1986 Open Championship - Sharkive - Sharkwatch

Few had enjoyed the first day at Turnberry. The course was set up tough for normal conditions, far less a cold, biting wind and heavy rain. The professionals had suffered and the local paper had shown a picture of Greg Norman sitting head in his hands, with the caption "Don't cry, Greg." The thirty-one-year-old Australian certainly was not crying. He had shot a 74, four off the lead on a day when no one broke par and only Ian Woosnam matched it, but he was happy with the way he played. Far from being despondent, he was really quite elated at the way things had gone. He had hit the ball well. His concentration had been good in difficult situations. He is not a negative person and his positive attitude on Thursday evening helped him take the first tee on the second day in just the right mood to let Turnberry have its own back. His performance was a knock out. His 63 was just one stroke away from being the most historic round in any major championship.

Greg is one of the elite few on the international scene who is capable of producing electrifying scoring bursts. On every circuit in Japan, Australia, Europe and America there are dozens of golfers grinding out a living with hard-worked-for scores of one, two or three under par. Greg goes for far more dramatic sub-par numbers. It is an ambition of his to shoot a 59 one day somewhere and I am not prepared to bet against his achieving it. When he was playing in the European Open at magnificent 5unningdale a few years ago, he announced that because the course was playing shorter than normal, he hoped to break 60 on it. Many scoffed and chortled at his apparent big-headedness. In fact he was not joking. He meant what he said. He did not achieve it that time but he tried really hard to match his words.

What is it that distinguishes the really low scorer from his rivals in the world of professional golf? Well, initially no golfer is going to rip a course apart if he has not got supreme confidence in his game, a fiercely positive approach, built-in power and, above all, no fear. Greg Norman admits the game does not scare him. His motto might well be "Live by the sword, die by the sword." He goes for the flag almost every time.

He explains his attitude this way: "I only look at the pin. I know the yardage I've got to hit and know that I can usually hit within six feet of the hole with pitching clubs. There may be a cluster of bunkers guarding the entrance to the green on the left and a water hazard along the right side of the green, but they do not figure in my thinking. If I let them interfere I'd start getting scared, apprehensive, defensive. 50 I block them out. Other people might find it difficult to do that. I'm lucky I don't."

Basically Norman does not have much fear in anything he does. He has flown and enjoyed co-piloting an F-16 American Air Force jet; he enjoys travelling fast in his Ferrari or Rolls Royce Cornicha or XJS-6, even if wife Laura does not particularly like him to, but he is always quick to point out he never pushes himself beyond what he believes are his capabilities. It has been the same for him on the golf course, right from the day as a young amateur at Royal Queensland he shot a thirteen-underpar 60. That was not in a competition but it gave an indication of what young Norman might achieve later in his pro career.

He was a late starter in the game. He did not get his first full set of clubs until he was nearly sixteen. That was in 1970 and he remembers the clubs cost his parents one hundred and fifty Australian dollars. At that time he played off twenty-seven. Within nine months, he had won his first golf event playing with his dad, and in less than two years, he was down to scratch and very quickly picking up the Queensland Junior Championship. Even then he was a big hitter. His early coaches encouraged him to hit full out, believing it was easier to build in control and accuracy later, than to perfect a controlled game first, then try to add in the power. They were right. Now his average drive on tour is over two hundred and seventy-four yards and he always has something in reserve. This helps considerably when it comes to overpowering the par-five holes. . . and his low rounds usually include one or more eagles.

"My caddie, Pete Bender, always says that the key to a low scoring round is playing the par-fives well," says Greg, who recalls one time at the famous Wentworth course near London eagling three of the par-five holes and being mad at not eagling the other after hitting the green in two shots. "That annoyed me," he said.

Norman, like Fuzzy Zoeller when he gets it going (he once made eight birdies in a row in 1976) or like Europe's Jose-Maria Canizares, who ended the second round of the Swiss Open in 1978 with five birdies in a row and started the third with six birdies and then an eagle, is not short on adrenalin when required. In 1977, for instance, when he first arrived in Europe, he turned up at Blairgowrie in picturesque Perthshire to play the stylish Martini tournament (sadly no longer on the calendar). It looked as if Howard Clark, the Ryder Cup golfer, was going to win until Norman, in driving rain, birdied five holes out of six from the turn, stormed home in 32 for a course record 66, and picked up the first prize cheque.

In Australia in 1978 he shot a closing round of 61 in the Lakes Open to come from six strokes behind and win by three. Ian Stanley was his victim that day. He has shot a 62 at Las Vegas and in the Canadian Open at Jack Nicklaus' tough Glen Abbey course and he has had a 62 on what could be described as his home course these days Bay Hill, in Orlando, Florida. He lives on the complex developed by Arnold Palmer, with whom he often practices.

"I really did have a chance that day at Bay Hill to shoot 59," he recalls. "I was nine under par after fourteen and lipped out for birdies at the last four holes." That he remembers, but most of his low scoring performances he has long forgotten. "Basically I'm not a record hunter," he says.

