Greg Norman press conference

JULIUS MASON: Good morning, once again, ladies and gentlemen. We're happy to welcome Mr. Greg Norman to Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky for the 82nd PGA Championship. Greg, if you wouldn't mind giving us some of your opening thoughts, then we will go to Q and A.

GREG NORMAN: My opening thoughts is it's great to be back. It is great to feel fit, strong and healthy. It is good to be excited about playing the game of golf again. So, I guess, that probably encapsulates how I feel right now.

Obviously, coming back for the PGA Championship was my target date, seven weeks ago today, when I had the surgery, and obviously, we have come ahead three weeks prior to that than what we anticipated. So, from my point of view, I haven't felt this good and this comfortable and relaxed in a long time.

Q. Coming off The INTERNATIONAL, was there any kind of -- did you feel good after it? Your first tournament back, walking those hills, was there any soreness for a couple of days or are you just full steam ahead right knew?

GREG NORMAN: I am full steam ahead. Only time I felt any type of soreness, I think it was more muscle fatigue, was on Tuesday afternoon when I played the first 18 holes, and that was about it. After that, I felt great.

I started stretching out more, obviously, to relieve the fatigue, and it was more fatigue from muscle fatigue than actually being out of shape and trying to make the hills. From my back standpoint and hip standpoint -- and my back has been strong ever since the day of the surgery. I haven't had to get that put back into position. I haven't had any muscle spasms since the day of the surgery.

So, at Castle Pines to this day, it has just been fantastic.

Q. What do you attribute your quick recovery to, just the great workout schedule that you have had over your career, what -- I mean, it has been remarkably fast?

GREG NORMAN: It has been, and we have -- Pete and I have discussed this. We discussed it with the doctor; maybe I am a fast healer, maybe because I do enjoy working out. I was the same with my shoulder; I rehabed. I was very meticulous on my rehab. The surgery was really a non-intrusive surgery, not like in the olden days where you had to slice open to get to your hip joint. The new arthroscope that they use is extremely small and very flexible. It can do a 360 on itself, and you can still work and machine any plate in the joint. So, there wasn't a lot of pathology damage in there by just instruments. And I pretty much threw away the crutches straightaway. I used crutches to go up and down stairs, but I started walking immediately, and the more you walk, the more blood flow you get to it. I started riding a bike. Pete had me in a swimming pool almost immediately, walking in a pool and swimming in a -- obviously, swimming in the pool, but I think it is just a fact that I might be fortunate that my body does heal fast, and I might be fortunate that I am very dedicated to my rehab.

Q. Greg, you have enough money to buy me and every ones else in here. You have got your own plane, your own boat, you have got a billion successful businesses. Why not just say, "I am 45 years old, I have had enough of this golf thing, I have proven everything I need to prove," and move on?

GREG NORMAN: That is simple. I just love to play the game. And if you had been in my body for the last four, five years, I haven't enjoyed playing the game, not from the lack of enjoyment for the game of golf itself, but just because my body wouldn't allow me to do the things that I

wanted to do. My quality of life has changed, i.e., when I went scuba diving with my children on Monday an Tuesday, I could do it without pain for the first time in seven, eight years, since my kids were six years old. So, I enjoyed that tremendously. Just walking and standing and running and doing the things that you take for granted everyday, I don't have any discomfort anymore.

So with that, sheer fact of not having that in my body anymore, I can enjoy practicing again. My son and my wife said the other day, and even Pete when we were out on the driving range yesterday, they have all made comments about how much I have enjoyed practicing again. I made an effort to go -- it is not an effort to go practice. It is easy. I enjoy going out there for two, three hours at a time and not have to stop after hitting three or four balls and just wait for the pain to subside or walk around or whatever.

So it is the sheer fact that I love to play the game, and as long as I keep loving to play the game and my body is going to let me do it, I am going to keep playing. I really feel like I have missed out on a couple of years of the prime of my golf because of a pathology problem in my body. I didn't know that. I just was experiencing it. But, now it is gone and now I feel great, and now, hopefully, I can just keep playing.

