Men’s Golf | Peter Stone Golf

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.

Jack Nicklaus still cuts a proud figure. He always has. There was the time back in 1971 when he and a handful of Australian mates went to a French restaurant in Paddington for dinner on the eve of the Dunlop International tournament at Manly GC.

“Wear something inconspicuous, don’t stand out in the crowd,” the Golden Bear was urged.

You’d hardly call a pillar-box red jacket a cloak of anonymity but that’s what he wore. Let’s save the rest of the yarn for another time except for the not insignificant detail save that Cinderella’s coach was already a pumpkin when he departed and the next morning with a 7am tee time he darn near broke 60. He was 11 under through 16 holes, but made par at the 17^th and bogeyed the last for a 62.