George White | |
Golf with George
December 12th, 2007
George has been a journalist for close to 40 years. He wrote sports for the Houston Chronicle for 19 years and the Orlando Sentinel for 7 years. In 1994 he was one of the first people hired at the Golf Channel, were he started a career as an on-air talent, then moved over as one of the first writers of Golf Central and then their website. White retired from the Golf Channel after 12 years at the end of 2006. He will be writing a column for GolfObserver.
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GolfObserver editors
Greg Norman in a new role in golf
He was the No. 1 golfer in the world for 331 weeks. He won 68 events around the world. But for all the other superlatives, Greg Norman won just 20 times on the PGA Tour. Injuries kept his victory total at bay – injuries and more than his share of buzzard’s luck.
Photo: © Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images |
| The golfing world doesn't get to see much of Greg Norman these days. |
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But, says Norman, he never once has regretted those wins that didn’t come, never feels remorse about the “what-haves” or “what-ifs.”
“No, I don’t. I don’t, really. My injuries were really a product of my dedication to hitting a lot of golf balls to stay at the top of my game,” said Norman the day before playing in his personal tournament, the Merrill Lynch Shootout, in Naples, Fla.
But he paid the price for the thousands of hours of hitting golf balls. He’s had shoulder surgeries, hip surgery, endured back problems. And through it all, there has been this mischievous ogre on his back known as “bad luck,” the one which kept him from winning when Larry Mize chipped in against him in a playoff for the Masters title, when Bob Tway holed out from a bunker of the final hole of a PGA, when Robert Gomez holed out from 176 yards at No. 18 at a Bay Hill championship, when David Frost holed out from a bunker on 18 that day in New Orleans.
It was the ogre that stood in his way when he led all four of the major championships after three rounds in 1986, only to win just one. And it was the ogre which has caused Norman to lose all four majors in playoffs. It was the ogre who decreed that Norman was not to win the ’96 Masters, though he played on Sunday with a seemingly insurmountable six-shot lead.
Now Norman is 52 years old, and thousands of golf fans find it impossible to believe that he could have given up the game, becoming the ultimate “ceremonial golfer,” appearing on the golf course only two or three times a year. Many find it impossible to believe that he has rejected the Champions Tour where many of his old pals are still performing. Is it really possible that Norman’s golfing plans for 2008 at present include only a trip to Pebble Beach to play in the AT&T – and that only because he has the chance to play with his son, Gregory?
Photo: © David Cannon/Getty Images) |
| Norman will be playing along with his son in the AT&T Pebble Beach pro-am, the first PGA Tour event for Greg since the 1996 International. |
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“What happened to Greg,” says Fred Funk, “was probably a little bit of injuries, but a little motivation, too. His businesses were going so well.”
Norman, indeed, has proven to be even more a master of boardroom than he was a master of the golf course. He’s involved himself in so many outside interests, which include among others turf production, golf course architecture, wine, clothing and now McGregor golf. The question remains, though – were he not so successful in his business career, or had he not been at the receiving end of so many bad breaks on the golf course, what might he have accomplished in the years since he virtually quit the game altogether after 2002?
“Greg was one of the best athletes, one of the best golfers we ever had, probably one of the best over-all drivers to ever play the game,” said Funk. “When you drive the ball that well, and being the clutch putter that he was – he was just a great player, he was phenomenal.”
Mark O’Meara readily recognizes Norman as “one of the most talented players to ever play this game – I mean, by far.”
Some may look at Norman’s incredible what-if record and snicker. Wrong, said O’Meara. It only goes to show how good Norman was in a string of years from 1984 to 1994. “I mean - he was very, very good.”
Photo: © Warren Little/Getty Images |
| Norman is still very popular in any event he plays in. |
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And the bad luck really exposed Norman the sportsman, who did his grieving in private after sincerely congratulating the eventual winner in public.
“He will go down in history as one of the all-time greats because of the way he handled those defeats,” said O’Meara. “He handled them with a lot of dignity and a lot of class.”
Brad Faxon knows that Norman refuses to second-guess himself. “To say what he could have become – I’m sure he has no regrets at all,” said Faxon. “I’m sure he would have liked to have had a bounce or two go a different way. His most crushing defeat came in the (’96) Masters when Faldo beat him, but he gained more popularity there than with any victory he ever had. He would probably rather have that than any trophy he could have won.”
And Faxon is probably right. Even though Norman just went through a troubling divorce, even though there is absolutely no chance he will ever add his name to another trophy, Greg Norman is extremely happy with his life right now.
Photo: ©
Lee Besford | | Chris Evert has helped make life more stable for Norman now. |
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Yes, he said, if he knew that the hours and hours of pounding golf balls would have cut short his athletic career, “I would approach things a little differently.
“But you know what? What you know now … if we had it today, we’d all be very, very smart and rich. At the end of the day, I can’t complain. I don’t have any regrets about my career – obviously I have regrets about some of the shots I hit, but not about the over-all aspect of my career.
“I’m lucky – I’ve been very, very lucky.
“I am enjoying my life more than I ever have right now … Find a place where you’re happy. If you find that place, everything else will really take care of itself. It’s hard to explain how (you) feel if you’ve never been there, once you go there. Wow, this is a new place, and it’s a beautiful place to be.”
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