Q. You said you have rehabilitated your body. What about your golf game?

GREG NORMAN: Well, my golf game came with the rehabilitation of my body.

I am much freer in my body. Obviously, again people watched The INTERNATIONAL have made comment to me. David Leadbetter said to me yesterday: "It is like night and day." When you have the freedom and your body allows to do it, my back is not in spasms, you allow your back muscles to relax, better rotation, better feel. It just goes hand-and-glove. It is a natural progress; when your body feels good, everything else feels pretty good.

Q. Having come back and feeling the way you do and playing so well the first time out of the box, your confidence level has got to be really good coming into this championship, because when you are well, you are hell, if you will forgive me?

Greg Norman, practising for the PGA Championship. Allsport.

GREG NORMAN: I have quietly gotten confident. The INTERNATIONAL was a huge stepping stone for me. Obviously, my first tournament back, I was going in there with a bit of doubt in my mind and being a little bit conservative on my approach.

But as -- when I got off the golf course on Tuesday and I called Pete and I told him, I said, "I feel fantastic. I didn't have one twinge of pain." My confidence started to grow from that day onwards. Every day I have hit balls, and when I don't wake up in the next morning and feel like I can't get out of bed, I know I am ready to jump out of bed and go. That just instills the right amount of confidence I am looking for.

I think that will flow into my golf game. It may happen immediately. It was a good reaction at The INTERNATIONAL, and it may happen this week. But, I just know that the way I feel and my approach towards the game of golf now that I fully expect a strong recovery on the golf course.

Q. Did you and Elk get a two-for-one deal? Have you talked to him?

GREG NORMAN: I was -- absolutely made Steve go and see Dr. Philippon. Steve is one of my best friends, and I knew the pain he had been through or was in. I said, "Steve, you are crazy, just get on a plane and see Dr. Philippon." I said, "I have done all the research for you." Pete and I have been everywhere, been all over the country speaking to doctors and getting MRIs and trying to understand what the pathology was. I said, "Just go down and see him. This guy is the best. He is young. He is on the cutting edge." I said, "You are crazy not to see him."

He did. He went down to see him and Dr. Philippon diagnosed it immediately like he did with me. Steve decided -- he called me up. He said, "What do you think?"

I said, "Steve, look all I can tell you," I said, "as soon as you have it, the next morning you wake up, the quality of your life is improved." I said, "You may want to delay it now." He talked about holding off 'til The Presidents Cup, and it is the same situation that Pete and I discussed about the British Open. Do we try and play hurt and go into the British Open, delay eight months or two or the PGA and for me, not do it until after the PGA.

But the end of the day, I said, "Steve your quality of life, forget the golf," I said, "your quality of life would improve." I said, "The quicker you do it, the quicker your quality of life gets back."

So, he obviously talked to Lisa and talked to his friends back in Houston, and the next minute I know, he is on a plane giving me a call saying, "Hey, Sharkey, I am coming down there." And he had it Friday. I spoke to him Friday. I spoke to the doctor Friday. I spoke to the doctor in surgery, actually, when he was doing it and said he'd be back in action in four to six weeks. Again, Steve, is a fitness fanatic himself; so his recovery rate will be very, very quick. I was happy for him. I think -- I think you will find now that the a player for the Miami Dolphins also just had surgery by Dr. Philippon, and they are already talking about bringing him back because it was such a successful surgery. So, obviously, Mark Philippon knows his stuff.

Q. Jesper was saying yesterday he thinks you really have a chance of playing well this week. Can you talk about how you fancy your chances this week?

