SHARK ATTACK ON THE KENT COAST

Robin Barwick speaks to Greg Norman and coach Butch Harmon about the Australian’s epic victory in the 1993 Open at Sandwich

- Robin Barwick

It was English poet Thomas Gray who wrote, “Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.” The odds are stacked heavily against Greg Norman uttering this line of 18th-century poetry as he searched for a place to practice ahead of the 1993 Open Championship at Royal St George’s but he shared Gray’s sentiment.

The difference is that Gray was soaking in the tranquillity of a churchyard as he contemplated mortality, while Norman just needed to get away from the “white noise” to hit some golf balls off a sidehill lie.

Robin Barwick speaks to Greg Norman and coach Butch Harmon about the Australian’s epic victory in the 1993 Open at Sandwich

“You get a lot of white noise at Majors,” says Norman, now 66, but 38 at the time. “People are always walking around you, talking to you and it can be very hard to concentrate on what you are there to do.”

Australia’s ‘Great White Shark’ was ranked 4th in the world, and hindsight shows he was sandwiched between multiple spells as World No.1, starting in 1986 and finishing as Tiger Woods rose to the fore in 1998. Norman had won The Open at Turnberry in 1986 and was among the most likely to dethrone Nick Faldo, the defending champion and winner of three of the previous six Opens.

Norman wanted to practise uninterrupted with his coach, Butch Harmon, and as Royal St George’s has the largest acreage of all Open venues, in 1993 it was still possible to find some empty practice space around a corner somewhere.