Golf British Open Betting: Reborn Norman can triumph at course where it all began

Golf British Open Betting: Reborn Norman can triumph at course where it all began

Betfair Sports Betting

At the course where his 10 year domination of the game began, all-round top bloke and former Open Champion Greg Norman may be able to follow up his remarkable performance at Birkdale with an even stronger title challenge, says Bill Elliott.

    "Norman’s assault on the Open title in 2008 was a brilliantly hectic ride for everyone who loves a sportsman with style as well as substance."

Was there ever a more compelling back-story to an Open Championship than the one Greg Norman laid before our startled eyes at Birkdale a year ago?

No, of course, there wasn't. In his mid-50s, semi-retired, more concerned about business plans than course strategies, Norman's assault on the old title in 2008 was a brilliantly hectic ride for everyone who loves a sportsman with style as well as substance.

Now here he is back at Turnberry where he won the first of his two Opens in 1986 and where he began 10 years during which he dominated the world rankings and almost everything else. Tall, blond and aggressive as only Aussies can be he is also laid-back, thoughtful and loyal. These are excellent qualities.

He has his critics, has a bunch of people who dislike him no matter what he does or says but they probably don't like anyone who is good-looking, successful and happy to so obviously enjoy these things. Small minds come up with big reasons not to like things.

What is certain, however, is that he will perform this week as a man reborn where golf is concerned and a player who looks at his birth certificate, shrugs his shoulders and says: 'Oh, what the hell, let's give it a bloody good go. I can win this'.

"You're right about some of that mate, " he said when we spoke. "It's going to be a totally different mindset to when I went into Birkdale last year. There's no question about that. This year I've kept my playing and practice on fairly decent schedule. Okay, not to the rigorous routine I had back in my heyday but, believe me, it has been substantial. So I do go into Turnberry with a different mindset. I love the place."

Meanwhile, what he loves about Turnberry is not just the course but the fact that - assuming you have the money to stay at the hotel overlooking the course - as a player you can book in, throw the car-keys away for a week and stroll to work each day whistling a happy tune. This, he says, "makes it much more of a comfort zone for a player to go play".

All of which got him thinking deeply about what he might achieve again this summer in Scotland. "A lot of people believe what I did at The Open last year was an anomaly in some ways. Well, to me it wasn't. It just convinces me that anybody, no matter how old they are or their position in life, if they really want to focus their mind on something it's very achievable."

This, in turn, got him thinking about what he has achieved as a golfer. Dismissed by some as a choker on too many occasions, supported by others, and led by me, that he only choked once - in the Masters, a blocked four iron up the last - but suffered more outrageous bad fortune, in the shape of others' good luck, than any other pro in the modern era.

Plus he accepts with grace and often good humour the demands placed upon the famous. He can, to be fair, become irritable swiftly if he encounters someone he considers a fool or, worse, a pest but then life is too short to have to put up with many things. He can be abrupt, demanding and domineering. He can also be kind and genuinely sensitive. In other words, Greg Norman always has been a rounded human being, a bloke who came to the UK as a youngster with little in his pocket and big dreams in his head.

What he has achieved, he has worked for and worked hard. He has been lucky in having a hugely supportive network of family and friends around him. His first wife (Laura, an air-stewardess who served him a drink as he flew away from the 1979 US Open after missing the cut) was great for him for many years. His new wife seems to be the same with the added bonus that Chrissie really appreciates the demands of trying to be a top class competitor in the wacky world of high-level sport.

After a few years of personal turmoil he is back in a more tranquil place and it shows. It shows in his face, in his smile and it really shows in his golf.

After The Open this year he travels to Sunningdale for the Senior British Open (a stellar line-up for this one including Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Ian Woosnam and Tom Watson by the way) and then back to the USA for their Senior Open. Even for a wave-riding, scuba-diving fitness freak like Greg this is a potentially gruelling few weeks but, typically, he looks forward to it in the same way a mountaineer gazes up at K7.

"Yeah, it's a demanding few weeks for guys our age but it's also great, isn't it? You know, it took about 10 days after Birkdale last year for it to really sink in what had just happened. It's effect? My game started to get better and better at the US Senior. As I left that three week swing I was actually disappointed I didn't win two of the three. I can't wait to get going again this week."