September, 2015 | Peter Stone Golf

Shark

Well, I’ll be buggered. Now I am curious as to what Greg Norman had screwed up or, to the contrary, done exceedingly well that day he stood in front of the mirror alongside me at the hand basin in the locker-room at Kingston Heath in his birthday suit.

Now, I realise I must have missed something that day 15 or so years ago in around 40 years of Shark watching after his revelation in part two of the ABC’s Australian Story programme on him.

After a brief re-cap of part one, Norman was on screen saying: “I always looked myself in the mirror, to this day I still do, and not cleaning your teeth, not pruning, brushing your hair or making yourself look good but actually standing there – if you want to do it bare-arsed naked, do it bare-arsed naked.

Michelle Wie

B.J. Wie stood behind the line of players on the Royal Canberra practice range checking the time on his watch and then glancing over his shoulder. His daughter Michelle’s caddie Mark Wallington stood beside him checking the yardage book and pin placement sheet for Friday’s second round of the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.

Who’s to guess whether she was running late or not? If she was, it was best she was, as there was no berths left and, on arrival, she was kept waiting for five minutes or so before securing a spot on the far right. To pass the time, she did some back stretching exercises.

Drum

God it hurt late last year when I wasn’t part of the action for the first time in decades. I watched from the comfort of my lounge on the TV every shot of Pete Senior’s remarkable victory at the age of 53 in the Australian Open at The Lakes in conditions most foul. It was the same the following week when Daniel Popovic, virtually unknown to all but his family and friends, won the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum and if ever there was a story that tugged at the heartstrings his was one. His father, Radi, was watching too from their Templestowe home in Melbourne as he continues his fight against an incurable form of bone cancer.