As heavy rain arrived at Royal Troon on Saturday afternoon, it appeared becoming climate to welcome the return of the ‘Nice White Shark’ Greg Norman to The Open, two years after he was snubbed by the R&A for his divisive function with LIV Golf.
There was a ruckus in 2022 when Greg Norman, regardless of being a dual-champion of the historic event, was not invited to have fun the one hundred and fiftieth Open at St Andrews attributable to his function because the face of the breakaway Saudi Arabian-backed tour.
However after the well-known Australian broke his exile at The Masters in April when buying tickets to attend an occasion the place he was runner-up 3 times, Norman is at Troon in an official capability this weekend and was carrying an R&A badge.
“It’s good to be again. The Open has a whole lot of historical past for me. To me, it was the very best championship of all. The Masters is the Masters, however I put this one up above all 4 of them as a result of it’s a true open,” he mentioned.
It’s 35 years since Norman and fellow Aussie Wayne Grady had been overwhelmed by American Mark Calcavecchia in a four-hole playoff at Troon. Equally to the best way superstars Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Bryson deChambeau left Troon bewildered on Friday, Norman mentioned he was nonetheless making an attempt to work the misleading course out.
“In 1989, I birdied the primary six holes of the ultimate spherical, shot 64, then birdied the primary two holes of the (playoff) and nonetheless didn’t win. I’m nonetheless making an attempt to determine this place out,” he advised Golf Digest.
Again in 2022, the R&A issued a press release saying it needed the main focus of its one hundred and fiftieth celebration to be on the anniversary and never the controversy that cut up aside the golf world, however they stored the door open for the Florida-based Australian to return sooner or later.
“In response to enquiries relating to the R&A Celebration of Champions subject and the Champions’ Dinner, we will affirm that we contacted Greg Norman to advise him that we determined to not invite him to attend on this event,” it mentioned.
“We hope that when circumstances enable, Greg will be capable of attend once more sooner or later.”
Norman, who spent the afternoon hob-knobbing in company suites, was more than pleased to be again, regardless of the grim climate. However whether or not LIV Tour golfers with out an exemption can be acquired with open-arms sooner or later stays uncertain.
Previous to The Open starting, outgoing R&A chief government Martin Slumbers successfully dominated out the introduction of a particular pathway for golfers on the LIV Tour into The Open.
LIV golfers are at the moment competing with out a possibility to earn world rating factors, with the one rivals at Troon this week those that have earned an exemption, with Cameron Smith an instance after his success within the one hundred and fiftieth Open at St Andrews.
The R&A is as an alternative proud of the present avenues in place, with Justin Rose amongst these to not too long ago earn a spot by way of a qualifying occasion that additionally led to Aussie Elvis Smylie’s debut.
Hopefuls also can earn entry by way of quite a lot of totally different tournaments world wide, with Melburnian Jasper Stubbs profitable a spot in The Open and The Masters by way of successful within the Asia Pacific Novice Championship, a title he hopes to defend in Japan later in 2024.
“We determined the 12 months after final 12 months’s occasion that we needed to make sure that there was ample sufficient alternatives for all gamers, whichever tour they’re taking part in on, to get into The Open,” Slumbers mentioned.
“We used our Open qualifying sequence. We picked occasions that had been out there for all gamers. We used the Asian Tour, and we used remaining qualifying to create these alternatives.“