Tag: Greg Norman

Golf in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico: Sun, surf, sips and swings

Golfweek’s Best rankings loaded with courses in Cabo San Lucas: Twin Dolphin, Quivera, Rancho San Lucas, Costa Palmas and more

The golf scene at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico is unlike any other in North America. The area is home to 16 courses designed by the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, Tom Fazio and Robert Trent Jones Jr. – all built within the last 25 years. 

But it’s not all about the golf.

First-time visitors will experience sensory overload from the turquoise water of the Pacific Ocean and Sea of Cortez, the dramatic rock formations along the water’s edge, the white sand beaches and giant dune systems. Just above that coastline is a desert landscape highlighted by arroyos and saguaro cacti, and from there climb mountains that reach as high as 6,500 feet in elevation. 

Simply put, there is beauty in every direction. But it’s not all about that beauty, either. 

There’s a vibe to Cabo, an invitation to relax, to enjoy oneself, that takes the sum of its parts – golf, coast, mountains, views – to deliver something even greater as a whole.

Quivera in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (Courtesy of Quivera/Brian G. Oar)

 

Want to party? Check. Want to relax at the beach between rounds? Check. Want to go all-in with a second home at a resort-style community that offers all the trimmings? Check. Cabo offers all that and more.

That vibe starts before visitors leave the airport. After the frenzy of customs, claiming bags and avoiding the dozens of timeshare hawkers, you step outside and are bathed in sunshine and offered a drink. Even before you grab a taxi or climb into a shuttle, there is a curbside bar filled with happy tourists – apparently the fun can’t wait in Cabo. 

The drive from the airport to the hotel areas is about 30-45 minutes. Most guests will stay at a large hotel or resort in one of three areas; the Corridor, the Marina District or the Pacific side of the peninsula.

The Corridor is a 15-mile stretch between San Jose Del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas filled with mega-hotels, each with hundreds of rooms, pools, restaurants and activities. Many are set up as all-inclusive, and some guests never venture outside their resort.

The Marina District is where the town of Cabo San Lucas meets the beach. There are shops and restaurants nestled up to fishing boats and yachts at the marina. Tourists can sign up for whale watching, sport fishing, a ride on a glass-bottom boat, a sunset cruise and more at the Marina. A few blocks inland are the nightclubs and bars that give Cabo its reputation as a spring break-bachelor party hot spot. A walk from the Marina up the beach takes you past bars and restaurants in the sand, alongside large condos and hotels, and gives you the best view of Land’s End, the iconic rock formation that dives into the sea at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula.

Rancho San Lucas in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (Courtesy of Rancho San Lucas/Brian G. Oar)

 

Around Land’s End is the Pacific side, another dramatic meeting of land and sea where numerous hotels, resorts and developments have popped up in the past 20 years. The Pacific side is a little more quiet and offers amazing sunsets, and it is home to some of the newer golf courses in Cabo.

The golf experience in Cabo is resort golf through and through. Arrival at a course usually includes a cocktail, everyone takes carts, there is often music on the range and many courses are arranged as roughly six-hole stretches between comfort stations where golfers indulge on cocktails and local-fare appetizers. Shorts and flip flops might be seen alongside an Airstream kitchen serving tacos and a VW Bus offering margaritas. The vibe is frequently much more beach club with a golf course added on.

Cabo’s roots are a fishing village, but golf crashed the party in the 1980s. The game exploded in the area in the ’90s with the addition of Cabo Del Sol designed by Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf, El Dorado by Nicklaus, Palmilla by Nicklaus, Cabo Real by Jones Jr. and Querencia by Fazio. 

In the past decade more courses were built: Diamante Dunes by Davis Love III, El Cardonal at Diamante by Woods, Quivira by Nicklaus, Twin Dolphin by Fred Couples and Todd Eckenrode, and most recently Rancho San Lucas by Norman, which opened in early 2020. 

In addition to all these fresh courses near Cabo, Costa Palmas by Jones Jr. opened in 2019 at the East Cape roughly 90 minutes away but equidistant from Los Cabos International Airport. 

And finally, Cabo Del Sol has changed its Ocean Course to a private layout now called Cove Club, for which Nicklaus redesigned multiple holes and renovated the greens and bunkers. And in the spirit of nothing standing still for long in Cabo, Weiskopf’s Desert Course at Cabo Del Sol is slated to be redesigned by the team of Dana Fry and Jason Straka. 

Costa Palmas in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (Courtesy of Costa Palmas/Evan Schiller)

All told, golf in Cabo is unique. The golf purists and architectural aficionados may see Cabo as a missed opportunity. Great land with sandy soils and a dramatic coastline has been the scene for many of the game’s best modern courses. Mike Keiser – founder of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in western Oregon, as well as several other top golf-focused destinations – has developed a formula of a resort where golf gets the best land and the lodging is set away from the water, and that model has worked extremely well in tougher spots. 