Power off the tee he most certainly has the result, perhaps, of the fact that like Seve Ballesteros and Gary Player he has arms one inch longer than normal. He can build up a longer, wider arc and generate more power. He has broad shoulders and strong thigh muscles to help drive his legs through the shot. Although for over a year he was hampered by having caught an at-first untraceable virus in Hong Kong, Norman is incredibly fit and strong, even if he will not be able, according to his great friend Jack Nicklaus, to keep hitting the ball with such venom for much longer. Norman's longest drive by the way was one of 484 yards at the eighteenth at Gleneagles in Scotland. It was downhill and downwind, but still a monster shot. He finished just a yard or so from the green and eagled the hole to win his match in one of the BBC pro-celebrity encounters. (The following day Tom Watson, not to be outdone, hit his drive at the same hole a couple of yards further).

Norman's short game these days is sharper than it has ever been. He putts boldly, sometimes too boldly for the hole, but is good on the greens. Yet all that plus an ability to hit crisp irons into the green is not enough to make a golfer a regular low scorer. He needs that aggressive attitude and you might think that Greg inherited that from his parents. In fact, in the early days, Norman's off-course personality was painfully quiet. "I used to be very shy. I never used to talk. When I won my first pro event, (only the fourth tournament he had ever played in) I was drawn the following week with Nicklaus, my life-long hero. My whole game was modelled on his technique learned from poring over Golf My Way but I was dreadfully nervous. We met and chatted briefly the day before. He did most of the talking. When it came time to tee up, I topped my opening drive thirty yards and finished up shooting an 80. In those days I used to answer Press questions with a "yes" or "no", but I realised this was silly. I appreciated very quickly that if you can relate to people, and them to you, then that is the whole deal right there. Now I speak my mind and if I'm irritated by a question in the press room I am inclined to let the man who asked it have it if he deserves it." Greg has certainly conquered his shyness!

What he has not quite mastered yet is the necessity at times to throttle back, pull in the reins. If he is in the mood for a low score and that is something that just seems to happen on the day his natural approach is to go for it all the time, when some times a little conservatism might be a more prudent policy. Yet spectators love it when he is chasing the birdies and eagles with relentless enthusiasm, like he did on the second day at Turnberry. His 63 included an eagle and eight birdies. He dropped three shots, made only six pars, and thrilled the huge crowd that followed him as he proved that Turnberry could be mastered.

"I felt good when I got up that morning. The weather was better. On the way to the first tee I kept saying over and over in my mind 'Blue skies and a 65.' I say that often to myself to get myself going and I moved into top gear quickly. I birdied three of the first four holes. Everything seemed to flow," recalled Norman afterwards. "The ball was coming off the middle of the club and I felt really confident and comfortable with my swing. I liked the speed of the greens. That suited me, too. There were no distractions. I was totally involved in each shot and that is when I am at my most dangerous. That day everything seemed just right."

The crowd were quickly behind him. Any gallery loves a golfer making birdies with the ease others are making pars. Norman, on the second day at Turnberry, reminded some of us of]ohnny Miller in 1974 when in back-to-back weeks in the Arizona desert he shot twentyfour under par and twenty-five under par respectively at Phoenix and Tucson. Miller played, then, as if in a trance and Norman, blessed with the same low scoring ability to shoot lights out when "in the mood," was in spectacular form as he chased his first major title. The driver is his favourite club in the bag, but many golfers, fearful of ending up in the punishing rough, were using irons off the tee or three woods. Norman, crashing his way round, used his driver nine times and singleputted nine times for a score that matched the Open Championship record, the record for any major championship and the course record for Turnberry. Yet despite the fact that only Seve ria no Ballesteros later in the week would come close to matching Norman's performance in much easier conditions with a 64, the big Australian ended up being just a little disappointed. Over aggression had cost him an eagle at the seventeenth and he had to make do with a birdie. At the last he needed a birdie for 61, par for 62 but what he did not know was that that 62 would have been the lowest round ever in a major. Had he known so, he might not have been so aggressive with his first putt, which went sliding three feet past. Incredibly he missed the return and the record he now admits he would have loved most of all. "I reckon a 62 will never be broken in one of the majors and I just hope I get another chance to shoot it some where along the line," he said, turning his disappointment into positive thoughts for the future.

You know Greg Norman might just get another chance at that 62 and not miss out next time. He might just fire that 59 somewhere around the world because he is one of the elite few who are not scared of stringing birdies together and shooting low numbers. He loves it. . . and so do we all. His 63 on the second day of the Open paced the way for his eventual victory.. .and scores like that again in the future will ensure he lands more major titles while giving maximum pleasure to those watching him. Norman justifiably earns big money on the course and four times as much off it. His brand of aggressive golf is great for the game. Birdies and eagles draw in the crowds and Norman is the latest in the line of international stars with a remarkable gift. He reminded us of that at Turnberry that Open Championship Friday.

Writers Renton Laidlaw Norman Mair Alister Nicol Donald Steel Michael Willams Mark Watson	Photographers Lawrence Levy Brian Morgan
	Editor Bev Norwood