GREG NORMAN: Well, I fancy -- I do like my chances. I feel free. I feel loose. I know I am playing well because I have practiced well. A lot of that is because I don't have any other doubt in my mind, when I line up a putt, I don't have any other -- don't have pain or anything to take my mind away from the job at hand that is playing the game. So, I feel pretty good about it. But in the same time, I haven't played a whole lot of golf. People wondered how I felt at The INTERNATIONAL, but I think it is like riding a bike; once you put yourself back in that position, a competitor is always a competitor. You know to feel to feel. Whether it is a 4-foot putt or whether it is hitting a drive on the fairway under the gun, you still have to execute. You still get nervous and you know how that nervousness feels. I do like the way I feel, and I do like my chances of playing well this week.

Q. Nick said after Tiger won at St. Andrews that anymore anyone who wins one major in their career should consider it a successful one. Do you agree with that?

GREG NORMAN: I think in a competitive board of what the game of golf is now it is very, very difficult to win a lot out here.

To see what Tiger has done over the last 18 months to two years has obviously been exceptionally good. We all strive to win a major championship. There is a lot of guys out there who haven't, who would dearly win to win just one.

In answer to Nick's question, I would say, yeah, one is a pretty good number, but two is a better number, and three is even better. So, I think that is why we keep trying to rachet it up.

Q. It is kind of a follow-up to that. How important is it for a player to have won at least one major? You have, but there are some big names out here that have not.

GREG NORMAN: I think the importance comes from within the individual. Not from this room or what my comments are. I think it comes from within the individual.

Everybody knows to what level or what capability and capacity you can play the game. And everybody knows out here on the PGA TOUR if you can win on the PGA TOUR, you'd expect to be able to win a major championship. So therefore, the guys who have won out here and who haven't won a major Championship, obviously, inside of themselves, that is their biggest driving force. So, it's got to be difficult. I know it is difficult, because until you win your first one, it is a bit of a burden. And it is not all the other stuff. It is a burden within yourself because you want to prove to yourself that you have the capabilities. And the major championships are really the ones that go up to the next level. After this, there is not much you can do except keep winning major championships. There is not another pedestal to climb. So, you know, you have to get to that first pedestal to do it. It is more the internal worry you have got to beat than anything else.

Q. What you were saying earlier about those lost years and the fact you have been in pain so much, you have lost those. Do you feel like you can extend yourself because you are in good shape all those lost years?

GREG NORMAN: Absolutely. I think 45 is just a number for me. I think my body tells me I am probably ten years younger -- maybe seven years younger than that. So therefore, it gives me the belief in myself that I can continue on and execute at the age beyond here, beyond 45.

How I'm going to feel when I am 48, 49, I don't know how I am going to feel when I am 48 or 49. But I know that right now I feel like I can definitely compete. I may have lost a little yardage, but right now I feel like I am getting my distance back because I can obviously rotate and swing freely. So, that is not a major concern. I am not going to bomb it out there 320, 330 anymore, but I can bomb it out there 300, which is a nice feeling to have when you need to.

So, the length of my time on the golf course is, again, going back to the statement we made about majors, is the drive within myself; I want to keep playing. I want -- I feel that -- that I have got some stuff inside me that I want to go do myself and the fitness routine that I have been on since the late '80s, early '90s has alluded me to be at this age, to say I can continue on, and if I didn't have that fitness routine, I probably wouldn't be playing golf right now because even with the problem I had in my hip, if I wasn't fit, I probably wouldn't have been able to play in the last couple of years. I would have definitely had to have stopped it was just because my fitness routine and the strength of the other parts of my body that really made up for the weakness in my hip. So, expect to go on for a while.

Q. I want to ask you about another Australian golfer, Aaron Baddeley. Can you tell me how you met him, what your contact has been with him and just what you generally think about his potential?

GREG NORMAN: I met Aaron Baddeley when he beat all of us at the Australia Open last November. He had a very good reputation prior to that because of his amateur career. He was -- he kind have had the stars shining above his head early on in his golfing life as an amateur.

Obviously, when he won the Australia Open as an amateur, the star became much brighter. There was a lot more expectation thrown on his shoulders. There was a lot more burden, and the responsibility became greater, and it is pretty hard to absorb all of that in a very short period of time.