But Cabo’s climate is much better than Bandon’s, and it’s easier to get to. Despite proven examples of focusing on golf in other locales, to date every development in Cabo has been real estate or resort first and golf second, with much of the best land distributed accordingly. That also may explain why all the courses in Cabo have been designed by big-name celebrity architects as opposed to the smaller, hands-on shops that produced many of the top layouts of our time. 

Will the model change in the future? Only time will tell. For now, Cabo is an ideal spot for a couples getaway or an all-purpose trip with your most fun travel buddies. 

This is not Pine Valley or Seminole. This is Cabo. Untuck your shirt, grab a margarita, crank up the tunes, forget about your score and enjoy. 

A sample of Cabo’s new courses

New courses and big renovations in the past few years around Cabo have produced what is likely the biggest golf boom outside Vietnam. In October a group of 28 Golfweek’s Best course raters spent a week checking out several layouts and found positive takeaways at each.

Rancho San Lucas in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (Courtesy of Rancho San Lucas/Brian G. Oar)

Rancho San Lucas

  • Designer: Greg Norman
  • Opened: 2020
  • Affiliated with: Rancho San Lucas resort community
  • 2021 Golfweek’s Best ranking: Tied for No. 12 among courses in Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic and Central America
  • The details: A very playable layout on what was likely the best site of the four new courses we played. Each nine features a few desert, dune and beachfront holes. The par-3 17th to an island green with a waterfall behind, just a few hundred yards from the Pacific Ocean, was a head-scratcher.
  • The raters say: “A fun place to just sit and enjoy the views.” – Mark Hildahl, New Hampshire
Twin Dolphin in Cabo San Lucas (Courtesy of Twin Dolphin/Evan Schiller)

Twin Dolphin

  • Designers: Fred Couples and Todd Eckenrode
  • Year opened: 2018
  • Affiliated with: Montage Las Cabos
  • 2021 Golfweek’s Best ranking: No. 15 among courses in Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic and Central America
  • The details: A more traditional desert course set a mile or two above the sea. Wide corridors and engaging green complexes make the course one to be enjoyed on a day-to-day basis.
  • The raters say: “Terrific green complexes that offer all kinds of options.” – Ed Oden, North Carolina
Quivera in Cabo San Lucas (Courtesy of Cabo San Lucas/Brian G. Oar)

Quivira 

  • Designer: Jack Nicklaus 
  • Year opened: 2014
  • Affiliated with: Pueblo Bonito Resorts
  • 2021 Golfweek’s Best ranking: No. 25 among courses in Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic and Central America
  • The details: A wild journey along the Pacific with holes in a few different zones on the property. The 2-mile cart ride from No. 4 to No. 5 was broken up by a comfort station built into a cliff overlooking the ocean. 
  • The raters say: “Several of the most visually spectacular holes in golf.” – Todd Jones, Ohio
Costa Palmas in Cabo San Lucas (Courtesy of Costa Palmas/Evan Schiller)

Costa Palmas

  • Designer: Robert Trent Jones Jr.
  • Opened: 2019
  • Affiliated with: Four Seasons
  • 2021 Golfweek’s Best ranking: Tied for No. 39 among courses in Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic and Central America
  • The details: A low-lying layout with three distinct environments; dunes, forest and marina. The course offers wide fairways, dramatic bunkering and rolling green contours throughout. The large driving range can be converted into a six-hole short course for early-morning or late-afternoon fun.
  • The raters say: “Exceptional variety of strategic shots.” – Kristy Medo, Wisconsin
The view from Cliffhouse at Quivera (Courtesy of Quivera)

Perfect pit stops

Perhaps as memorable as the golf is the comfort station experience in Cabo. Many of the courses offer small snack shacks with a full bar and prepared food, and it seems each property aims to outdo its neighbors. Some of the more memorable comfort stations we experienced were:

  • Cliffhouse at Quivira: Set before the fifth tee a few hundred feet above the Pacific and built into a cliff, guests are offered a margarita and fish tacos with a million-dollar view.
  • Red Door 5 at Twin Dolphin: After the fifth hole, golfers can settle into a gracious outdoor room with tables, a firepit and tv, or they can belly up to a bar where the left wall is filled with sweets and the right wall is filled with booze. For early players, breakfast is served: Pastries, fresh fruit, chorizo breakfast taquitos, pancakes, mimosas, Bloody Mary’s and fresh mango yogurt can make you forget about golf.
Lucha Libre at Costa Palmas (Courtesy of Costa Palmas)

 

  • Lucha Libre at Costa Palmas: Golfers finishing either No. 7 or 13 can sample a little outdoor bar that feels like a spot you might find along the beach where your choose to hang out. Upon arrival, we were greeted with a mango-scented cold towel and a full Pizza Al Pastor fresh out of the custom brick oven. Margaritas with fresh lime juice and mini popsicles of local flavored ice creams also were on offer.

