R & A CEO Martin Slumbers has assured every effort will be made to help ensure the presence of double Open winning Greg Norman at the 150th Open Championship celebration in two years time at St. Andrews.
The R & A is hoping to have on hand currently 34 living Open winning including Norman who captured the 1986 Open and the 1993 Open.
Indeed, next year will also mark 27-years since the late, great Gene Sarazen handed Norman a second Claret Jug with victory at Royal St. George’s.
This July will also marks 10-years since Norman was last present at The Open at that was in missing the cut at Turnberry.
The reason why Norman and the R & A have not seen eye-to-eye goes back to an incident ahead of the pro-am for the 2012 Senior British Open Championship at Turnberry being jointly run by the R & A and the European Tour and sponsored by Rolex and with Norman, at the time, competing that week as an Omega ambassador.
Greg Norman wins the second of two Open Championship in 1993 at Royal St. Georges.
“It would be too much energy to go into it but Rolex actually had me removed from the Pro-Am, so that’s when it all started,” said Norman back in 2014.
“If you want the truth, I’ve played in my last Open and it’s all down to the way the Royal and Ancient and the European Tour have handled my whole situation.
“What happened a few years back has left a pretty sour taste in my mouth, a bad feeling after what I have done in the game.
“I’ve nothing against the R&A and the European Tour but, quite frankly, the way they go about their business is not the way I do it.”
In fairness to Slumbers, as he has only been in the CEO position since March 2015, when asked at the now annual Association of Golf Writers (AGW) meeting with the R & A yesterday (Tuesday) if the R & A had reached out to Norman to ensure his presence at the Home of Golf.
“I am not aware of any issues there may between Greg and the R & A so I have not spoken to Greg about any particular issue,” he said.
“But with regards to the 150th Open, we have been talking to all our former Open winners including those who haven’t been here for a while about being present here in St. Andrews in 2021.
“They are at present very enthusiastic to be hear because I think the 150th Open will be very special.”
Currently there is 33 living Open Champions dating back to 1959 when Gary Player captured the first of three Open Championships.
The full list of ‘living’ Open winners includes:-
Gary Player – 1959, 1968, 1975
Jack Nicklaus – 1966, 1970, 1978
Bob Charles – 1963
Tony Jacklin – 1969
Lee Trevino – 1972, 1973
Tom Weiskopf – 1974
Tom Watson – 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1983
Johnnie Miller – 1976
Sandy Lyle – 1985
Greg Norman – 1986, 1993
Nick Faldo – 1987, 1990, 1992
Mark Calcavecchia – 1989
Ian Baker-Finch – 1991
Nick Price – 1994
John Daly – 1995
Tom Lehman – 1996
Justin Leonard – 1997
Mark O’Meara – 1998
Paul Lawrie – 1999
Tiger Woods – 2000, 2005, 2006
David Duval – 2001
Ernie Els – 2002, 2012
Ben Curtis – 2003
Todd Hamilton – 2004
Padraig Harrington – 2007, 2008
Stewart Cink – 2009
Louis Oosthuizen – 2010
Darren Clarke – 2011
Phil Mickelson – 2013
Rory McIlroy – 2014
Zach Johnson – 2015
Henrik Stenson – 2016
Jordan Spieth – 2017
Francesco Molinari – 2018
