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Shark Week: Greg Norman Discusses President's Cup, Issues In Golf

Shark Week may have come to a close last week, but there was a Shark on the prowl in Atlanta in the lead up to the PGA Championship. GREG NORMAN took time out of his schedule to discuss myriad topics, including the controversy surrounding TIGER WOODS and STEVE WILLIAMS, the President’s Cup in November and the forthcoming announcement that a financial company has agreed to title sponsor his Shark Shootout.

Q: You met with several potential international President’s Cup players on Tuesday night. What was your goal for the meeting?
Norman: I want to make sure that everybody understands the logistics, talking to them about the President’s Cup in Melbourne. I’ve got a few stats I want to show them of their performance, the top 15 to 20 guys on my list compared to the U.S. and European players. Just to get them excited. It is time we win this thing.

Q: How are you managing your schedule leading up to the President’s Cup in November?
Norman: I go down the week before the President’s Cup and play the Australian Open at the Lakes Golf Club and then, obviously, the President’s Cup. The week after that I’m going to play the Australian PGA Championship. They will be my first tournaments back since my surgery so I’m actually looking forward to doing it back home in Australia.

Q: You said recently “the game of golf is in a tough place in the United States.” What are the issues facing the sport in this country?
Norman: I think it is a perception problem, it is a reality problem, it is a financial problem, and it is a time problem -- the time it takes to play the game of golf. It is in a tough box right now. The PGA of America down to the PGA Tour, everybody really has got to start thinking outside the box a little bit. When the United States economy stabilizes, consumers that are really saving their dollars today and reducing their own debt eventually will feel more comfortable and want to get rid of that disposable income. What is one of the things that they are going to look at? It’s their entertainment, whether that is golf, tennis, fishing, skiing. They will get out there and spend their disposable income on things that they have really eliminated over the last couple of years. Golf will come back.

Norman says that it is important that guests at
his Shark Shootout receive special treatment
Q: You mentioned that you are close to a title sponsor for the Shark Shootout. What were the benefits that you pitched to this potential partner?
Norman: I think it is the quality of the event. You can mix hospitality with media very well. The quality of the week is very high on everybody’s list. Two-day pro-am, practice round and evening entertainment, everything is on-site at the Ritz Carlton at Tiberon. So when people come there they feel like they are getting special treatment. In this day and age that is what people need, that is what people are looking for and that is what you have to give them. The Shootout has always been that way. It has always been very popular with that format.

Q: What is your opinion on the current state of business of the PGA Tour?
Norman: They are in TV negotiations right now. I would love to be a fly on the wall because the ratings are down. The game of golf from the players’ perspective is global so they don’t have the Tiger Woods factor anymore even though he does move the needle. He is nowhere near the player that he used to be. Now the players have gone global and I think that is fantastic for the game. … One thing that I think the PGA Tour’s message to its constituents or its members is that any sports nowadays seem to be recession proof. They are still making huge amounts of money. If you win a tournament, you win a million, which is fantastic for the players. But there has to be a balanced approach to the general public when they see their 401Ks diminished by 10% in one day. I think there is a big difference between perception and reality, and I think the PGA Tour from a marketing standpoint might have an opportunity to position themselves a little differently and make sure that the perception of the players as recession proof does not permeate all through the image of the game of golf. It’s not just golf, it’s every sport.

Q: How much golf do you watch on TV?
Norman: The tournament last week (WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) I watched the last six holes. If there is a major championship on, like this week, I will probably watch a little bit of it. I’ll watch the highlights at the end of the day to see who is leading or who did what. That is about it. Now Sunday if I get a chance I’ll watch the last six to nine holes if it looks like it is going to be interesting.

Q: Do you think too much attention is given to Tiger Woods considering his recent struggles on the course?
Norman: Absolutely. But I think that is natural for the media because the media does not get anything out of Tiger. They're looking for information on the guy, they're looking for something, but he doesn’t give them anything. Does he like to have the attention? I don’t know, but to me it is fairly obvious that the media is clamoring for information.

Q: What were your thoughts on CBS interviewing Steve Williams following ADAM SCOTT's victory last week at Firestone?
Norman: Steve is part of the story. Steve was probably under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) when working under Tiger, couldn’t say anything and couldn’t talk about anything. I watched it, and I’ve known Steve since he was 15 years old. He worked for me for a long period of time, 10 years. I actually spoke to him and I said, “Steve, you finally look like you have been liberated.” He needed to talk. Steve was put in a bad position with Tiger, especially the last couple of years. … He needed to do that, because he was part of the story. He was accused of a lot of things that he never did. I felt for him at those times. At the end of the day, he got tarnished for something he knew very little about, if anything. Tiger handled the situation poorly for the way that he let Steve go.

Q: Do you subscribe to the theory that American golf is down in the professional ranks, or is it just a media-driven story?
Norman: It’s a fact. It is two parts. The media put all their eggs in one basket with Tiger, rightfully so. He performed fantastically for a period of time. They forgot about focusing on the many other great players. They just went about playing golf, winning and doing their thing, and now they are getting their reward. The media is now catching up with LUKE DONALD, LEE WESTWOOD, MARTIN KAYMER, RYO ISHIKAWA, JASON DAY, Adam Scott. You can go down the list. They really kind of forgot about these guys. I think it is fantastic for the game of professional golf. And I think it is actually pretty good for American golf because over a period of time it is going to stimulate some of those younger guys. The younger guys that couldn’t get any recognition because everybody was focused on Tiger, they will get the recognition that they deserve. I think that it is a double positive in the long run.

Norman hopes this year's vintages can
match the success of his '98 Reserve Shiraz
Q: What is your favorite bottle of wine?
Norman: It totally depends. Last night I opened up a beautiful bottle of Flowers chardonnay. One of my favorite wines is my Reserve Shiraz, which was voted No. 8 in the world in ’98 and ’99. I love that, but I don’t drink a lot of it because whatever bottles that you have are the bottles that you have, and sooner or later they are going to be gone. I like a good Margaux. I like to push myself around the world, even with my wines.

Q: Any new vintages from Greg Norman Estates that we should be looking out for?
Norman: The vintages coming up this year are going to be pretty darn good.

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