– This story originally ran in Golfweek’s 2021 Ultimate Guide.

Greg Norman back in hospital after positive COVID-19 test, expects to be released

Greg Norman is back in the hospital due to a positive COVID-19 test after recently hosting the QBE Shootout in Florida.

One day after going home following a visit to the Emergency Room due to COVID-19 symptoms, World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman posted he is back in the hospital Sunday afternoon.

Norman said he expected to be released later Sunday after receiving an antibody treatment.

“Now back in hospital after getting a positive result on my PCR CoVid test,” Norman posted on his Instagram. “Getting an infusion of Bamlanivimab antibody. The path to full recovery. Hoping to be out later today.

“Want to thank the excellent Doctors RN’s and staff at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center for their incredible dedication and professionalism looking after and caring for patients in need in the face of having CoVid in getting this infusion. They have my utmost of respect.”

Norman also went into further detail of what he had been going through.

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“Also to all out there, please take this very very serious,” he wrote. “If you get it, the variations and intensity of symptoms varies from person to person. I am fit and strong and have a high tolerance for pain but this virus kicked the crap out of me like nothing I have ever experienced before. Muscle and joint pain on another level. Headaches that feel like a chisel going through your head scrapping little bits off each time, fever, muscles that just did not want to work like (Saturday) walking my dog Apollo my quads and hip flexors just did not want to work due to fatigue.

“Then my taste failed where beer tastes bad and wine the same. And finally at times struggling with memory of names and things. Then there is irritation. So please take care.”

Read more here.

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Greg Norman hospitalized with COVID symptoms; son tests positive for virus

Greg Norman posted a photo from a hospital bed, and Greg Norman, Jr., said that he and his wife have tested positive for the virus.

It wasn’t much of a Merry Christmas for the Norman clan.

Greg Norman posted a photo to Instagram from a hospital bed during Christmas Day, and his son, Greg Norman, Jr., posted a photo saying that he and his wife have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.

The two-time Open Champion had said on Christmas Eve he was in quarantine, suffering from what symptoms that were consistent with COVID. Norman lives in Jupiter, Florida.

“I just got off the phone with my doctor and even though I had a test on Tuesday and the results came back yesterday (Thursday), which was negative, I am exhibiting mild symptoms of potentially COVID, not too sure. I feel very flu-like, I have mild fever, I have cough, I have aches and pains, I have a mild headache, so I am in self-quarantine,” Norman said on Thursday. “I don’t want to jeopardize affecting any of my friends or loved ones around me.”

But on Friday, he posted the following message on Instagram:

“This sums it all up. My Christmas Day. On behalf of millions, f— CoVid. This get this s— behind us never to experience it again.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJO7DQoJytX/

Norman had competed in the PNC Championship last weekend with his son, Greg Jr., and the duo finished in the top 10. The younger Norman also posted to social media on Christmas Day, saying he and his wife had both tested positive, even though their health was improving.

He added: “Michelle and I unfortunately are wrapping up the year with a positive diagnosis of COVID. YA. No Xmas with the family :/”

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QBE Shootout is a family affair for Steve Stricker, his daughter

Steve Stricker is teamed up with Daniel Berger at the QBE Shootout, where his daughter Bobbi is assisting the team that manages the event.

NAPLES, Fla. — Professional golf has been a family occasion for much of Steve Stricker’s career.

His wife, Nicki, was frequently his caddie on the PGA Tour, and was an accomplished player herself, finishing fourth in the Big Ten at Wisconsin as a senior.

His father-in-law, Dennis Tiziani, and his brother-in-law, Mario Tiziani, both played on the PGA Tour, and Mario is Steve’s agent. Dennis Tiziani also coached men’s and women’s golf at Wisconsin, and is Steve’s swing coach.

And his daughter, Bobbi, switched from tennis to golf after her senior year in high school, and walked on at Wisconsin.

This week and next, Bobbi is taking on a different role—but still in golf, of course.

She is assisting the Wasserman Sports team that manages the QBE Shootout, Greg Norman’s PGA Tour event, and the CME Group Tour Championship, an LPGA Tour one, at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.

