Living Icon Of The Brand: I Won The Tournament Of Life
/Hamish McLachlan chats with Greg Norman about life as the living brand and winning the tournament of life for which they award a green sweater vest, I believe.
Anyway, I can't really do a full takedown of this one because Peter FitzSimons already did in the Sydney Morning Herald. Still, the interview is pretty special on many levels (thanks readers M and M for sending).
About fame:
GN: I’m comfortable with it. Sometimes when you walk into a room though, all you want is a little bit of peace and quiet, and it’s not there. And when you feel like that, you have to really check yourself, and change your mood. We are all human beings and sometimes the burden on us feels a little bit heavy, but at the end of the day I also realise — and this is something I’ve only noticed in the last six or seven years — that I am the living brand. So it doesn’t matter where you are, or how you are feeling, if somebody walks by you have to say “Hi, how are you doing?”
The burdens of living brandedness.
On Tiger, which veers into the surreal.
GN: I’d sit down and talk to him first and find out what is in his head. You need to understand all the pieces of the puzzle before you try and put the puzzle together. My natural response would be “Yes, of course I would”. I’m always willing to help friends; my Aussie friends have been told there is always an open door at my house. I always had that from a couple of great athletes, Jack Nicklaus and Raymond Floyd. Those guys were there for me whenever I was down and out. That’s why even when I see presidents of the United States getting hammered, I will pick up the phone, and just thank them for what they do to help keep the freedom of the world.
HM: An open line to the White House?
GN: I’m lucky in that regard.
Ahh...to be so lucky.
As for the Masters..
GN: Simple, I won the tournament of life at Augusta. I never won the green jacket, but I did win the tournament of life. Two really tough situations happened to me on that golf course, one with Larry Mize in ’87, and one with Nick Faldo in ’96. Two totally different situations, and as a result, two different emotional reactions within myself. I could have tried to bury both of them, and pretend that they never really bothered me. But whenever I’ve been asked about them, I’ve talked about them, I’ve never run away from them. To this day people talk to me about how well I held myself, which is why I say I won the tournament of life.
The Tournament of Life already has a theme song, with a little reworking of Tim Rice's chorus.
It's the Tournament of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope when Larry Mize holes out
Through faith and love from Nick Faldo's hugs
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding unless Bill Clinton's walking on it
In the Tournament
The Tournament of Life
