Greg Norman: How Practice Made Perfect

This Chronicles Unseen long-form article can be viewed in full on the oneclub.golf website. Enjoy a teaser below.

A short story from Greg Norman, one of the finest golfers of the late 20th century, highlights the extraordinary natural ability that helped the Australian to two Open Championship victories and 331 weeks as the world’s top-ranked player.

A relative latecomer to the game, Norman was close to celebrating his 16th birthday when he first tried his hand at golf, playing the last four holes at Virginia Golf Club in Brisbane after caddying for his mother.

Instantly hooked, he soon started attending junior clinics at the club. What followed was truly remarkable.

“I was given a 27 handicap. My first official score was 108 and, from there, in 18 months I got down to scratch,” Norman explained. “And not so long after that, in a period of less than five years, I actually won my first professional golf event, which was the Westlakes Classic in Adelaide in November of 1976.”

Norman’s stunning early progress showed he was a player of rare skill, yet he nevertheless recognised he would need to work incredibly hard to make an impact at the very highest level.

If his innate talents played a significant role in his subsequent Open triumphs and wider career accomplishments, it is clear Norman’s devotion to his craft was no less important.

In the decade that followed his maiden professional triumph, Norman gradually made his mark as one of the leading players in the world. Underpinning his improving efforts was a desire to learn from his peers and maximise his natural ability.

Major glory narrowly eluded him in 1981, when he finished just three shots behind Tom Watson at the Masters, and Norman came even closer in the 1984 U.S. Open as he lost to Fuzzy Zoeller in an 18-hole play-off.

By the time he arrived at Turnberry for The 115^th Open in 1986, the Great White Shark had recorded half a dozen top-six finishes in majors. What is more, he had held the 54-hole lead at both the Masters and the U.S. Open earlier that year, only to finish second at Augusta and 12th at Shinnecock Hills.

On Scotland’s west coast, where strong winds and a penal set-up provided a fiendishly difficult test, Norman’s tireless work on his game finally reaped rewards.

A record-equalling 63 in round two lifted him to the top of the leaderboard and he ultimately triumphed by five strokes to break his major duck.