Harrington and his family.

After Saturday’s 72 had put him atop the leaderboard, many had spoken of him reclaiming a legacy sullied by those collapses with a victory. But his only victories in majors were in this tournament, so that reasoning seemed as faulty as Norman’s club choices and shot strategies.

Truth is, we really don’t know whether age or nerves played a bigger part in Norman’s latest and most unlikely near miss. The only certainty is that it added to a great weekend of theater, one we could not have imagined after Tiger limped from the stage last month.