Australians are apparently queuing up to take part in Norman’s baby. The pages of this newspaper revealed they are top Australian too, not your run of the mill Sunday hackers.
When it comes to top Australians and anything involving Norman, Adam Scott normally leaps to front of mind. Norman and Scott go way back. When Scott was a teenager threatening to take the world by storm, he bumped into Norman here and there.
His father Phil recounted in a book written by myself and Will Swanton on Adam’s Masters win about his son hitching a lift on Greg’s plane as a teenager when he was heading to a tournament in Sydney.
“Greg had this schmick little whatever-it-was plane in those days,” Phil Scott would say.
“Sometimes now I think it was all a bit surreal. Adam was such a kid and Greg was a megastar, a rock star, and Adam was jumping into his plane for a lift down to Sydney.
“Greg always kept in touch from there. None of it was especially big stuff, but he kept in touch to see how Adam was going.”
When Scott was weighing up whether to begin his professional career in Europe or America, Phil talked about how Norman’s advice was considered.
It was about having a shoulder to lean on. A brain to pick.
“Then obviously as the years went on, Adam became less of a boy and more of a man, and their relationship changed,” Phil would say.
“Adam would go and stay at Greg’s place when he floated over to Florida. Now it was more man-to-man. The wily campaigner and the kid that might. It’s nice, isn’t it?”
At least it was. The assumption has been that that relationship is still going strong and as a result, Scott could be among those to jump on board Norman’s latest venture.
You know what assume did? Those close to Scott suggest you would be making a dangerous leap if you thought Scott would blindly follow Norman.
Scott is very much his own man these days. He has become a husband and a father. He has his own voice. His own mind.
He spoke positively about the Saudi tour and its place in world golf not so long ago, admitting some players would be attracted to the schedule.
Since then, the schedule has changed. It’s not known whether Scott’s view did as well. The LIV Invitational Series will begin next month with eight tournaments, the first to be played in England in early-June.
Scott’s website says has kept the week clear – it is sandwiched between the Memorial Tournament and the US Open. Again, that may been reading too much into it.
Scott has played a relatively loose schedule in recent years as his family situation has changed. He doesn’t often play two weeks in a row.
There’s only a handful of Australian players who would make a big splash when it comes to the Saudi-backed tour. None of the world’s top 10 players will compete next month – that rules Cameron Smith out.
Scott is our next highest ranked, ahead of the likes of Lucas Herbert, Marc Leishman, Min Woo Lee, Matt Jones and Cameron Davis.
It would be naive to think none of them will apply to play, particularly with the money on offer. Those who do join are likely to be lambasted for supporting a tour that is backed by Saudi money.
Just this week, one overseas journalist claimed Norman was “serving a fetid platter of horseshit and claiming it’s boeuf bourguignon”. The criticism has become par for the course where Norman is concerned.
His critics would argue he brings much of it on himself. In typical Norman fashion, he has ignored them and ploughed on regardless.
The most serious criticism is that Norman is the front for the Saudi regime, who have an abominable human rights record. Many believe the LIV Invitational Series has its formation rooted in “sportwashing”, where money is ploughed into sport by nation’s to try to enhance their reputations.
Like Norman, those who take part will be under the gun. Scott is 41 now. He has won oodles of cash over the course of his career. He is slowly winding back. Does he really need the headache?
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The end of May is when all will be revealed. Until then, some names may leak out – some already have – but the full field for the opening event of Greg Norman’s Saudi-backed golf tour will remain under lock and key.