Shark shows he's not just on trip down Memory Lane

Greg Norman turned the clock back again Thursday with a 70 that could've been even better. With Day 1 down, he, son Gregory and wife Chris Evert are planning to parlay this great start into an awesome week.

By Melanie Hauser, PGATOUR.COM Correspondent

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- He’s at it again.

Just when we’re ready to say this is Greg Norman’s last stroll down the fairways at the Masters, he up and opens with a 2-under-par-70 that should have been a 67. Maybe a 65.

Missed an 18-inch birdie at the 18th. Missed three or four relatively makeable -- think seven feet or less and factor in Augusta’s greens -- putts in the first 17 holes.

You thinking Birkdale? Deep down, he probably is.

Norman may be 54, but he’s playing like he’s 44. Maybe 34.

He’s sticking to his plan: play solid golf and keep his expectations low. His focus is on making the cut and seeing what he can do.

He and wife Chrissie are talking sports and passion, and he’s finally sharing the spotlight here with son Gregory, who’s on his bag.

They’re all, as Gregory said, “feeling the love.’’

So what does he think of the outpouring?

“Hey, everybody loves me,’’ he said, drawing a laugh. “Nothing wrong with that, is there? Are you jealous?’’

Yes, he’s still got it. On and off the course.

The charisma is still unmistakable.

“I think no matter where I play in the world, I've always been connected to the gallery,” he said. “I play the game of golf with my heart on my sleeve, and I've done very well out of the game. And when I come here, people probably feel for me, some of the things that have happened around here, and really enjoy seeing me back here. I played my way back into this golf tournament, which very few people can say at the age of 54, and it's a feather in my cap to say the least.

“I think that they respect what I've done over my career and how I've handled some of the things that have happened around here. I see the same faces. Some of these people are sitting in the same chairs that were on the 15th, 15 years ago, even on the 18th,” he added. “So it's great to see these people time in, year after year, and being a seven-year hiatus, it feels like the very first time I played here.’’

Didn’t look like it, did it?

“I had a lot of opportunities, really could have shot a nice, mid-60s score today,’’ Norman said. “I didn't. I'm not complaining.

“There's just some putts out there that some of these greens have been adjusted to some degree, and the practice rounds really did not allow me to putt a whole lot because the wind was blowing the balls off whatever line you were hitting them anyway, so you really were not learning too much.’’

Gregory agreed, adding “Obviously, these greens are different than any other golf course,’’ he said. “They take a while to get used to.’’

Yes, today was about the golf. Three birdies. One bogey. Turned in 34, got one back with a birdie at the 11th. He was three back of the on-course lead when he walked off the course.

But it was also about sharing this with Chrissie, who walked the course and cheered her husband on, and Gregory, who stepped up big-time with everything his dad needed.

“He was excellent,’’ Norman said. “On a scale of one to 10, I'll give him a 9.5. Yardages, we went through this on Tuesday evening. I told him how precise the second shot has to be on this golf course. I told him, we went through the green set-ups and to make sure that every carry has to be within the yard. If it's 143, and if you hit it 142 and a half, like on 9, you're coming back. You have to be so precise with that yardage.

“And I said, that's where you've really got to concentrate from the caddie's perspective, and he did a phenomenal job today. Every time I walked over to the ball, he gave me the three yardages I like, front, carry, whatever it is over a knoll or over a bunker, and what the flag is, and the fourth yardage, how much behind the pin,” he added. “He just rattled them off and that just gives me the ability to concentrate on my shot, and then just go play my shot.’’

As for Gregory? Was this everything he thought?

“It’s a special place,’’ he said. “A special event.”

Any extra special moments?

He smiled. “Every one of them.’’

Gregory was playing in a tournament during the British Open, so he could only watch what his dad did on television. And, yes, he hung on every moment. Now, they have a great start on another incredible week.

Norman can’t overpower this course the way he did in the old -- think before lengthening -- days. But he can stay within his own game, which he did Thursday.

When someone asked him what he would have shot had he played this round on the old course, he laughed.

“Everyone wants to live in the past.’’

We won’t belabor the point. Nor mention where all those pieces of his heart were ripped out here. You know. He knows. He’s talked about it since he qualified for the tournament with his tie for third at the British Open.

The only past relevant to him right now? The experience of playing 22 previous Masters and the patrons he remembers from mumblesomething years ago.

And, oh, it was probably would have been something in the mid-60s.

“I drove the ball beautifully today, but I'm not driving the ball 40 yards further,’’ he said. “If I had the technology I had today back in the 80s, I would be driving the ball 340, 350 yards, no question about it. But I didn't.

“Today was a comparable round under those conditions. I may have made a few more putts back then, because to be honest with you, if anything does kind of have a tendency of leaving you if you have not played a lot of golf, it is your putting,” he added. “And it's not your stroke; it's actually feeling the putt. When you've got a putt so fast, just a lot of break, you've really got to have that memory and feel of what it's all about, and the more you play, that's what you have.

“I would say maybe one or two putts extra might have gone in the hole.’’

Team Norman will take 70. And build on it.

With Chrissie, Norman has a soulmate and a partner. They’re the jock version of Brangelina.

She won 18 Grand Slam events and might still be playing, she joked, if she could only run. She actually pushed Norman to play again.

“When you have somebody who has been a competitor; I mean, I'm very lucky to be like that,’’ he said. “Because to have somebody who has been in that position before, and it doesn't matter what sport you play; when you have to execute and know how to execute and understand what pressure is all about, and understanding what a mistake is; in tennis, if you hit it out, you might be 40-30 and then you can come back.

“In golf, you hit it in the water, you're making double bogey. So golf is a lot more of a precise game in a lot of ways, and she completely understands that. We have very spirited discussions which game is harder and which game is easier, to say the least.

“She says golf is not a cardio sport, which is true. But the other day when we were in Houston, she was on the golf course for 13 hours, and I asked her in the car, "Now what do you think is a cardio sport"? I go watch you play tennis and you're done in an hour. We're still out here 13 hours later and still on the golf course. It's a totally different sport.”

Yet tonight, she’ll have the perfect words to send him -- and Gregory -- into Round 2.

“She knows exactly how to handle the situation,’’ he smiled. “And it will just be a perfect preparation for tomorrow.’’

But before he headed to the clubhouse to have lunch with her, there was one last question. A version of the one we asked after Round 1 at Birkdale eight months ago.

Can a 54-year-old win here?

Norman grinned.

“We'll have to wait and see.”