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Courtesy of Greg Hardwig
Naples Daily News
NAPLES -- The Shark is back, but not in the field of this year's Franklin Templeton Shootout.
Greg Norman is fully serving his duties as tournament host this week at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort. For the first time in his event's 21 years, Norman won't be playing.
 Norman: "I'd rather be playing, I can tell you that. The hardest part for me was jumping in an airplane without a set of golf clubs." |
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Norman had right shoulder surgery in September with the hope he would recover in time to play the Australian Open and Shootout. After all, 11 years ago, Norman came back from similar fashion, winning the Shootout with Steve Elkington in a playoff with Peter Jacobsen and John Cook for the only victory in his own tournament. He had missed seven months after left shoulder surgery.
But this time, his recovery was not as quick as he would have preferred.
"I'd rather be playing," Norman said Thursday. "I can tell you that, because basically six hours of your day, you enjoy being out there on the golf course. You enjoy being with your pro-am participants. You enjoy engaging with everybody from a spectator standpoint, so it is unusual.
"It's a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. The hardest part for me was jumping in an airplane without a set of golf clubs."
Norman isn't sure when he'll be back in front of the fans playing golf again. It's still too far out from when he can even work out, which he won't be able to do for a few more weeks.
 "I played for quite a few years with my shoulder popping out of the socket, and really, it was affecting my swing," Norman said of his recent surgery. |
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"It was a pretty excessive procedure in the whole process, but the doctor likes where it is right now," Norman said. "It's right on track."
But at 54, Norman isn't sure how his body will recover or his game to make any kind of tournament plans.
"It's floating out there," he said. "Just going to see how the comeback trail from basically April, May, June, how it's going to play out."
Norman did say he plans to take advantage of a new exemption to get into the 2010 British Open at St. Andrews.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, which runs the British Open, recently announced a new exemption criteria for past champions that any former Open winner who finishes among the top 10 and ties will be exempt for the following five years. That also would allow Tom Watson, 60, to be eligible.
Norman just hopes his new right shoulder will be in shape by then. Once he's ready to work on his game, Norman will go back to Doral instructor Jim McLean, whom he's been working with for the past year.
"I played for quite a few years with my shoulder popping out of the socket, and really, I could feel it, and it was affecting my swing," he said. "And now my doctor says I'm going to have a much tighter swing."
Norman just wishes he could have been testing that this week.
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