Aaron has probably gone through a huge learning curve through the last four, five, six months, I spoke to him last week. He feels like he has advanced more in his mind and his approach to the game and how to approach the game when he turns professional because of the sequence of events since the Australia Open last November.

I admire that in an individual who looks at the -- I mean, quite honestly, it hasn't been a successful year for him on the golf course and he knows that. But he has taken that as a positive, not a negative. He has learned how to reevaluate his schedule. He has learned how to approach things differently. And when he turns pro, which I am sure he will do, when he turns pro, he will be able to use that experience for his betterment. So, expect him to continue on and be the star that has been put above his head.

Q. You touched on this just briefly where Steve was concerned and your thoughts. But when I Think of successful golfers, successful business guys and great family people, Jack Nicklaus and you and a few others come to mind. One of the things Jack told me before his operation, he said, "If I can continue to play golf, it will be a plus, but I want to do this to be able to do things with my children, my grandchildren, my wife." I wonder your thoughts about there like you mentioned the quality of life coming back?

GREG NORMAN: That is very much the case. It is everything. I mentioned a little bit just one situation about scuba diving with my kids. Every time went scuba diving or they asked me to go the last couple of years, I wasn't very keen to do it, because I knew it hurt like hell to do it. But I didn't want to let them down. So, I would go through the -- there would be times when I would sit on the boat when everybody else was out fishing and diving, and I'd just have to stay there because I just couldn't do anything.

So, that is just one example. It goes on and on and on. Just going to play golf with my son for a quick nine holes now doesn't bother me. Just go play. So the quality of life is the most important thing. I really stipulated that with Steve. The game of golf is a secondary thing when you -- when we have done what we have done in the game. It is a bonus, definitely, if you can go back and perform at the game of golf, because we all love to perform.

Like Jack said, I would give up -- I would give up golf. I would give up everything to feel the way I feel like hiking in the mountains now and fly-fishing like we have done the last couple of weeks, with my rehab, all those things where you can climb up banks and rocks and walk around and squat down and sit down, all those things that I don't have to sit down -- I mean, stand up anymore to eat my breakfast. There is a prime example. People would never think of that, but I used to have to stand up; once I got out of bed I couldn't sit down. I had to stand all day, because if I got into a seat position it will take me a while and to get me able to stand up and walk. I mean, things that you never even think of improved the quality of life. Absolutely.

Q. I'd like to ask you your thoughts about Valhalla from four years to now, how has the golf course improved and how do you plan to attack it?

GREG NORMAN: I'd like to be able to answer that question, but I haven't played it yet. I believe, the golf course looks the same driving in, the width of the 18th fairway looks like the same as what we played in 1996. The 9th hole looked like the same. So unless they have done some other changes out there that I don't know about, but I believe it has been lengthened by maybe 100 yards and new tee on 1 and 2.

But outside of that, the golf course is very playable. Playable golf course depends on the weather conditions. If we get some rain and some moisture, obviously, it becomes like shooting darts and it becomes a putting competition, but every other golf course is exactly the same way, too. If the golf course plays hard and fast like Nicklaus golf courses, when they do get hard and fast, they are very difficult to play because the pin positions -- he designs a golf course as a second-shot golf course. He gives you plenty of width on the fairways to play to, but you better make sure you hit it on the right part of the fairway to execute, if the golf course is firm. If the golf course is soft it doesn't matter where you hit it. These guys are so good, they will just take dead aim at the bottom of the cup and that is it.

JULIUS MASON: Greg finished tied for 17th in 1996, point of reference.

Q. I know hindsight is 20/20, but do you wish you had done this four years ago and you didn't go through all this agony, and is there a reason why you didn't?

GREG NORMAN: That is a great question. I am surprised nobody has even asked that before now. Technology wasn't there to do it. This scope, Pete, my trainer, over here will probably able to answer the question better. This scope is only twelve months old, maybe not even that, I don't know, but it is only the very, very recent medical design and invention for the hip, specifically for the hip. So, two years ago, the doctor told me that they could have done it, but they probably would have only gotten about 60% to 75% of my problem. So therefore, why even have the surgery if you can't remove 100% of your tear. So, the fact that two, three, four years ago, I wish I could have had it, but I couldn't have had it to the extent that -- to the success of what I have had now.

