The shark is back

Greg Norman has played under pressure before. Sometimes, such as his two Open titles and the 1994 Players Championship victory, he responded.

Other times, he met with disastrous, well-documented results: the loss of four major championships in playoffs, and frittering away a six-shot lead to lose the 1996 Masters to Nick Faldo.

But at the site of three of his most impressive PGA Tour victories, Norman proclaimed himself free of any pressure to perform.

"Zero," he said . "To me, I can stop right now and everything I have done in the game of golf, good or bad, has been great."

Is Greg Norman really free of pressure? And if he is, will that and shoulder surgery last year that he has said has left him feeling better than ever, physically, make him a more dangerous player?

The answer to those questions may begin coming, a top 20 finish in the Doral-Ryder Open, on the Blue Monster Course where Norman won Doral titles in 1990, 1993 and 1996. His last Doral victory, in a record 19-under-par 269, was one of the reasons resort owners hired Raymond Floyd to toughen the storied Dick Wilson course.

Norman is fairly chomping at the bit. He didn't play last year after missing the cut at the Masters, and underwent surgery on his left shoulder during the summer. He recovered in time to lead the International Team to a rout of the U.S. at the Presidents Cup (he went 3-1-1) and said he will play 18 tournaments this year -- but no more than two per month, on doctor's orders.

"I have to rehab every day, every morning and afternoon, but outside of that, I have no problems whatsoever," Norman said. "The surgery was a complete success. Obviously, to keep my game going, I have to keep rehabbing. It will continue, basically, for as long as I want to play this game."

Norman still wants to play this game, and win. He has said on numerous occasions that he stands on his record in golf (18 PGA Tour victories, 56 International victories) and has enough business interests (course design, his line of clothing, a turf farm, among others) to give him a full life if he ever stops.

But there's a competitive stirring he can't ignore. Norman isn't consciously trying to be the No. 1 player in the world or win another major, but is conscious of playing at the highest level he can.

"I missed being out on the golf course, playing at a competitive level," he said. "I am driven to be a competitor, and if you are a competitor and your performance on the golf course is good enough, everything else takes care of itself."

Still, he relished the seven months he had off from golf, which he used to consolidate his vast business holdings and devote more time to his family.

"It was unbelievable," Norman said of the time with his wife, Laura, and their two children. "It wasn't taking a week here and whipping over there for a quick vacation. It was taking the three months [my children] were out of school and doing things, flying to New York just to go see a play they wanted to see, across the board, anything we wanted to do as a family."

Now, it's back to golf, and Norman has unfinished business.

"People said, `why go back?'" he said. "It's because I still love to play."

TRW