“We kind of threw it out there to (Wasserman Sports’) Taylor (Ives) when I went down to Mexico last week,” said Steve Stricker, a part-time Naples resident who played in the Mayakoba Golf Classic. “I just said if you need anymore help, she was looking to kind of learn the business. She does a little bit of stuff with our tournament up in Madison for our Champions (Tour) event.

“It’s kind of the stuff she wants to be around, and involved with — tournament golf, players, management, something like that, I think.”

Bobbi, 22, is working while juggling her classes, which she’s attending virtually, as a senior at Wisconsin. Wednesday was just Day 2 of the journalism major’s journey.

“It’s been very fun so far,” she said. “I’ve done a lot of little jobs, but I’ve learned a lot of how the behind the scenes works. It’s always been an interest of mine, just how to put on an event. I’ve gotten to meet a ton of people, which will only help, and they’re all so cool.”

One of those will be her father’s playing partner this week, Daniel Berger.

This isn’t Berger’s first Shootout, and it won’t be Stricker’s first time getting familiar with him. But it will be a bit different because Stricker is the 2021 U.S. Ryder Cup captain, and Berger is one of those in contention for the team. Still, Stricker and Berger are familiar with one another in those types of roles; Stricker was the Presidents Cup captain in 2017 when Berger played on the team.

“He’s a great kid and he’s a hell of a player, and he’s been playing great golf as of late,” Stricker said. “I’m excited to partner with him, and I’ll ride him hard. He’s got a lot of talent and he hits it a long ways.”

Berger won’t get caught up in trying to impress Stricker this week.

“I’ve always looked up to him as a player,” Berger said. “Just a great time to spend with the Ryder Cup captain and look forward to playing good golf this week. The way I play this week has zero bearing on any Ryder Cup, but it is cool just to play with the Ryder Cup captain.”

Being at and in PGA Tour events is something important to Stricker, so he can build relationships, see what players are up to, and that sort of thing as he prepares for next year, after this year’s Ryder Cup was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m excited to be part of his team and just to hang around him,” Stricker said. “That’s a lot of the reason why I continue to play out here.”

Stricker, who is unsure at this point if he’ll play in next April’s Chubb Classic on the PGA Tour Champions at Tiburón, has been down in Naples with his wife and daughter since mid-November, and the two of them had been here since the end of October.

“We got out of Wisconsin when the getting was good,” he said. “The pandemic up there hasn’t been too good, so we decided to come down here to spend some more time outside.”

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QBE: Greg Norman gave Dustin Johnson putting tips at The Grove XXIII

Greg Norman says Dustin Johnson asked for some putting tips, so the two connected at Michael Jordan’s course, The Grove XXIII.

NAPLES, Fla. — QBE Shootout founder and host Greg Norman was only that for one of the few times in the event’s 32-year history Wednesday.

Norman hasn’t played in his unofficial PGA Tour event that features 12 two-person teams for years, but he’s usually played in the pro-am. That’s not the case this year, so he took the opportunity to jump in a cart and go see as many groups as possible during the pro-am at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.

“I had a fun day today because I drove around and tried to catch up with every one of the players,” Norman said. “I enjoyed that more quite honestly than playing because you get to see the guys you don’t really normally get to see. I go to a cocktail party or a function or a dinner with the sponsors, you don’t get to see all the others.

“To me it was a lot of fun, I really did enjoy it. I couldn’t get them all in, I probably missed about four or five groups, but I had a lot of fun today. Then I just did my radio show, (country act Lady A’s) Charles Kelly was brilliant, absolutely brilliant on it.”

QBE Shootout: Pairings, TV information

For several years at the Shootout, Norman and fellow Aussie Steve Elkington were paired together, and they even won it. This year, there is an Aussie pairing with Cameron Smith, who tied for second at the Masters, and Marc Leishman.

“We’ve always had a problem getting Australians to come play because this time of year the Australian tournaments are being played down there,” Norman said. “Sadly, they’re all being postponed or canceled because of this COVID situation. That’s why Leish and Cam asked me if they can come play and I was all for it, of course.”

Putting tips

Norman has helped out players over the years, and he embraced that role again a few months ago with Dustin Johnson, working on the eventual Masters champion’s putting at The Grove XXIII, Michael Jordan’s course where Johnson plays.

“I’ve just seen a few things in his short game, especially his putting, that I would relay on to my son to relay on to him,” Norman said. “I got a text from DJ around the middle of September. He said ‘Do you mind coming out and watching me putt a little bit? I said sure, no problem.

“We just spent time on the putting green. I don’t think how long it was, an hour, hour and a half, something like that. I just talked to him about a few things that I had seen and the difference from him on a Thursday, Friday to a Saturday into a Sunday was a big difference. Some of it was physical improvement and some of it was mental as well, but mental comes from a bad physical or bad technique. So I just talked him through it and all of a sudden he started to feel it and he started to feel it, and from that moment on he went on a pretty good run and he still is.”