Q. Any idea how many hits you got on your internet site for the surgery?

GREG NORMAN: I couldn't tell you, actually, no. I know it was very active for the first two days. And exact numbers, I didn't pay attention to the numbers of hits.

Q. Just talk about the being able to carry the Olympic torch, what exactly are you going to be doing, and what it means to you to be able to do something like that in your home country?

GREG NORMAN: I think out of all the things I have ever experienced in sport, this would probably be my top two ever. Because mainly, because it is a great honor because I am a non-Olympian. It is a great honor because Sidney Harbor Bridge and the Opera House are probably one of the Top 5 most recognizable structures in the world, I would say.

And it is on the morning of the opening ceremony, so there is going to be a lot of atmosphere and hype about -- Australian is very up about it right now.

So, for me to be able to be a part of all that; A, was a surprise one, I never anticipated it; and B., No. 2, it's a huge honor to be able to say you did that for the 2000 Olympics in Australia. I think the our Olympics down there -- I say "our Olympics" because it is Australia, not Sidney; it is our Olympics -- is probably going to change the direction of how the Olympic games is approached and presented from now on because of the infrastructure that is right there in place for everybody, for the athletes to the media to networking. I mean, it is so simple and so confined that everybody is going to enjoy it. That is why I say it is going to going to be -- it's got to be the turning point of the Olympics.

Q. In the past 20 years, without a doubt, you are one of golf's greats, but I have got to ask you: Are people like you who have been at the top, are you all kind of sick and tired of the Tiger stuff?

GREG NORMAN: No, not at all. I think that you are going to say the same thing about Jack Nicklaus and what he did and about Byron Nelson when he won 11 in a row, or what about the great athletes of other sports. Look at the Tour de France this year. Do we get sick and tired of seeing that? Absolutely not. Do we get sick and tired seeing the 49ers dominate football - absolutely not - in their prime. I think it is great to see that for sport in general.

Right across the board, because every now and then -- and it also allows the benchmark to be raised for the Aaron Baddeleys of the world and the Adam Scotts of the world, to the kids that are eight or nine years old right now who look up to kids in their 20s and say, "I want to be like that individual." Doesn't matter whether it is golf tennis or whatever sport. They look up to those individuals, those young kids of the world.

So, I mean, from that point of view, you are drawing on them. So the benchmark has always been raised and always been pushed, and I think that is very, very important part. So, I don't think anybody gets tired of it. I think it is actually good for it.

But on the same time -- on the other sides of the coin, I'd like to see more rivalries get stimulated in our sport. I think we need -- rivalries are great. You need two or three or four guys who are continually clashing with each other on the golf course, because golf needs that, spectators, media needs that, the players need that. So, I'd like to see more of a balanced basis in that regard.

Q. You mentioned the torch being one of the top two things. What was the first?

GREG NORMAN: Well, first in sports? I would say the major championships, the British Opens, the one at St. George's, to me, probably caps off more than the one at Turnberry, because of the circumstances, all the best players in the world were playing great that one particular week and very seldom do you see that in any sport. And I felt that that week was probably a tougher week to win than the one in Turnberry.

Q. Secondly, can you talk about you had that seven-year plan with your new hip now...

GREG NORMAN: No, I haven't reevaluated my plan. That seven-year plan has been firmly entrenched, and there is no point in me changing it, because all the things that I did back in 1993 have pretty much taken place right to this point. 1995 was when everything really started to blossom for me in the business world, and then from 1995 to 1998, they really started to take root. So, now, I don't have to -- I mean, it is more just managing and maintaining what I have got going instead of expanding to the level I did back in 1993.

Q. Plan is over?

GREG NORMAN: The plan is never over. That plan is in place, but I really don't need to really broaden it too much more.

