Revitalised Norman says he has another major in him

GREG Norman set his sights yesterday on hoisting the Claret Jug either at Turnberry next summer or in St Andrews the following year after producing the kind of performance in the Open at Royal Birkdale last week which renewed dreams of becoming the oldest ever winner of a major title.

Third behind Padraig Harrington in Lancashire after producing a thrilling display over the windswept links which only came up a little short on Sunday afternoon, Norman, 53, argued at Royal Troon how the next two links on the Open rota, the Ailsa and the Old Course in 2010, would give him more chances to contend for the title he last won at Royal St George's in 1993.

Although he's now an entrepreneur who only plays a little golf, Norman admitted the adrenalin which coursed through his veins at Birkdale might tempt him to prepare more rigorously for the next two stagings of the oldest major.

Asked if it was now lodged in his head that he could win the third major of his career, Norman replied: "Certain golf courses, yes. There are courses in the next couple of years, the Ailsa at Turnberry, which is a great links, and St Andrews, which is not overpoweringly long, where I could get excited about practising an extra month before I went to the Open.

"(My best chance] would be at the Open, or a US PGA on a certain type of golf course. There's some great golf courses that the PGA play, golf courses I've played well on. Again, they are around the 7200 to 7400 yard mark. As soon as you start pushing (out] the golf course for me, it's a problem. I still hit the golf ball a good distance. But at 7,600 yards, it starts to compound things a little bit."

Norman's performance in Lancashire has already persuaded the PGA of America, organisers of the season's last major at Oakland Hills in Detroit early next month, to send him an invitation. Although grateful for the honour, Norman was uncertain whether or not to accept. He'll make a decision today.

After a demanding week at Birkdale, Norman is chasing his first Senior Open title at Troon over the next four days before returning to America for the US Senior Open in Colorado. Playing four majors in as many weeks, however, may be asking too much of a man who has spent more time under the knife than on the range in recent years.

"I have to be careful," he said. "I've had multiple surgeries and they start to show up when I hit a lot of balls. I can't go out there and just pound golf balls and pound golf balls. My practise routine is 90 minutes to 150 minutes now; not hours upon hours upon hours. And I do hit very few drivers now. I'm more middle irons, short irons, chipping and putting."

After enjoying a short break with his wife, Chris Evert, and a few friends, in the Lake District en route to Ayrshire, Norman is looking forward to joining up with Tom Watson and Sandy Lyle this morning in the feature pairing at Troon. He quipped that his 'warm-up' at Birkdale had gone pretty well. "Now I've got to step up here. I like the course and my expectations are good. I'm not worried about my play this week or my concentration. I'll be OK."

If his expectations are higher among his peers on a links where he was runner-up to Mark Calcavecchia after a play-off at the Open in 1989, Norman was able to freewheel in Southport.

"My practise routine and my happiness in life – I'm where I want to be – makes it totally different for me," he reflected. "So I can waltz in there to Birkdale and be realistically honest with myself. Deep down inside, do you want to perform well? Always, you want to perform well. But at the same time, I have to walk onto that first tee and say, OK, Greg, you know what, I'm not shooting a 66 or a 68 in that wind. I'm looking at shooting a reasonable score that keeps me happy, one that makes me keep going into the next day. That's how your expectations really change and differ."

The man who was golf's No 1 for 331 weeks in the Eighties and Nineties added: "It's a great place to be, to tell you the truth. I can totally empathise with Tiger Woods, going into the US Open and not feeling 100 per cent physically fit, but absolutely having to gut it out, because you are the No 1 player in the world. Sooner or later, the tank gets drained every time do you it, and I've done it for 33 years.

"And that's why Chris said to me: 'The magnitude of last week will hit you 48 hours afterwards.' And, you know, when we had room service on Tuesday, you kind of sit there and go, 'whoa, yeah, that was a really good week.'"

If the moments he described as mini-victories will always stay with him, the knowledge he'd again gone so close, only to come up short when Harrington covered the back nine in 32, left him feeling numb. "Deep down inside it hurts, no question," he said. "When you're a sportsman in the arena, no matter how old or young you are, when you give yourself an opportunity, especially the more experience you have under your belt, when that opportunity doesn't really happen, you still wake up, and go, 'Oh, s**t.'"

Naturally, the pairing of Norman, Watson and Lyle at 9.20am is expected to draw large galleries to Ayrshire today. Andy Stubbs, managing director of the European Seniors Tour, said: "Watching Greg at the Open last week was fantastic promotion and we're expecting the biggest crowds we've ever had."