Tway-Sabbatini back

Defending QBE Shootout champions Kevin Tway and Rory Sabbatini weren’t able to take their win this past season.

Sabbatini finished 127th on the money list for the 2019-20 season, and Tway was 175th.

Still, they hope they can build off last year’s victory and carry it over this week and beyond at Tiburón Golf Club at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort.

kevin tway rory sabbatini qbe shootout
Kevin Tway and Rory Sabbatini, who won the 2019 QBE Shootout, pose with tournament founder and host Greg Norman on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2019. Photo by Michael O’Bryon/QBE Shootout

“Well, all I can say is it’s going to kind of hopefully be like last year where I’m going to be the jockey and he’s going to be the stallion,” Sabbatini said Wednesday. “It’s always good to be here. Obviously a lot of good memories from last year. It’s always a fun, relaxing week.”

“It’s nice to have a partner,” said Tway, whose father Bob, the former PGA Championship winner, was here as his caddie last year, and is here but not in that role this year. “Rory hits it really straight, so he hits it in play and I kind of just wail at it. He reads the greens and I putt it where he tells me and it goes in most of the time, so we’ve got a good little partnership going.”

That combination of strengths meshed well last year when Tway and Sabbatini shot a final-round 60 to edge Jason Kokrak and J.T. Poston by two strokes. Ryan Palmer and Harold Varner III tied for third, along with Billy Horschel and Brendon Todd — and both of those teams are back.

“It’s kind of strange because after Kevin hits it a mile, there’s a lot of facets to his game that are very underrated that he’s very good at,” Sabbatini said. “So for me it’s kind of fun because, as he said, I put the ball in the fairway and let him wail away and take advantage of it, which does kind of stink when I’m playing my own ball because now he’s 50 yards back.”

“I can drive it up close to the greens and Rory’s got a nice short game so he can spin it in there close and get some tap-ins for birdie,” Tway said. “It’s always a fun week. And our caddies mesh well together and I’ve got dad here. He’s not caddying, but he’s here so he brings some good vibes for us.”

Even though professional golf has been back since the summer, at almost every event there have been no fans. And that’s the case this week. So that also means no grandstands behind the 18th green, for example.

“It’s different coming to this golf course and not see the grandstands behind 18,” Sabbatini said. “The golf course has a different view as a lot of golf courses that we’re playing and competing on now. In some respects, Sea Island, some of the par-3 greens looked a lot bigger, it didn’t seem like the green was that far away. It always changes your optical perspective of what you’re accustomed to out there.

“We’ve had no fans for six months and it’s still weird because we’re not seeing people cheer behind the green,” Tway said. “It’s more weird for a tournament like this because I feel like you kind of interact with the fans more than you normally would at a regular event because it’s more laid back and more just freewheeling and stuff. It’s strange to see it as well as the grandstands not being there, it’s weird looking at it, too.”

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Greg Norman: Medalist tees up length, variety, difficulty for ‘Match II’

With Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Co., ready to play it, there was joy in the Shark’s voice as he talked with Golfweek about this course.

Much has been written this week about Greg Norman’s acrimonious split from Medalist Golf Club, the private golf treasure in southern Florida he co-founded in the mid-1990s.

Earlier this week, however, there was joy in the Shark’s voice as he talked with Golfweek about the course he designed and built with Pete Dye in Hobe Sound, Florida, a sweeping stage that is home to Sunday’s The Match: Champions of Charity. The charity event pits Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady and will raise more than $10 million for COVID-19 relief efforts.

“I just admired Pete,” said Norman, whose architect arm has produced 106 courses in 34 countries on six continents – four in collaboration with Dye, who passed away at age 94 in January. “He was just one of those gentlemen who was so connected to golf. He was a genius below the surface just as much as he was above the surface. That’s where I learned most of my knowledge.

“He took me under his wing.”

The two-time major champion and member of the World Golf Hall of Fame said part of the Medalist’s mission statement at the outset was simple – build one of the hardest courses in the area that would attract low handicap golfers.

So Norman and Dye went to work. On hands and knees, the two primitively designed the course on the flat land that featured fresh marshlands and plenty of sand, their creative architectural instincts instead of blueprints leading the way.

“Pete and I were tasked to build a difficult course and that’s what we went out and did,” said Norman, who lives 15 minutes from the club. “We didn’t use a set of plans. We did it by sticks in the sand and just drawing and saying this is where we should go and this is what we should do. We’d get down on the ground and draw away. It truly was a hand-built golf course by both of us.

