News And Notes

The Shark's in Fighting Trim

Greg Norman hasn't played in a PGA Tour event this year and won't play until the Doral-Ryder Open in Miami on March 6-9. But Norman hasn't, been lounging during his longest sabbatical from golf since he turned pro in 1976. At the end of last season Norman's chronically sore back was giving him trouble. He consulted with Pete Draovitch, his physical therapist since 1993, who recommended an extended layoff, intense workouts and as little golf as possible. Norman followed orders. He's played in only three events since last fall's Tour Championship and has been working out faithfully.

Norman has five regimens, which vary with the time of year and whether he's at home in Hobe Sound, Fla., or on the road. Recently he has been working out four or five days a week. At least two of those days he does what Draovitch calls Workout No. 1, which lasts one hour and 45 minutes and concentrates on building strength. It starts with exercises for the abdominal muscles and rotator cuffs and moves on to 30-40 minutes of aerobics, 30 minutes split between a Versaclimber, a slideboard and a stationary bike, a series of lifts using elastic tubing, 20 single-leg squats and 15 leg curls on each side, 15-20 pull-ups, 5-10 minutes on a stabilization ball and three one-minute sets with a medicine ball. His other workouts include, among other drills, jumping rope, jogging and boxing.

When he's home Norman and Draovitch work out above one of Norman's garages in an exercise room that will soon include a $4,000 EFX machine, which simulates, among other activities, running, climbing and cross-country skiing, with low impact.

The first year Draovitch worked with Norman, he accompanied him to two tournaments. This year he'll go to as many as 12, mostly overseas where fitness equipment isn't readily available. "Greg has tremendous energy," says Draovitch. "He recognizes the importance of being fit. You build up the base now to carry you through the year. When he comes back at Doral, he'll be ready to go."

Two Celebrity Tours Battle Head-to-Head

It has been nearly 30 years since the touring pros broke from the PGA of America to form the Tour. Now, in déjà vu of the most minor sort, the world of celebrity golf has split in two.

The Celebrity Golf Association (CGA), founded by Jim Karvellas, a former pro basketball TV commentator, has been in business since 1990, putting on tournaments with purses as large as $200,000. But now about two dozen of the most well-known personalities who played the CGA have formed their own circuit, the Celebrity Players Tour (CPT). The defectors' main gripe was that the purses and the number of tournaments on the CGA hadn't increased enough. "This wasn't a snap decision. We think we can do things better," says former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Rick Rhoden, who won 13 CGA events and is on the CPT's 11-member board of directors.

The mass exodus left Karvellas with mostly B-list celebrities, including pool shark Steve Mizerak and race car driver Nigel Mansell. Headliners who bolted to the new tour include John Elway, Mario Lemieux, Dan Marino, Joe Namath, Dan Quayle and Mike Schmidt. Marino's annual Celebrity Invitational, at Weston Hills in Fort Lauderdale, had been a CGA event, but it was played under the CPT banner last week. Won by Rhoden, the Marino tournament, which carried a $200,000 purse, was held in direct competition with a $100,000 CGA event at Metro-West in Orlando that actor Adam Baldwin won.

Karvellas isn't giving up. He hopes that even though players like Elway and Lemieux are on the CPT board, they'll play in some CGA events. "I have no acrimony," he says. "The tours are different. We depend on presentation and television. They're more corporate friendly. The two can coexist."