For 'Relaxed' Norman, Honeymoon Continues

SOUTHPORT, England, July 17 -- Greg Norman has been in honeymoon mode since his marriage to Chris Evert less than three weeks ago. But there's something about playing in the British Open that always seems to get Norman's attention, and on Thursday, the two-time former champion summoned past greatness with a first-round even-par 70 at Royal Birkdale that left him only a shot off the lead.

"I don't play much, I don't practice much," Norman said. "I probably practice more tennis than golf. But at the same time, there's something about this event that stimulates you. The atmosphere, the excitement. Like coming down 18 after 5 1/2 hours of golf, the way people receive you, you don't get that anywhere else in the world. It's a phenomenal experience. It gives you a little more juice than you normally have."

Norman offset two bogeys with birdies at the third and 17th hole. He missed a 20-foot birdie putt at the 18th for a share of the lead in a tournament he won at Turnberry in 1986 and at Royal St. George's in 1993.

These days, Norman is far more concerned with his varied business interests, not to mention his new life with Evert, the tennis Hall of Famer who walked every step of the way with her husband on Thursday. Asked if their marriage in the Bahamas has helped revitalize his golf game, Norman shook his head no.

"I think it's just revitalized my life," he said. "When you're more relaxed and you're happier, then everything else kind of makes it a little easier, too. Even when I go out there and practice, you practice with a little more intensity over a short period of time because I'm looking forward to going home. My life in general is very much more in balance than it's ever been."

Norman said he had no intention of increasing his tournament schedule, mainly because he no longer has any great desire to focus on golf, particularly practicing.

"My mind still wants to play, but my body doesn't want to practice," he said. "I've gone through enough pain and surgery over the last four, five, six years that I just don't want to do it anymore. Believe me, I still enjoy playing, but I don't enjoy standing out there on the driving range for four, five, six hours a day."

Can he win this week?

"I'm not even going to point my head in that position," he said. "I've got to keep my expectations realistically low, to be honest with you. I haven't played a lot of golf. It's just like riding a bike. But even riding a bike after a long time, you're a little wobbly. I've just got to manage the process the best I can."

"I'd love to see him play well," Evert said. "He had no expectations coming in, but he just played relaxed."

Lyle Takes a Walk

Sandy Lyle plays most of his golf on the senior Champions Tour these days, so when he played a four-hole stretch starting at the seventh hole in 8 over par, including two double bogeys and a triple bogey, he decided he'd had more than enough of the wind, rain, chill and a very difficult golf course. At 12 over through 10 holes, he walked off.

"I've played in arguably worse conditions," said Lyle, the 1985 British Open champion and winner of the 1988 Masters. "But the course is so demanding that when you get out of position, you're finished."

Blowin' in the Wind

The wind was so strong that it blew Englishman Lee Westwood's ball off the sixth green. Westwood had already picked up his ball and marked it with a coin, then put it back down on the putting surface in preparation for his next putt when a gust got it moving and it rolled off the slope in front of the green.

Westwood, who finished with a 75, had to play his fifth shot from there and chipped in for a bogey.