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“I used to joke with Pete that his golf shots were a little low, flat hook golf shots instead of a high fade like mine. So we had this constant battle about how holes should be played and not played and we loved it.

“We just joked with each other all the time.”

Seven years ago, however, Dye nor Norman, who tweaked the design over the years with new bunkers and tees, was asked for approval when the Medalist hired Bobby Weed to renovate the course. This led to the unpleasant split between the club and Norman (although he remains a member and visits from time to time).

In his restoration, Weed beefed up the revetted-stacked bunkers, widened a few fairways, touched on the greens and added six Tiger Tees in honor of Woods, which can stretch the par-72 layout to a big-boy 7,515 yards.

“The layout of the golf course is what Pete and I did originally,” Norman said. “The variety of the golf course is so good. There are long holes and drivable short holes depending on the wind conditions. I used to be able to drive the 10th hole and the 11th hole. Risky shots but you can try them. You can drive No. 14.

“The combination of the holes and the different shots that are required – that’s what Pete and I wanted to do, to challenge you to be able to hit all 14 clubs in your bag, not just a few of them.”

Especially when hitting into the greens.

“Where to hit the greens and how to hit the greens is important,” Norman said. “The greens aren’t overly big and there is a lot of runoff. The ball gets repelled away from the flagstick. Hole No. 4, with a big pushup green, is one of the classic par-3s. Very severe if you miss the green. Even for Mickelson and Woods, it will test their short games if they have to get up and down.

“But the great players like Mickelson and Woods won’t have much problem with it because the fairways are much wider now. A lot of the underbrush has been removed. It looks less intimidating today. Having said that, with Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, if you stray offline you are going to pay the price big time.”

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Norman was approached to be a part of the broadcast team for the match but things didn’t work out. But Norman will hit the airwaves May 26 on SiriusXM radio for his second live call-in show named Attack Life Radio at 3 p.m. ET.

For an hour Norman takes calls, answers questions, reminisces and has a blast.

“If people want to ask me a question, I’ve always enjoyed giving them my honest answer. So on the show I engage with them and they engage with me. It’s truly a 360 view on my life,” Norman said. “Most of the questions are about golf, but there are questions about life. And I’ve had broad experiences traveling the world and meeting and seeing and understanding and hearing a lot of things that are etched into my mind. I think it’s very valuable if I can hand that information on to people who are willing to ask questions about it.”

The broadcast team for Match II will feature Justin Thomas, one of many PGA Tour stars who are Medalist members; others include Woods, Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Rickie Fowler. Thomas has logged more than 100 rounds at the Medalist and recently played 18-hole matches against Fowler when both played left-handed and another time when both played using persimmon woods, old irons and balata golf balls.

This week he’s played a few rounds with Woods and on Friday went 18 with Mickelson and Brady. Like Norman, Thomas, who will be making his on-course analyst debut, said the Medalist won’t present too many problems for Woods and Mickelson. Now, for Brady and Manning, that’s a different story.

“It’s generous off the tee in terms of fairway size but if you get off the fairway it’s trouble. It’s a lost ball type of situation,” Thomas said. “Given the setup and the wind direction, I think it’s one of the hardest courses in this area just because of the length. I hit more long irons out there than any course down here. It’s a great test for the times we get a course a little bit longer on the PGA Tour because I can go out there and hit a lot of long and mid-irons.

“It plays tough along the greens because of the lies – they can be tight and grainy. It can be a very difficult course. Phil and Tiger, they’ll be OK. But Tom and Peyton might get a little exposed.”

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Claret Jug from Greg Norman’s 1986 Open win up for auction

A Claret Jug from Norman’s 1986 win at The Open Championship is available for those willing to dig into their pocketbooks.

It looks like Greg Norman’s Colorado home isn’t the only thing of value tied to the Shark that’s been put on the market of late.

After learning that Norman had listed his 11,900-acre Colorado ranch, called Seven Lakes, for $40 million, now comes word that a Claret Jug from Norman’s 1986 win at The Open Championship is also available for those willing to dig into their pocketbooks.

The jug, which was likely created for another member of Norman’s entourage since players are allowed to have more than one made, was selling for just over $61,000 as of Friday evening. The auction closes on Saturday night at 7 p.m. ET.

According to Bob Zafian of Golden Age Golf Auctions, these things do come through from time to time.

This specific Claret Jug was auctioned through Zafian’s group back in 2018 for over $76,000 and he expects the piece to get closer to $85,000 this time through.

“But you just don’t know,” Zafian said. “Things things just don’t come up too often and sometimes, they take off.”

In terms of Norman’s home, the 13,907 square-foot home, located in Meeker, Colorado, sits next to the White River, one of the largest elk and deer migrations in the Rocky Mountains.

