Wayne Grady lashes out at Greg Norman and Tiger Woods’ legacy

Aussie golfing legend Wayne Grady has teed off on greats Greg Norman and Tiger Woods, claiming Norman didn’t know who his real friends were during his playing days while accusing Woods of being selfish. READ HIS EXTRAORDINARY ATTACK

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Aussie golfing legend Wayne Grady has teed off on Greg Norman, claiming the Great White Shark didn’t know who his real friends were during his playing days and suggesting his marriage to former tennis star Chris Evert was doomed from the start.

Grady, a long-time competitor to Norman during the 80s and 90s, gave the surprisingly candid appraisal of Australia’s greatest ever golfer last week when he appeared at a sold-out sportsmen’s lunch.

In a speech that shocked some of the 200-plus crowd at Brisbane’s Story Bridge Hotel, Grady said his sympathies always lied with Norman’s first wife Laura Andrassy following their divorce in 2006.

Norman wed Evert soon after but their marriage was brief, lasting just 15 months. He is now married to Kirsten Kutner.

Former golf pro Wayne Grady has lashed out at Greg Norman. Picture: Jerad Williams.

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“Laura deserves every cent of the $100 million that she got in the settlement … And Greg and Chris should have both been fined $10 million for stupidity,” Grady said during his Thursday appearance.

“All of our tennis friends. and we have a lot of tennis friends. and they knew Chrissie very well. Every one of those tennis players said that it would never last and it didn’t.”

Grady also took a dig at Norman’s circle of friends during his playing career, labelling them a group of ‘hangers-on’ who led the former world number one astray.

He even went as far as to suggest they contributed to Norman’s poor record of losing Majors despite going into the final day with the lead — something The Shark did on seven occasions.

“But the unfortunate thing about him is he didn’t know who his friends were. Because when you are on top of the world you have so many hangers on and they just wanted to be around him,” Grady said.

Greg Norman with his then wife Laura Andrassy at a Royal Children's Hospital dinner at the Grand Hyatt in 1996.

“He’s going to be judged unfortunately by the fact he was number one in the world for 296 weeks which is second to Tiger (Woods), who is more than double that … but he’s going to be judged by the number of Majors he won — and it was only two.

“I’ve always said that if you put Jack Nicklaus in Greg’s place on (the third day of a Major) Jack would have won eight or nine Majors but Greg only won two.

“In 1986 he was the only player to lead every major on Saturday night and he only won one.”

Grady did clarify that he wasn’t “putting shit” on Norman “because I have known him since I was 15 and he has done so much for Australian golf, it’s incredible”.

Norman with former wife Chris Evert attending the Johnnie Walker Classic welcome dinner in 2009.

Weighing in on Tiger Woods during the same speech, Grady said his recent comeback US Masters victory was amazing but he was not the American star’s biggest fan.

“But I had no love for Tiger, because when he was at his best he never gave anything back to the game.”

He also took a swipe British great Nick Faldo.

“I am not a great fan of Sir Nick. The guy has ‘Sir Nick’ on his golf bag. He has ‘Sir Nick’ on his sand wedges.”

Originally published as Wayne Grady lashes out at Greg Norman and Tiger Woods’ legacy