DORAL-RYDER OPEN

March 3, 1997

Greg Norman

GREG NORMAN: Yeah, I'm happy to be back. Back in the saddle, another year. Yeah, I'm happy to be back.

GREG NORMAN: My game is strong. Last week was an excellent week for me. I'm glad I went over there. It was a late decision to go over there. They invited me fairly late. I wasn't planning on doing it. And, on reflection now, it was a great idea, great decision, because I had a lot of time to practice over there. I got to play on a golf course with very similar greens of what they have here, Bermuda greens. Conditions were hot, favorable. So, all in all -- and, I played well, too. So, it was a combination of the right decision. My game was good and I practiced hard leading up into it. And I needed some tournament competitive rounds under my belt before I came back to the states. So it was a good decision; that's why I'm happy to be back.

GREG NORMAN: Total rest from golf, the only thing that screwed it up was the Andersen, because at that time - and I'm meaning that in a good way, really, not in a bad way - but the fact that when I made my decision for the three months I wasn't planning on being in the final of the Andersen. So, it was a good -- it was a win/win situation for me. I practiced a couple of days for the Andersen. I didn't put in my full schedule of practice, preparation. Fortunately enough, I went out there and played well enough to win. So, when that finished, I didn't stop playing until the week before I went to Dubai; I had complete rest. All the other time, never thought about golf; never read a golf magazine; never read any articles about golf in the newspapers, just kept right away from it.

GREG NORMAN: I didn't do much fishing. I did a lot of working out; did a lot of business. Did a design trip around the world for two weeks, which I totally enjoyed, because there wasn't any golf play involved. So, I had a total absorption for me in my work at that time, instead of doing a half a day and worrying about getting out on the golf course to play, total dedication into the work I had to do. And, that, to me, was extremely productive. So, I enjoyed that. So getting away from the game of play, I had a great time.

GREG NORMAN: My apparel?

GREG NORMAN: Well, I go up there and I do all the selection with the materials and the designs and color schemes and fabrics on what we hope to put out a year and a half from now, two years. Yeah, I go up to New York and do that.

GREG NORMAN: Just those things I mentioned.

GREG NORMAN: It's business, too. I enjoy doing it, as well.

GREG NORMAN: No, not now. We've -- I've committed in my head now to stay here. I've committed my business to stay here. At that time it was an easy move, because the kids were -- one was finishing middle school, going into high school; one was finishing lower school into middle school. The transition for them would have been the easiest time to do it. And I don't do anything unless it's a unanimous decision by the family. And I have the utmost admiration and respect for my 11 year old boy for standing up for what he thinks is right. And I wouldn't violate the trust that he has in me by saying it's got to be unanimous. If I say, "you say, 'no, I don't want to go,' and we're going," that would have -- I admire him. For a kid to do that, is pretty strong. So, yes, that was true.

GREG NORMAN: No, no, no. I love to go home. It's not that I'm sick of the states. I love the states, but I love home, too. There's certain parts of Australia that I love. And certain parts of Australia -- that's why I wanted to be there. But, right now, we're staying here, staying here for a long time, until the kids finish their education, whether it's college or whether it's high school. And as time goes by, like I just prefaced most of that, I've dedicated my business to stay here. So the more that gets going and rolling along, in ten years time, it may be very difficult to move back to Australia.

GREG NORMAN: No. I have never had a problem with that and I don't anticipate a problem with that because I think I have a very well balanced schedule. I have a very good group of guys around me who understand my line of thinking and take what is necessary for them to do, they do a good job and I'm the one that has to make the final decision. So, I've never had an overflow anywhere where one spills into the other.

GREG NORMAN: It's not a wholesale redesign. No, a wholesale is when you take 128 holes and take them up and replay, shoot a new set of lines and everything. It was just a renovation, it was the touchup the Doral really needed. A lot of the greens weren't grown in. A lot of bunkers weren't in play anymore. All he's done is take the Dick Wilson drawings and put the golf course back to the way Dick Wilson wanted and, yes, Raymond put a few touches on there where he thought it was necessary, because of the way the length of the game is played. We're all hitting the ball longer. So he felt by adding a little bit more to some of the holes, like 18, for example, and 8, for example, and what's the other one, I think there's four holes that add up to a couple hundred yards, I can't remember all of them. Those he thought were necessary because of the way the game is played nowadays. The layout of the golf course is exactly the same. You're still hitting the same line off the tees. You still carry the same bunkers. So, I'm look being at the same marks I hit at last year on Sunday.