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Medalist is back on TV, but don’t expect to see Greg Norman around

Greg Norman was excited to be on the broadcast for this weekend’s match at a club he helped build. An invite never came. How come?

It’s been 25 years since Medalist Golf Club last appeared on national television, when Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf pitted then-world No. 1 Nick Price against Greg Norman, the world No. 2 and founder of the newly opened club.

On May 24, the exclusive Florida enclave hosts another made-for-TV affair with Tiger Woods and Peyton Manning taking on Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady to raise funds for COVID-19 relief.

Just don’t expect to see Greg Norman anywhere.

A spokesperson for Norman confirmed to Golfweek that the World Golf Hall of Famer was approached by Turner Sports about joining the broadcast team for The Match.

“He was very interested. Next thing he heard was that Justin Thomas had been chosen for the role,” said his representative Jane McNeillie. “That’s all we really know.”

It’s been seven years since Norman had an acrimonious and very public split from Medalist after the board hired architect Bobby Weed to make changes to the course, which the two-time major winner furiously described as “a slap in the face.” He famously removed a stuffed shark mounted above the bar in the grill room, which was replaced by a board listing winners of the member-guest including, in 2002, Norman and Andy Mill, his former best friend whose wife, tennis great Chris Evert, left him for Norman in 2006.

I asked Kevin Quigley, the president of the board at Medalist, if the club had requested Norman not be part of the production. 

“No,” he replied.

Is it a preference of Medalist that he not be involved?

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There was a lengthy pause.

“I wouldn’t say a preference,” Quigley finally offered. “We asked who would be involved and we received the answer. His name wasn’t one of them. So there’s nothing in the contract between all the parties that says Greg Norman cannot be involved.”

Of course, not everything has to be contractual to be understood by all parties. An inquiry to Turner Sports on whether Norman was approached was not answered by press time.

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When told that Norman says he was approached and doesn’t know why there was no follow-up, Quigley said, “I have no idea what happened between him and Turner Sports. I can only say what happened between us and Turner Sports. They threw out a bunch of names and Greg Norman’s name was not among them. So we assumed he was not involved.”

Had Turner suggested Norman, would the club have been comfortable with that?

“I don’t know why he would want to be involved. You can go back and I’m sure you’ve seen the stories,” Quigley said before trailing off into another long pause. “His opinion of the golf course was so low that I don’t know why he would want to go on television and be a commentator to a product that he doesn’t approve of.”

In Medalist’s early years, Norman ran the club as he saw fit, and that included making changes to the Pete Dye design on which he was either a consultant or co-architect, depending on who you believe. When members took over the club, Dye was invited back to discuss restoring what had been changed. The legendary designer was driven around the property and was surprised by what he saw. “What happened here?” he asked.

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“Greg Norman tweaked pretty much every hole,” Quigley said. “As the founding member, Greg ran the club at his sole discretion. There’s seven members on the board, he had four seats. His golf course design company did the work, his company was paid for the work, and the members were the ones paying for it. And the members didn’t want the fifth green changed, they didn’t want the bunkers moved from one side of the fairway to the other.”

Quigley says the Medalist board sent Norman registered mail inviting him to submit a proposal at the time of the restoration but received no response. “He didn’t like the idea that anyone else was touching the golf course,” said Quigley. “He had a hissy fit when it was changed. He had an opportunity. He chose not to participate.”

Medalist has earned an enviable reputation as base camp for PGA Tour stars in the last decade since Woods moved to Jupiter and joined the club. More than 20 other professionals are members, including Brooks Koepka, Rickie Fowler, Matt Wolff and Justin Thomas, who Norman believes replaced him on the broadcast team for the Tiger-Phil event. “Justin and Tiger are very close so that might have had something to do with it,” Quigley said dryly.

Norman, who lives 15 minutes away, remains on the member roll at Medalist. “As the founding member of the club, he is a member. The way the document is written, he will always be a member,” the gregarious Quigley said. “He cannot be thrown out nor can he quit. He comes around sometimes and you see him. There’s no controversy.”

Norman did make one poorly-timed visit with his grandson only to find it was member-member weekend. “We had 120 people on the range. So it wasn’t the ideal time for him to hit balls with his grandson,” Quigley said. “He was here earlier in the year. He was in the grill room, sat down and had lunch. Tiger was at a table at the same time. It was all good.”

The course viewers will see on Sunday is much closer to what was broadcast a quarter-century ago, the board president believes. “It’s not an identical restoration but we restored a lot of it,” he said. “We’ll never get it back to the original golf course but it’s a lot closer than it was five years ago.”

I asked if Norman appreciates now the work that was done. “I’ve never heard him make a complimentary comment about the golf course, but I don’t communicate with him regularly,” Quigley said.

