Norman, Duval bringing back golf's past
by Jeff Rude, Golfweek.com
As if on cue, as if realizing the game has a superstar void to fill, as if feeding the dreamers and romantics with a surreal storyline, 53-year-old part-time golfer Greg Norman on Friday was one shot off the midway lead of the 137th British Open at Royal Birkdale.
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Final round:
- Rosenberg: Norman's legacy grows
- Berlin: Open winners and sinners
- Photos: British Open final round
- Leaderboard: Final Open standings
Third round:
- Tait: Norman 18 holes from history
- Berlin: Norman proves them wrong
- Photos: Windy Moving Day at Birkdale
Second round:
- Rude: Norman, Duval turn back time
- Babineau: Rocco's wild ride continues
- Photos: All the best from Round 2
First round:
Also lurking among the leaders is David Duval, who hasn't been in contention for a major since Norman was still a big fish on the PGA Tour.
The script featuring the game's premier swashbuckler from a bygone era reads like fiction, really. To carry the British theme, J.K. Rowling might be hard pressed to serve this up.
Norman played very little golf coming in, for the last few years actually. He plays more tennis than golf these days, sweating the courts 3-5 times a week with Chris Evert. He married the former tennis star of same age in the Bahamas on June 28 during a two-day extravaganza that cost a reported $2 million and included the eclectic likes of Bill Clinton, Martina Navratilova, Chevy Chase and Gwen Stefani.
The honeymoon was barely over when a report said Norman's ex-wife Laura received $103 million from their divorce, which would make her the PGA Tour's all-time money winner by $21M-plus over Woods. Then Norman went to the ritzy Skibo Castle the week before the Open, a tournament he won in 1986 and 1993, and found something simple (move closer to the ball) that he figured might help not embarrass him.
"Never in a million years (did he have) any expectations for this tournament," a smiling Evert said in the afterglow of the par 70-70 start. "He decided to play this as a warmup for the next two senior events. Last week he said he was not that prepared."
But now he's one shot off the lead, the Great White Shark somehow back near the top of the marquee, just like the 1980s and early 1990s. Only this time he's relaxed, not intense; devoid of expectations, not full of them; thinking little of winning, not dwelling on it.
"You feel you're stepping back in time," Norman said.
That's what he's done, taken a major without Woods, who is on crutches, and without Kenny Perry, who is somehow in Milwaukee trying to complete the 4M Grand Slam (Memphis, Michigan, Moline and Milwaukee), and put it in a time machine.
Only the weekend can ruin this fairy tale, and it probably will, for 40 mph wind and rain supposedly await Saturday and, well, Norman's game face is rusted. He's realistic about this.
"My expectations coming in were almost nil and are still realistically low (because) I haven't been there for a long time," he said.
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Yes, the Shark has 20 tour titles and 69 more internationally. But he hasn't won a major in 16 years and hasn't contended in one in nine. He hasn't won a PGA Tour event in 11 years, hasn't had a top-10 in six years and hasn't played in more than two events since 2004. Last year he had no tour starts.
"My mind still wants to play, but my body doesn't want to practice," Norman said. "I don't have the desire to do it day after day."
So when asked if he thinks he can win the Open now and become the oldest major champion by more than five years, his answer was not circa 1986. Come to think of it, neither was the question.
"I don't know how to answer that question," he began. "I think I've just got to take it in my stride knowing that I've got myself in a position where I have to really be a little more careful on things and be a little bit more relaxed. If I get into position come Sunday afternoon ... hopefully I'll be able to pull off the shots. I'm in position to go have fun with it."
The Shark, careful and relaxed and hoping?
Not aggressive and intense and knowing?
What have age, inactivity and a new love fog done with our Shark?
"I think it's revitalized my life," he said of his union with Evert, winner of 18 Grand Slam singles titles on the court. "When you're more relaxed and happier, it makes everything easier."
Even the odd round of golf on the world stage.
"A rub-on effect on golf," he called it.
Lord knows the golf gods robbed Norman in his prime. See Larry Mize, Masters, and Bob Tway, PGA, for starters. Perhaps no other Hall of Fame player has been victim of so many holeouts. So while Norman says golf owes no one anything, this would be the giant payback.
To do so, he would have to hold off a sporty leaderboard that has a bit of everything: rising stars (Camilo Villegas, K.J. Choi and Adam Scott), reclamation projects (Rocco Mediate, Duval and Jean Van de Velde), gritty veterans (Jim Furyk, Mike Weir and Padraig Harrington) and, of course, the Australians people seem to confuse (Stuart Appleby and Robert Allenby).
"I heard a radio guy say they don't expect Norman to be in there on Saturday," said chatty Rocco Mediate, U.S. Open runner-up and now T-4 here, "and I'm looking at him going, 'They don't know who this guy is.' Because if he gets a taste of that again ... You don't win 70 or 80 golf tournaments in your life and not know what it takes."
If nothing else, it's a cool two-day story about an aging warrior beating everybody because of wisdom, a lot of leftover talent and the luck of the draw weather-wise (of the top 26 finishers after Round 1, Norman and 21 others were from the late-early side of the pairings).
"Yes," the Shark said, agreeing a compelling tale is being weaved. "I could easily say that, looking out of the picture, looking back in. ... (It shows) no matter who you are or what you do or what your qualifications are or how old you are, if you truly want it, you can do it."
For a while anyway. As his new bride reminds.
"It's two days," Evert said. "He's got two more days. But he is very relaxed."
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