Seems about right that on Sunday, the last day of “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel, Greg Norman would join the anti-American feeding frenzy.
The Europeans have certainly made an impression on the game of late. The top three players in the World Golf Ranking are European (Luke Donald, Lee Westwood and Martin Kaymer, respectively) and the last two majors have gone to players from the Continent (Darren Clarke and Rory McIlroy). But the “Shark” may have been bitten off more than he can chew with his recent comments.
“What I am seeing on the leaderboard of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational this week illustrates once again how the pendulum of golf continues to swing in a global direction,” said Norman of a leaderboard that is led by Australia’s Adam Scott, Jason Day and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa.
Perhaps Norman has a point, but GTC can’t help but think this is wishful thinking on the part of this year’s International Presidents Cup captain.
Consider that Ishikawa has the exact same number of top-10 PGA Tour finishes as amateur sensation Patrick Cantlay, that is to say one, and his current team includes the likes of Ernie Els, who hasn’t won on Tour since the spring of 2010, and ailing Tim Clark, who hasn’t played on Tour since the first round of May’s Players Championship.
Nor does Norman seem particularly interested in the fact that the International team has won just one of the eight Presidents Cup matches (1998), which was the last time, it is worth noting, the matches were played in Australia.
All of which makes Norman’s take on the proceedings at Firestone seem less like a statement than a motivational speech.