GREG NORMAN: 18 is going to be a lot tougher hole now. It will be much tougher to play. I think, as Raymond said, coming up 18 in the younger days of his play, 18 was the hardest finishing hole on the TOUR. And, now, it's probably going to get back to being the hardest hole on the TOUR.

GREG NORMAN: Only when you bring it up.

GREG NORMAN: Same way as I've been prepared for every other question anyone has ever asked me. I've never run away from anything, guys, I've always stood facing the music. And I accepted the fact that there's going to be a minority of guys who want to talk about it and make an issue out of it, something that happened 10 months ago, I accept that. But, you've also got to accept the fact that I put my pants on the same way you guys put your pants on every day, and I made a mistake at the Masters. And, I accept the fact that I made a mistake. It was all my fault. It wasn't anybody else's fault. If you people want to keep talking about it, writing about it, so be it. It's not going to affect me. I look forward to going back to The Masters with just as much passion as I had before things happened last year. And I look forward to going back there and anticipate giving myself the same opportunity. And, I hope I do have a 6-shot lead going into Sunday, again. Because I would like to go into it, even if I have a 1-shot lead going into Sunday. I am looking forward for a situation like that again. So, in answer to your question, I don't run away from things. I accept my responsibilities and fate.

GREG NORMAN: I just screwed up. I put a bad performance in on Sunday. It was more physical than it was mental. My mental application, my preparation Sunday was excellent. But, my physical aspect of my game was not. There was a minor flaw in my game and it showed through and the more I tried to push it, and every golfer says the same thing about Augusta. You can't force the issue. The more I forced it, the worse it got away from me.

GREG NORMAN: The 63 at TPC?

GREG NORMAN: I'd have to put the 63 at Wilson Gorge way ahead of that. So, there's about five or six rounds that really stick in my mind. Yes, that's one. But that wouldn't be No. 1. There would be a couple of others that probably would be tied for the top position; maybe three of them. But that would definitely be in the top-5.

GREG NORMAN: Yeah, it would be among those, it definitely would be.

GREG NORMAN: 62 is a possibility, the way these guys play nowadays, it's unbelievable. You can have the toughest golf course in the world out there. Somebody, when he's on his game, and has everything right, he'll shoot a 62. It's not going to be as easy to shoot a 62 around here as it was before they made the renovations. But, yes, it's possible somebody will do it. The number shot is harder. I can't make a comment until we see the end result. I think the golf course, if you play there, the golf course is there. The greens are beautiful to put on. The fairways are beautiful to hit off of. If you're good with your head -- it's hard to put a figure on anything, because these guys are so good. They splash the numbers up on the leader board like they're throwing confetti. It's phenomenon how good they are. You have to sit back and see how good you are at the end of the day.

GREG NORMAN: I would say because the way the surrounding of the greens are prepared, and again, it's the Dick Wilson style. When they played this golf course - he said back in the '60s and 70's, all the fringes were shaved like that. So you're going to have to be a little bit more alert. You don't have six inches of Bermuda in the rough to catch you from going into the water. So you're going to have to be more precise with the way you want to hit your shot on the green. But you're still precise anyway when you're playing well, so you're still hitting that shot. But, now you're a little more aware of the fact that you might get yourself into trouble if you just miss-hit that shot. 3 and 4 are good examples. But, that's the way it was. I didn't play this golf course in those days. I just accept this as the way it used to be.

GREG NORMAN: I think it was necessary. Like I said, in the beginning, she needed it, she was tired. She was definitely tired. And when every golf course gets tired with a lot of top dressing, especially down in this part of the world, when you top dress, you get the greens three or four feet above the structure of their base. You need to do that. You need to rip it up and start again. And Raymond was telling me that holes like the 8 went down 4 feet before they got back to the original subsurface. And the 13th, three feet he had to take it down. So that's all top dressing over the period of decades, since they redid it. So that's why she was tired. And the golf course wasn't playing the way Dick Wilson wanted it to play.

