Verdi's Views: Taking a ride with Norman at Royal Melbourne

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With one arm in a sling, Greg Norman might have been too gentle with his team in losing in 2009.

Bob Verdi, one of the most respected sports writers in the United States, is on site at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia filing stories for PGATOUR.COM to give fans an inside look at the competition, teams, players and captains, as well as the unique setting of the Sand Belt courses in Victoria.

Verdi joined the Chicago Tribune in 1967 covering hockey and baseball. He gradually moved his expertise and skills as a columnist into golf and wrote full-time for the newspaper through 1997. He joined Golf Digest and Golf World as a senior writer in 1997. Currently, Verdi is a member of the Chicago Blackhawks' front office, serving as team historian.

Verdi has covered all eight previous Presidents Cup, including those in Australia (1998), South Africa (2003) and Canada (2007). Verdi will rely on his decades-long relationships with many of the players -- as well as team Captains Greg Norman and Fred Couples -- to focus on the players and personalities of The Presidents Cup and present stories from the event in his individual and iconic style.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- It is Monday morning at Royal Melbourne, and Greg Norman is at work already. He flew in from Sydney the previous night after playing the Australian Open, and surely could have slept in, as did a number of golfers who will participate in this week's Presidents Cup. But The Great White Shark went to the course early, hopped on his cart, and surveyed a course he could navigate blindfolded. He knows no other way.

"How many rounds have I shot here?" Norman muses. "Since my first in 1977? Maybe up to 200. Favorite course in the world, the Composite here. Guys, let's see how the ball is rolling."

More from Bob Verdi

Click here to access the archive page of Bob Verdi columns from Royal Melbourne.

Norman, captain of the International team, is accompanied by assistants Frank Nobilo and Tim Clark along with Tony Navarro, the Shark's longtime caddy who will serve as executive handyman during this biennial competition. They are enjoying these moments of relative solitude, as thoroughly as they grasp the essence of the task. Australia, a passionate sporting nation, embraces its icons. And nobody is more revered than Greg Norman.

"But this week is not about me," he says. "It's about our team, our guys."

Of course, among the dazzling dozen on Norman's roster are Geoff Ogilvy and Adam Scott. They grew up watching the tube at odd hours, captivated by how the charismatic Shark, showing a whole lot of game in foreign lands, brought honor to this country. To follow their idol's career path, they too left home as kids, and when you depart Australia to refine your skills, you are on your own at long distance. You don't duck home for weekends.

"If I helped inspire some of the younger players, I'm proud of that," Norman says. "When it comes to education, there's nothing like traveling. You don't get that experience in school. That's partly why this week is so special, being back here. But we're not here on vacation. We're here to win."

Norman pauses. David Toms, a member of America's Team, is out for a bit of practice. He strikes an iron to the green at No. 5, a par 3, and Norman glares at the flight of the ball, as if he were attempting to read its label. Details. The man didn't compile a Hall of Fame resume in golf, then evolve into a fabulously successful business entrepreneur, by sleeping in.

"You know Greg," says Navarro. "Ever seen him approach anything half way?"

Actually, Norman hints that two years ago in San Francisco, he might just have been too gentle a giant. With one arm in a sling following surgery, perhaps he could have been more hands-on. His Internationals lost to Fred Couples' Americans, and Norman mentions the word "appease" as though it has been forever banished from his vocabulary.

"Peter Thomson was our captain here in 1998," Norman recalls. "We had lost the first two of these Presidents Cups in the States, and he was not about to let it happen again. Peter was a great listener. He listened to our input on pairings, who we might like to play with and so forth. Then, when he was done listening, he said, 'OK, this is how it will be done.' Don't get me wrong. It was a wonderful fun week. The bus rides to and from Royal Melbourne to our hotel downtown, players from Japan, Paraguay, South Africa, Fiji, Australia. But it was about respect for each other, and..."

Nobilo finishes the thought.

"Saturday night, we had a little huddle," he says. "We're leading by quite a bit, we're feeling good and then it hit. Didn't matter who got the winning point on Sunday singles, we were all in it together. Young players now, they will cherish certain memories as years go on. You play so many individual matches. That team experience in 1998, I remember it vividly."

Norman is examining the green at No. 14, a par 3 that has been included into the new Composite mix. Mindful of enhanced spectator viewing, he suggested it as a replacement, just as he helped generate the concept of a Ryder Cup-like competition involving golfers not from Europe.

"The Presidents Cup has caught on quite well," he says. "In a short while, it's come a long way. I think you will see a tremendous atmosphere out here this week. I want our guys to enjoy it, but I will remind them of how I felt when I played against Curtis Strange. One of the toughest. He would cut your heart out on the first hole and give it back to you on the 18th. There are lots of friendships among the two teams, but when you go to the first tee, it is not about friendship."

Norman's attention returns to the 14th green. The putting surfaces, he notes, aren't quite up to anticipated speed just yet. But it is only Monday, the matches commence Thursday, and brisk winds figure to be followed by more heat as summer declares itself.

"You can shoot a number here if conditions are benign," he says. "But you don't want to be above the hole at Royal Melbourne. You'd rather have a 30-footer uphill than a four-footer downhill. Balls aren't rolling out as they normally will just yet. Last three feet out here, that's so crucial."

If it happens, so be it. That is how Norman addresses inquiries about a primo singles joust between Scott and Tiger Woods. Norman was pitted against Woods in 1998 at the behest of Thomson, who felt compelled to inject some drama into a romp for the Internationals, still their only conquest.

"We need to win another one of these," he says. "And I want our guys to do it for themselves. For me, not playing but being a captain here, that's as good as it gets. I don't want our guys playing not to let me down, though. I want them playing for each other."

Alas, they would not be playing for each other or for anybody else without Greg Norman, who brought the Presidents Cup to Australia. Now, he fully intends on keeping it here for a while.