Q. Back to the Olympics, how much of the games are you actually going to stay for, and what events are you going to watch? Also, there was movement of foot during the Atlanta games about possibly making golf an Olympic sport. What do you think about that for the future? Is that something that you'd be interested in or do you think it could be feasible?

GREG NORMAN: Well, I will answer the latter part first. I think golf should be in the Olympics. I think it is a crying shame that it is not. It is easy for me to sit up here and say that, being a golfer. But if we look at the demographics of golf on a global basis, it far exceeds a lot of the demographics a lot of other Olympic sports on a global basis.

So, for -- i.e., for tennis to be in there and not golf, I don't understand that. For basketball to be in there and not golf, I don't understand that. I am not decrying the other sports. I just think golf is not getting a fair shake of the stick.

I admire the way Seve Ballesteros went about it two years before the Atlanta Olympics where he had a direct approach with Sam - obviously a Spaniard on a Spaniard makes it a little bit easier to approach it that way.

But I was in full support, you know, I write off letters -- I know -- I was in a bit of the discussion, not total discussion, but I think it is time to take off the blinders and just see how popular the game of golf really is on a global basis, and it deserves to be in there.

I can understand from Australia's standpoint and from the reduction in the number of athletes why golf is not a demonstration sport down there, because they had to reduce the number of athletes because of the distance of travel and the cost of travel. But from here on out, I think they have got to come up with a pretty good answer why it is not. I think the more we talk about it, you know, it is like chip, chip, chip away. You know, the Berlin Wall came down with a lot of chat. A lot of dialogue. And why not get golf in the Olympics. I am a very, very strong proponent of that.

Q. As a follow-up, who onus is that, is that the players themselves has to keep chipping away or any organization?

GREG NORMAN: I think it is everybody. I think it is PGA of America. I think it is the R&A, USGA, PGA TOUR. I think it is the players in general, I think how many professional bodies, whatever way we can get together and take egos out of this deal. I mean, you know, administrations who want to run Olympic golf, and if there is power play for that, they shouldn't be involved. You have got to try make this a unified front here, and make this a front where everybody is involved with this whole objective, pros, amateurs, male, females. You have got to go right across the gamut. If egos get involved in our sport then it will never get in there. I have seen that take place, somewhere some administration want to take control of it, but at the end of the day, if we all get together and we all coordinate this, an overwhelming concerted effort to the IOC would be pretty hard to turn down.

Q. Back to the first part?

GREG NORMAN: How many times will I go? I had planned on getting there on the 14th. I will be there until about -- pretty much, the whole -- all the way through. I will have a few other things I have got to do that I will go to.

I am a big fan of -- I am going to go watch Pat Rafter play tennis. I am a big fan of gymnastics. I like the indoor feel of that.

When I was at Atlanta, I was just absolutely in awe with these kids being able to focus so intently when all this other stuff is going on around them, on television you don't see it. You just see the guy running down and jumping on the pole vault or he is on the rings.

But in a room like this, there is probably like five or six other events going on at the same time and people yelling and screaming and 9.5s going up when you are trying to be hanging out here on the rings. So, you think of that, these kids are teenagers being able to do that, I was just so impressed. So I am going to go back and watch that.

Track and field, I'd like to watch that. I am a big Michael Johnson fan. I like his technique. I like the way he runs. I like his approach. So I will definitely go and watch him. I know a lot of the Australian swimmers; so, I will go spend some time at the pool.

Q. Just going back to the Olympics do you think there is support with the IOC to have golf, or do you think there is a lack of interest?

GREG NORMAN: Well, I think there would be support in there. It would be nice to say there would be zero support.

I think the lack of interest is probably because of the lack of knowledge, and that is why the more information we can get out there and the more we can discuss it, with some of the voting members of the IOC, in countries where golf is not a big game, they just need to hear the voice of the rest of the world. So I think it is just a communicative effort. I think the more informative all the IOC members become, I think the easier the decision would be for them to make, whether it is for or against it.

