Norman strides into Seniors Open

HIS shock of blond hair and rugged physique as distinctive as when he won the Open at Turnberry in 1986 and Royal St George's in 1998, Greg Norman makes his debut today in the £1million British Seniors Open at Royal Aberdeen looking unchanged from his heyday when he won more than 85 tournaments around the world.

Norman tees up with the over-50s for the first time at Balgownie in the company of Carl Mason and Mark McNulty. "Greg is the fittest thing I've ever seen," observed Mason. "I said to him earlier today: 'You're not allowed to look like that [at 50]. You're too fit.'"

Intriguingly, Norman's first win on the European Tour was in Scotland at Blairgowrie in 1977. And his enthusiasm for golf in this part of the world has never waned over the years.

He laid the foundations for a successful career here in the late Seventies before joining the US PGA Tour in 1982. "I've got a great affinity for golf in the British Isles. That's why I wanted to focus on the Senior British Open as the place where I made my senior debut," he said.

Still one of the big earners in world sport even though his playing schedule has been limited because of back trouble, Norman made $16.2million and was ranked 38th among the world's 50 highest-paid athletes last year. In golf, only Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer and Phil Mickelson were paid more.

If Norman will inject a welcome dose of charisma into the senior gene pool, the Australian's presence in Scotland is to be treasured since he plans to play in so few events: the four senior majors in America and the British Seniors here. Perversely, he always relished the elements of wind, rain and temperature which could heighten the challenge of links golf. He saw similarities between the game played on the British linksland and the one he learned growing up in Queensland.

"I have a pretty good visualisation of how the ball reacts," he explained when asked why his record in the Open was better than in the American majors. "If you can picture your ball flight, no matter what the wind is like, that's a sign of a good golfer. It doesn't matter whether you want to hit it high or low. You've got to picture it and then go ahead and do it. Think of Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson down to Tiger Woods who could all do that."

Although he hopes to repeat the success he first enjoyed in Scotland at the Martini, Norman is the same competitor on the links but a different man off the course. The 50-year-old paid the penalty for a lifetime of striking thousands of balls on the range when he underwent back surgery earlier this year. There's a risk attached to any operation and Norman was relieved to come out the other side feeling fitter than he'd done for seven years. "My game is rusty but for the first time in a long time I can wake up in the morning looking forward to playing golf," he added.

Hosted by a club which was formed in 1780 and is proud of its status as the sixth oldest in the world, this is unknown territory for most of the players in the field. Even Tom Watson, arguably the greatest links golfer of the modern era with five Open titles and one British Seniors on his CV, rates the difficulty of Balgownie more testing in many ways than the challenge of the Old Course last week.

"This is a very bumpy, up-and-down course," noted the Kansas golfer. "It's hard to understand. It's a great challenge. It may be harder [than the Old Course] because the field here this week has never played the course before in competition. Unless the wind completely dies, you won't feel comfortable."

With four out of his five Open successes in Scotland and his Seniors victory at Turnberry, Watson has more cause than most Americans to feel welcome at the home of golf.

"I've got a little Scottish edge," he smiled. "I've had some good success here. It's really fun to play links golf because it takes so much wit to deal with it. It's so different from American golf. You've got blind shots, you've got wind and you've got bunkers you can't see. You have to stay calm and not get involved with all the things which can go wrong. Otherwise you'll go backwards so fast, it makes your head spin."

Although, at 55, he could compete in the Open for another ten years, Watson has no idea how long he will continue to enter the championship where only Harry Vardon won more titles. However long he competes, Watson will linger at the Open longer than he does at Augusta National.

Surprised to learn the organisers of the Masters are lengthening the course again, Watson commented: "I'm still eligible to play against the kids there but they may just eliminate me. I may not be able to play it. They're going to make that course so only guys like Tiger can play it. I don't buy what they're doing at Augusta. I don't think that's right."