Different Shark, same results
Despite Shark Shootout win, Norman's a new golfer
Posted: Tuesday November 17, 1998 08:08 PM
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Laura Norman thinks husband Greg (right, with Shark Shootout partner Steve Elkington) will enjoy the majors even more AP |
He fell asleep during "Phantom of the Opera" but fell in love with "The Lion King" on Broadway. He took spontaneous lunch breaks with his wife and went 36 holes in England on the other side of the ropes. He met the new boyfriend of his 16-year-old daughter.
This is what Greg Norman means by getting his life back.
And this is why he says he looks forward to getting back to golf, but not to the life of a professional golfer.
"I've never seen Greg this relaxed," Laura Norman, his wife of 17 years, said during the Shark Shootout in California. "It's funny, because a lot of the wives on tour said, 'Boy, you must be ready for him to get out of house.' But we had so much fun living a normal life."
Not that renting an island in the Bahamas constitutes a normal life. There was also a three-week trip to Europe, part of which was spent watching his 13-year-old son Gregory in a golf tournament, a shopping-theater extravaganza in New York and fly fishing in Colorado.
But where they went or what they did is not the issue.
"It wasn't like we were going to a golf tournament," Laura Norman said.
This week at Sherwood Country Club, a gorgeous Jack Nicklaus course carved from the Southern California foothills, they were back to the routine. Norman was grinding away, trying to rediscover his feel. His wife and two children were tagging along.
"I don't know if it's good or bad," she said about her husband's return to golf. "But it is going to be an adjustment."
That goes for Norman, too.
Since coming back from April 22 surgery on his left shoulder, Norman has said he does not want to fall into the same routine he was in for 20-plus years as a global golfer, which looks even more like drudgery coming off what he calls "the best summer of my life."
Ultimately, his return could have as much to do with his swing as his priorities.
Norman answered the first question last week in the Shark Shootout, and not just because he and Steve Elkington won in a sudden-death playoff.
Any concerns about whether his shoulder would be just as strong were put to rest with each vicious swing off the tee, with the 3-wood that had to carry 260 yards over a bunker to an elevated green, with the 8-iron that he knew he had to crush to squeeze that extra five yards out of it.
"I felt like I got my power back," Norman said. "I knew I could put it out there when I needed to put it out there. And that's important when you know you can go after it if you need to."
His game still needs fine-tuning. The first real test will be two weeks from now in the Australian Open, where Norman will be on his own for 72 holes.
But don't be surprised if Norman doesn't need a special invitation to get back to the Masters (his five-year exemption from winning the British Open expired this year). Since he joined the PGA Tour in 1984, he has either won or finished second 21 percent of the time, and there's no reason to believe it will be any different now.
"He would love to come straight out and win. That's just Greg's nature," his wife said. "He's not the type to just let it happen because he doesn't know any differently. He's been No. 1 for so long, and you have to work your butt off to get there. Then, you have to work even harder to stay there."
Norman says being No. 1 in the world rankings - he's been there longer than anyone from his generation - was never a priority and won't be now. He says he has an unfiltered approach to golf, that he will not play as many tournaments, not spend as much time on the driving range, not treat the major championships as life-or-death situations.
"I don't have an urgency to do anything any more," he said. "I've got a pretty level approach on everything in the future, and I'm going to maintain that all the way through."
But what happens when the shark smells blood? How long before his unfiltered view of golf is polluted by getting into contention at a major championship for the umpteenth time?
What will he feel if comes up short once again?
"I think he'll be just as driven, but I think he'll handle it differently," Laura Norman said. "The biggest change in him this summer was he didn't have all those pressures - from being out here and the pressure he puts on himself that causes him to be so focused.
"I think he'll enjoy it more this time," she said. "And I think he'll play even better."
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