GREG NORMAN: My passion to play is always there. I didn't miss it at all over the three months. I enjoyed going out to the Andersen and playing and winning. I enjoyed going to Dubai and getting in the playoffs. I think you'll find when I'm away from it, I didn't miss it. But, when I got back on the golf course, you enjoy being back again. And that's the competitive edge that's always flowing inside you, I suppose. And that's not saying I'm not looking forward to the day I stop playing, too, totally. I'm looking forward to that day because that day eventually will come. I'm not going to be one that just hangs on and hangs on. As long as my competitive desire to play is still there like it is right now, I always look forward to coming back with my schedule.

GREG NORMAN: That was my trainer's decision. My trainer saw how tired I was looking towards the middle of the year, and he said, Greg, you know, he sat down, because he worked with me then nearly four years, yeah, four years, and he had seen my schedule and what I do and he said "you've got to stop, just take three months off. Have you ever taken time off?" And, I said, "no, I've never taken time off in 20 years of playing." He said, "stop playing and take three months off and enjoy being home." I took the kids to school every day when I was home. Doing all those things that you guys enjoy doing too.

GREG NORMAN: I did, actually. I did on my computer, I learned how to type. I'm still hopeless.

GREG NORMAN: We had a great time. Matter of fact, you know, I really have a lot of admiration for the man as a man. And I didn't know the President prior to that time of playing golf with him. I had drawn a conclusion, which was an incorrect conclusion, until I met him. But, we had a great time. We enjoyed it, so much so that we communicate almost on a weekly basis.

GREG NORMAN: No, I haven't. I'm a Republican. No, I haven't been invited up there. But I've got a lot of respect for him.

GREG NORMAN: I think he's a real man's man. I think he wears his heart on his sleeve. I think he's sincere in things he says when he talks to you. He grabs your attention, when he walks in the room. And there's only a few people that have ever done that to me, like Nelson Mandela, Gorge Bush was one. Actually, they're all -- Seve Balesteros is like that. So he was like that. And he's just a regular -- like I said about putting the pants on every day. He puts his pants on the same way we do. And he likes to sit down and just have a good old chat, like any one of us would like to sit down and have a good old chat.

GREG NORMAN: He's pretty good for the lack of time he gets to play.

GREG NORMAN: I'll answer the second question first. I first met him in Australia in 1976 on the Tuesday of the practice round of the Australian Golf Club, and it was in November. It was the first time I met him. The last time I played with him, I couldn't tell you. I have no idea. Probably a long time, a good ten years, I bet. May go all the way back to The Masters.

GREG NORMAN: I got $55,000 from that at a charity, so it was worth it. I gave it away to Australia and they auctioned it off. It was the same driver that happened here. I hope that doesn't happen this year, because if it does, it would be in the bunker, so I'll still have a play.

GREG NORMAN: I can think of a lot of things. I don't know.

GREG NORMAN: I'm just enjoying my life, and I have no complaints. I'm doing the best I possibly could do in everything I do. And that's all I can ask for myself and do for people around me, my family and my wife and my friends and my business. I just try and be the best I can possibly be. So what else is out there? Time will tell - I don't know.

GREG NORMAN: I drive the kids to school every day I'm home.

GREG NORMAN: Oh, yeah. I mean, you always learn -- you always drag a positive out of a negative.

GREG NORMAN: Oh, I just -- on reflection, it was probably more the emotion of the people around, and I suppose when you live in a fish bowl most of your life, you don't -- you really turn your mind off to a lot of that stuff and you become very insulated. And when all that came about, it really -- I can categorically say this: If I won The Masters last year, it wouldn't have changed my life; not one cent would it have changed my life. But, by losing The Masters last year, has changed my life. So there's a positive out of a negative.

GREG NORMAN: Sure, yeah. The emotion that came out. And, now, the emotion is returning, because it's only a couple of months away. The same people that wrote to me at the end are writing to me now. So now I'm getting the same ten boxes of mail a week. So it's come all back again. I took 11 boxes of mail to Dubai and I had to write letters for the whole trip over. It's just one of those things where it's just added up.

GREG NORMAN: Am I doing more traveling?

GREG NORMAN: I'm going to Spain and Japan and come back for the Atlanta Bell South.

GREG NORMAN: I've done it all my life. I still have the same number of tournaments I play every season. And this years is no different than any year.