Q. Do you have any advice for Ernie on finishing second in majors?

GREG NORMAN: I don't have any advice for him, but I think he dropped that hurdle -- he is out there trying the best he can. He is a great player. He is a seasoned player. Sometimes you just run into an unusual shot or a hot player, and last year, I think if Nicklaus had the same question about how many seconds he had at major championships. I am sure he is going to feel that you can't control what other people do and I feel -- am sure Ernie feels exactly the same way. He goes out there and he knows he is putting his best foot forward; playing the best golf he can possibly play, but he can't control what other people do. So sometimes second is better than 10th.

Q. You are familiar with Tiger and Jack. If you were assessing or rating, what would your assessment and ratings -- say if you could pick one of them as a partner in best-ball, who would be your pick?

GREG NORMAN: Putting them at their prime, player against player in their peak, it will be a tough call. You have got two totally different approaches to the game. I think Jack's head toward the game is far greater than anybody's head has ever been. Tiger driving ability is probably better than Jack's driving ability in their primes -- in their prime of their career. Putting, I would put the nod for Jack on that. Short game and bunker play, I'd give the nod to Tiger on that.

But to answer that in another way is that things have changed dramatically from Jack's era to Tiger era. Tiger is a consummate professional, not that Jack wasn't, but he has trained. He has got a physical trainer. He has got a totally different approach than what Jack -- I bet you Jack didn't work out when he was in his 20s. And yet Tiger works out. The attitude towards the game of golf is different in that regard. The players' technique is better nowadays because of the machines and the video machines and the computers and the emailing and you have direct communication at all times with your coach. You can break it down.

I remember days when I used to get on the video machine it used to be this big and you needed two guys to carry a video machine and every time you hit the pause button it was just a big blur so you really couldn't tell whether your club was on plane or not. Nowadays you hit the pause button, you can take your grip, pull it out, say is this good or that good. I mean, just totally different approach on how you even study the game of golf now and coaches have become better for that reason and when the coaches have become better, the players become better. Because now you can break it down to such a minute position you can -- a good player can actually fix that if he knows exactly where it is.

So from that regard, I'd say on a balance I would give the nod just a -- Jack just a nod just ahead of Tiger.

Q. The media attention on Tiger is pretty severe. I mean the galleries are nuts so half the time. Everyone is tugging at him. I wonder if you could talk about whether you are amazed at all at the way he has been able to block all that stuff out and just go about his business?

GREG NORMAN: Well, I mean, I am not amazed by it. I think it is just the fact that he knew what to expect from a very young age. Tiger is 24. He has a 24-year-old body; probably with a 29-year-old mind because he has had so much more experience and has learned how to -- and not only at that, but learning how to understand what to expect. That is a huge advantage if you can psychologically within yourself say, well ,this is what I have got to expect and I am going to deal with it and go on, I am sure there is situations that get to him at times, but his ability to block out most of that is part of being a great player. You have to be able to do that.

Q. Next year the revamping of the -- (inaudible) The Open is back in Southern Hills as well. In terms of this tournament, in your early preparation, your early days playing in it, can you talk about those venues, what they meant to you '81, 1982, just playing well in a major, the confidence that spurred?

GREG NORMAN: With regard to the golf courses I think all the golf courses that have been chosen are exceptional tests of golf whether it is Southern Hills or Valhalla or whatever golf course is chosen to be a major championship. At the end of the day it is not really the golf course. At the end of the day it is the players and who finishes up with the lowest possible score. Obviously there is talk when a venue isn't to the ilk of some of the other venues that have been chosen in the years past, but at the end of the day, look at what happened at St. Andrews, the scoring there, the golf course was benign and soft. So you go --

Like a Southern Hills, if the conditions are hot and hard and windy and fast that golf course is as tough as Shinnecock in my mind. So from playing these golf courses early on in my career, I got to understand the mindset of how the different associations like to set up their golf courses and they are all different in their own right. Augusta National is different to the British Open which is different to the U.S. Open. So you really follow four different mindsets of the preparation of a golf course and that is what I learned early on in my career and some of them you had to make a minor adjustment to your game and adapt to the philosophy that was thrown out to you and some of them you didn't. You just could use your own mindset. So remember -- Shinnecock -- excuse me, Southern Hills, I enjoyed that golf course because I thought it was just a great layout, so every time I went to a great layout, it allowed you to play the golf because you felt comfortable with the golf course.

