Fear of a Shark attack
An inordinate amount of shark attacks have taken place in Australia this past summer and it has raised a certain amount of paranoia at the beach. Only a few weeks ago at my local beach a lifesaver reported a shark sighting. The shark alarm sounded and everyone got out the water only to find out later the shark was 40cm long. Hardly a shark and hardly worth the alarm. In the golf world there’s a shark of a different kind lurking and it is also bringing with it a sense of fear and paranoia.
Greg Norman returns to Augusta National in the morning. It’s the home of so many heartbreaking moments of his golf career, not to mention ours as well. As an Australian golf fan, Augusta conjures up a certain sense of beauty and wonder but much like a bottle of chartreuse, is capable of doing some serious damage.
At the British Open last year it was fun to see Norman back in contention for a major tournament but for some reason, despite leading for most of the event, I just never thought he would win and the loss sat a lot better than all the other losses did. Augusta National plays much harder and a lot longer than it used to and I fear Greg may not make the cut. It’s something both Greg and I are prepared for.
But lately I’ve been having some scary thoughts. Thoughts of an Shark attack. What if he does make the cut? If the weather goes bad, and Norman is forced to use some of that old fashioned shot-making skill we regularly used to see in golf 10 years ago, then maybe, just maybe we could see his name on the leaderboard on Sunday afternoon.
The sight of The Shark making a hole-in-one at the annual Par-3 contest this morning sent my primordial sense of fear into overload. I sense an attack and I’m not prepared for it. I assumed the heartbreaking Monday morning’s of the US Masters were a thing of the past I don’t think I can go through it all again.
Go easy on us Greg. If you’re not going to win, I won’t hold it against you. I’m perfectly happy if you decide to swim out of the shallow Augusta waters and leave us Australian golf fans to watch the rest of the tournament using the whole seat and in relative safety.
