Suddenly, Shark Is Not So Chummy

BETHESDA, Md. — It was another tough day for Greg Norman on Tuesday in the gantlet that is professional golf.

For several hours during a practice round for the U.S. Open at deep, green Congressional Country Club, Norman was surrounded by all these . . . fans.

He swung, they cheered. He walked to his ball, they cheered.

He stopped and wiped the sweat from that perfect face under that perfect straw hat, they cheered.

A tough, tough day.

“Unless you are in my situation, you don’t understand it,” Norman said. “I would like to see how you would react if you heard some of the things I hear out there.”

Horrible things Tuesday. Things like, “You’re the man.” And, “Get ‘em Shark.”

Then there was the brazen spectator with the fanny pack and little green portable chair who shouted, “Good luck, Greg.”

Just who did that 65-year-old man think he was?

“It’s not a lot of fun,” Norman said. “People whittle and whittle at you. It’s like the slow water-torture test.”

The world’s greatest golfer twice succumbed to the torture last week, and who could blame him?

At the nearby Kemper Open on Saturday, the announcer at the first tee heralded Norman’s arrival by saying, “If he invites you over to his house to see all his trophies, I’d advise you to respectfully decline.”

It was a joke about the recent fall and ensuing knee injury suffered by President Clinton at Norman’s house.

Norman thought it was so funny, he took the announcer into a small tent and scolded him like a child, then threatened never to play the tournament again.

A day later, a fan had the audacity to shout, “Chum in the water, Greg!” It was a reference to his “Shark” nickname, and was meant to be inspirational.

Norman heard something different, thought the man was urging him to “Chunk it into the water,” even though there was no water on that particular hole.

So, witnesses say, Norman flipped the man the one-finger salute. Twice.

A tough, tough day.

Norman showed up at Congressional on Tuesday in preparation for what some feel could be his first major tournament victory in this country. He’s hot, and he has won twice on this course.

But all anybody wanted to talk about was, is he losing it?

How dare they.

“I did not create those situations, they were created by others,” Norman said of his weekend troubles. “I regret what I did--it was all emotion. . . . But I did not create that situation.”

Since finishing second eight times in major tournaments, losing playoffs in four, Norman has become one of the most pitied sports figures. Apparently, he is starting to buy it.

He publicly embarrasses a man for an innocent joke, is openly nasty to a fan who is cheering him and directly apologizes for none of it.

He has not won a PGA tournament in more than a year, his popularity is being eroded by Tiger Woods and, suddenly, it’s everybody else’s fault.

What was once viewed as determination now smells a lot like desperation.

The mighty Shark is becoming a bottom feeder.

“One of these days, I’ll sit down with [reporters] and I’ll say what I hear every day from the gallery,” he said. “It’s not a lot of fun.”

Is somebody throwing coins at his head, as happens in baseball? Ice balls, as in football? Is anybody standing behind each tee, screaming about his manhood, as in baseball?

With the emergence of Woods, galleries have gotten rowdier, but that just means this:

Instead of walking gently from hole to hole, fans run. Instead of standing motionless during shots, they snap pictures.

But heckle? While standing close enough so the target can hear? The average gentle golf fan would sooner be locked in a portable toilet.

So there may be an occasional joke or jeer. If Norman gets upset, he can leave it all behind in that new $32-million jet he just bought, thanks to earnings that indirectly came from those fans.

Norman said he was angry with the tee announcer Saturday morning because he thought the details of Clinton’s accident at his home were personal. Heck, he’s only the president.

“Nobody needs to know the precise details,” he said.

Norman said he later gestured to the fan--”I gestured to do it, but I did not give the bird,” he said--because he had been heckled about the Clinton incident throughout the round.

“I do regret doing what I did, but again, it’s all emotion,” he said. “I know that I’m a role model . . . and that wasn’t a good image to portray . . . but, again, you get back to the emotion of it all.”

It is this emotion that Norman must once again conquer if he is to win here as he did in the Kemper in 1984 and 1986.

The rough is getting higher. The stars are getting younger. Everyone is waiting for him to choke.

It’s enough to make me give the guy an encouraging shake of my fist, if I didn’t think he would tell me where to stick it.