GREG NORMAN: I can't answer that question, because I haven't read anything. I honestly have not read one golf article about any person. I don't -- I know who won, because I like to notice who wins the tournaments. But I haven't read one article on the game of golf. And I couldn't tell you how Tiger has been reacting or his attitude towards what's happening. I can say he's great for the game. And I can honestly admit that there's been -- him being on the scene, I welcome it. I don't have any ego, I don't have any problem with Tiger Woods being out here. I relish the fact that he's out here. And I did say that in Australia and that was great in Australia because he got a lot of attention. He got all the attention. I don't have a problem with that. I think it's good.

GREG NORMAN: No. I've got enough attention. Not everybody is going to go a hundred percent one person's way. Not everybody thinks that one person's a hundred percent right. That's what makes up the world. So I still have my fans out there. And Tiger has his fans and Jack has his, Freddie has his. We all have groups that follow us and support us. And it's the people that love to follow the game of golf. I'm not going to -- if my play is good, the fans will still be good.

GREG NORMAN: With Tiger?

GREG NORMAN: Of course, yeah. Why wouldn't I?

GREG NORMAN: Last time I spoke to Tiger was many, many months ago, probably when he was an amateur.

GREG NORMAN: Yeah, everybody would be curious. I feel sorry for Tiger in a lot of ways. I think he doesn't have a life for a 21 year old. I know what I was doing at 21, I was having a great time. In lots of ways, you feel sorry for the kid. But, in lots of ways, he deserves what he's getting. I don't have any resentment towards the fact of what's being said about what he's been earning. I think that's great. I just think that it will be a very interesting thing to see the progress. And like anything - we've all seen it, guys - it's an evolution of time and things don't happen in six months, things don't happen in 12 months in this game of golf. It takes decades. And we all know that. So it's just a matter of time.

GREG NORMAN: No. I'm talking about all the ancillary stuff that's got to come in. I think we all love the fact that we just -- when we get on the golf course, that's our peace and quiet; that's what we cherish the most. It's all the stuff outside of that that's sometimes very, very difficult to handle. And that's what I'm saying. It's only a matter of time to see how somebody handles it. And we've seen guys who have become successful and don't want it. Then there's guys who want it. Tiger wants it. I want it. Nicklaus wanted it. His play is like that. There are many like us. There are a few that don't want that, so they're happy not sitting up there and taking all the responsibilities that come along with it.

GREG NORMAN: Well, the shot into 9 was where I knew my swing wasn't right because there was nothing wrong with the shot. I thought I put the swing on it the right way, but it came up about 30 inches short, three feet short of where I was hitting. And when you're playing well, you can put that ball with a sand wedge or pitching wedge within three feet of where you want it to land. And that's where I knew that my swing wasn't right, because I felt everything was right. But, I knew the result was wrong. From there on in, I just tried to push it a little bit; tried to figure out what was going wrong with me. And I don't normally do that on the golf course. I normally go out and play. I'm a field player. So at that time I tried to -- that's when it became a real physical thing, trying to correct the problem that's there. And you can't do that in nine holes on a Sunday at the Masters.

GREG NORMAN: I told you it was physical, yeah.

GREG NORMAN: That's still my attitude. Like I said before, I relish the fact if I get a 6-shot lead or 1-shot lead, just being in contention on Sunday. That's what my goal is and that's what I'm going to try to do.

GREG NORMAN: I like the layout. I like the way the holes are shaped. It's a great driver's golf course. You can lay it up with a 3-iron, and you've got to hit a 3-wood. It really sets up beautifully, this golf course, for play. And I enjoy the set up. I enjoy the way it's shaped. I live maybe 40 minutes away, and I can be at home which is a great feeling to have. So, there's a lot of comfortable feelings with this environment for me. And when you've won a round of golf, and you remember the way the putt breaks, it's a little different now because we have different putting surfaces. There were a few putts out there that didn't do what I thought they should do because of the new surfaces. So, we're all on a new learning curve with the greens. But, basically, 90 percent it's doing what it used to do anyway. I can walk up to a putt without lining it up and tell you exactly what it's going to do. Those kind of things make it easier in your mind.