The Medalist board will have no say in how its golf course is presented to the world. The Match is being managed by the PGA Tour and last week Tour official Slugger White spent more than four hours touring the layout and discussing pin locations in the company of the club’s professional, it’s superintendent and Olin Browne, a board member and Tour veteran. At the halfway house, the group ran into the man who has replaced the Shark as the alpha male at Medalist, Woods, who was playing with Thomas and Fowler. “They chatted for 10 or 15 minutes and Tiger was funny,” Quigley recounted with a laugh.

“He suggested to Slugger he put all the pins on the front right that way Phil couldn’t use that cut shot of his to get it in there close.”

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Paul Azinger talks Tiger, Ryder Cup, kicking cancer’s butt and becoming bulletin-board material

Paul Azinger is the perfect chap to meet for a round of cocktails at the 19 th hole. Face it, the guy likes to talk. Likes to laugh. Is passionate and intense. And does he have stories. In a life spanning 60 years now, Zinger won the 1993 PGA …

Paul Azinger is the perfect chap to meet for a round of cocktails at the 19th hole.

Face it, the guy likes to talk. Likes to laugh. Is passionate and intense. And does he have stories.

In a life spanning 60 years now, Zinger won the 1993 PGA Championship, 12 PGA Tour titles and two more on the European Tour. Captained the U.S. to victory in the 2008 Ryder Cup. Played on winning Ryder Cup teams in 1991 and 1993. Spent 300 weeks in the top 10.

He held his own against the best in the world, including Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Jose Maria Olazabal, Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and his late best friend, Payne Stewart.

And he kicked cancer’s butt.

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Now Azinger talks a great game as the lead analyst for NBC and Fox.

“Well, I love golf,” Azinger said in a chat with Golfweek. “I can’t tell you how much I love the sport and how much I love watching it.  I love playing the game.”

While he’s “chomping at the bit” to get back to work, Azinger has kept busy sheltered at his home in Bradenton, Florida, since the COVID-19 global pandemic halted play on the PGA Tour in March.

“I just don’t let myself get bored as much as anything,” Azinger said. “Self-isolating isn’t too bad. I’ve done a lot of work around the house. I’m neater than I think I am. I can clean if I want to.”

The current state and the fear of the unknown concerning the coronavirus is mindful in some ways to Azinger’s successful battle against cancer that began in 1993 when lymphoma was discovered in his right shoulder blade. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments as well as Azinger’s perseverance conquered cancer.

“When I first heard the words, ‘You have cancer,’ immediately it was sort of a similarity to hearing there is a virus going around and we’re all going to have to shelter in place,” Azinger said. “When I heard what the treatment was for (cancer), that’s when I knew it was a big deal. This, you’re just trying to avoid the treatment.

“It’s a weird situation. For a long time there, we all but wondered if we could get it and could it make us sick enough that we could succumb. And that’s just a terrible feeling. And that was similar to the feeling I had when I had cancer, for sure.”

On a lighter note

Azinger’s love for motorcycles: “It’s a feeling of freedom.”

Playing against Tiger Woods at the zenith of his powers: “We were watching something we thought we would never see.”

His love for the Ryder Cup: “The whole patriotism aspect.”

Johnny Miller, Paul Azinger, Dan Hicks, NBC
Johnny Miller, Paul Azinger and Dan Hicks in the NBC booth during the third round of the 2019 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Azinger also addressed comments he made about Tommy Fleetwood and Lee Westwood ahead of the final round of this year’s Honda Classic that turned him into a European Tour punching bag. One word – that – got Azinger in trouble when he said you have to win on the PGA Tour. Fleetwood, a five-time winner on the European Tour, was trying to win his maiden PGA Tour title.

“A lot of pressure here,” Azinger said on the broadcast. “You’re trying to prove to everybody that you’ve got what it takes. These guys know, you can win all you want on that European Tour or in the international game and all that, but you have to win on the PGA Tour.”

That European Tour. Oops.

“I’m sure I’ll be some bulletin board material for them at the Ryder Cup,” Azinger said. “I respect all wins. I try to use good grammar when I’m in the booth and I failed big-time on that one. And it didn’t come off quite as I hoped.”

Eventually, Azinger will get back into the booth and is a long way from sitting in a rocking chair and reminiscing about a good life lived.

“I’m still looking to make today a great day, tomorrow a great day,” he said. “I want to continue to try and achieve in charitable ways, be better as a person. I want to contribute to the game of golf in whatever capacity I can. Try to make the game grow and help the game come back from this devastating virus.”

Scroll up to watch Steve DiMeglio’s discussion with Paul Azinger.

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