Great White Shark Has Played His Last Open Championship Due To Escalating Luxury Time Piece Rivalry
/Derek Lawrenson with the terrific details of Greg Norman declaring his intent to no longer play The Open Championship over perceived slights by the R&A and European Tour. He blames Rolex, sponsor for those two bodies, because after all, he's an Omega man.
Such is their competitiveness that Norman, who represents Omega, reckons Rolex kept him out of playing in the pro-am for the Senior British Open — an event they sponsor — in 2012 over a Turnberry course where he had walked away from the field in the Open in 1986 (Rolex deny this).
A month later, Norman was at Gleneagles and planned to be present to hear his friend, Ryder Cup captain Jose-Maria Olazabal’s wildcards announcement. Again, Rolex were heavily involved and, again, Norman believes he was denied entry.
Now, he says he has had enough. Instead of meeting up with friends in Scotland and Ireland and playing in the Open at Royal Liverpool and the Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl in July, he will retire with his wife Kirsten to his holiday ranch in Colorado.
Rolex is also a USGA partner. Norman has declared himself the lead candidate for the Fox Sports analyst job starting in 2015 when the 12-year USGA contract commences.