GREG NORMAN: I think everybody is now --

GREG NORMAN: -- Starting from scratch. 18 is a perfect example. 18 won't do anything. I remember I made that putt to get in the playoff - I think it was 1990 - about a 30-footer across the green. I knew what the ball was going to do the last four feet. I didn't even line it up. I lined up the first putt. I know this green is going to take the ball this way, and it goes differently than what most people think, the grain. And I remember that lesson from Raymond Floyd the year before. It's hard to make yourself do that, when you don't see it and you trust it and it went in. But, now, it's different. The 18th green is different. It's a different surface. It's a different undulation on there. So it's going to be at least two or three years before the grain gets established the way it used to be.

GREG NORMAN: No, no, they haven't. I had one in Bangkok where they played a tournament there. But, from the PGA's point of view, I can't wait to see what the reaction is. So time will tell.

GREG NORMAN: It's a great golf course. What do you expect? (Laughter). I don't know. You'll just have to go and see for yourself. I've built a golf course there that I felt suited the terrain. And I started that golf course for purely residential. It was only halfway through the construction of it that it became a TPC, and it became a PGA TOUR golf course, and I can say I didn't change one thing on that golf course for that. We had to widen the fairways for the galleries and put some easements in for galleries to get through to one hole to another; we had to sacrifice some lots for that, and the back of the 18th green for the tents. But, from the layout point of view, we didn't change it. That's the thing I'm most proud of.

GREG NORMAN: Let's see, what did I do? No, I didn't do anything.

GREG NORMAN: A lot of people have asked me that question. The best way I can answer right now - and it's very difficult to answer a question like that now, because you don't know what's going to happen between now and the day you retire - but the best way to answer that is I just try to be the best, like I said before, the best I can be. The best golfer I can be, the best husband or the father or the best friend, the best I can possibly be in anything. The best for golf. The things I do for the game, just not on the golf course, and it's not -- trophies aren't everything in the game. That's one thing I've learned. Trophies are nice to have. I don't even put my trophies in the golf club. I don't put them in my office. I keep them in my house. They're not show pieces for anybody. I don't believe in doing that. I don't believe in flaunting your trophies. And everybody at the golf club wants me to put my trophies there. And I said, "no, it is your golf club, not mine" - even though it is - "it's yours." So there's so much more than trophies. And yes, I'd love to win all the tournaments I've ever played in the world, but if I don't, I still know I've been the best I can possibly be. And so that's the easiest way I can answer that.

GREG NORMAN: See, that's not a priority to me. Everybody has got a different priority in life. I just try to do what I think is right for me, and the day I do retire I know I've done pretty much everything right for me. And you're not going to get everything in this world - nobody ever does - I don't care who you are. And there's times you just accept the fact that you've done all the right things, you've done the things you thought were necessary for you, your family, the people around you, and if you do it that way, I'm happy. I'm happy now. There's nothing here in this world that's going to bug me or bother me anymore.

GREG NORMAN: Probably because I'm a reluctant celebrity. I enjoy it, because I love the game. I do this because I love to play the game, but I'm not one who enjoys the celebrity status that comes with it, I suppose. So I'm happy, I can't wait for the day just to be a regular old Joe, I suppose.

GREG NORMAN: I loved it. The thing I enjoyed the most was going on a design trip. And nobody knew I was going there. And to get off the plane and go to the construction site, nobody is there, except you and your workers and the people who work for you. You get dirty. You have a cold beer in the middle of the day if you want to, that type of stuff. Nobody there to ask me a question, question why you did that, and why aren't you practicing, and why did you do that at the Masters, all those things. And that's what I love the most. You can't believe what it feels like when that does happen to you.

GREG NORMAN: It was the first part of January. It was right after the Andersen.

GREG NORMAN: Yeah.

GREG NORMAN: That's right.

GREG NORMAN: Dubai I started practicing probably about ten days, 8 or 10 days beforehand, something like that.

GREG NORMAN: We went to 14 cities in ten days. I can remember having four meals, I think it was, off my back. We did all our traveling at night. We did -- got in the plane and left. Landed with a two hour flight, did some work in the morning and went somewhere else and did work in the afternoon, and flew all night to get somewhere. I wouldn't have been able to do it if I didn't have a plane and obviously the plane helps with the project.

GREG NORMAN: Five.

GREG NORMAN: No, I was ready to go. I was ready.