Q. Do you miss playing with a wooden driver at all and could you imagine fairway woods and drivers ever making a comeback?

GREG NORMAN: Actually it is funny -- we discussed that on the driving range the other day. Wondered what would happen if the players used the old wooden clubs and quite honestly, they'd probably do just as well as what they are doing now because we do hit very small sweet spots of the golf club whether they are perimeter weighted or wooden driver which had a very, very small sweet spot. As to their coming back, I don't see that really taking place. I see the size of the golf club being reduced, but I don't see wood coming back into play. It is not a very forgiving material for all you guys.

Q. Excuse me for another Tiger question, but I just wondered if you have seen him mature since he came on the Tour and one little thing, would you play in the NEC next week if you qualify?

GREG NORMAN: Yes, I have seen him mature, Tiger, on the Tour. I have seen his demeanor and his approach towards everybody change for the better. I think -- I am talking about across the board. But again, you have got to realize, he is young and he is learning and the younger years -- and he had to learn very quickly because nobody was going to give him any slack. He'd only have to make one wrong move and he'd be crucified which is sad really because we are not all perfect and we all make mistakes and we all have our different moods and mannerisms and sometimes we need to express them just to be normal. But he has learned to do that. He has learned to choose his words fairly carefully. He had to learn which is important and he has done that. I have seen it and I think it is probably the reason why he has become a better person and the better person becomes a better player.

As far as the NEC, if I am in, yes, I will play.

Q. Now that you are feeling better how much golf do you think you will take on in the next, say, for the rest of this year and then next year?

GREG NORMAN: My schedule is not going to change that dramatically from what I have played over the last four, five years. I have never been a heavy-scheduled player anyway. I have always played my 15, 18, tournaments on a global basis and that is pretty much -- some years I have gone to 20, but ever since I have turned 30, I pretty much stayed around that type of schedule, so I don't see it changing much. For the rest of this year, obviously, it depends on next week. If I am in The Presidents Cup I will play next week. If I am not in The Presidents Cup obviously I have got an extra week up my sleeve. After that I am going to Europe to play in the BMW tournament and then I go back down to Australia three times before I go back there for the Australian Open and another tournament I play down there in Queensland.

Q. Are you going to be -- so the PGA TOUR you won't see too much action in for the rest of this year?

GREG NORMAN: I don't see -- I don't think so, no.

Q. You said you expected to play in The Presidents Cup. I thought you already had the wild card?

GREG NORMAN: That I had a wild card?

Q. A captain selection?

GREG NORMAN: I have no idea. I haven't spoken to Peter Thomson since -- months, months, months. I haven't seen Peter Thomson, so I have no idea. If I am on the team through just qualification, that is great. If -- I don't even know if I -- I haven't even seen the standings of The Presidents Cup team so you know obviously more about it than what I do.

I don't know anything about wild cards or anything, Michael.

Q. There was talk about the loud galleries at the Buick last week around Tiger. Is that a distraction for other players like you around them when you are playing with him or around him?

GREG NORMAN: I can't answer for the other players, but nobody likes to see other players distracted because of unruly galleries or spectators. I think everybody has to respect every player in the field. If you are playing well enough and you are strong enough in your mind, it shouldn't distract you, period. But there is times that you hear things that you shouldn't hear and there is times when people -- when they have a few too many beers and feel a little bit looser in their tongue in their approach of how they can execute. But, bottom line, it shouldn't distract. You should just go play your own game and just let it be.

JULIUS MASON: Greg Norman, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

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