I am still stranded in Sydney. This has not been a bad thing.
I was going to post about golf last Monday when Adam Scott won the US Masters. As has been highlighted, he is first Australian to win that ‘Major ‘golf tournament. The fact that no Australian has won that particular tournament before has been one of sporting’s great mysteries for some time.
Australian Comparative Advantage
Australians have always ‘punched over their weight’ for ever in international sport. That expression related to the fact on a simple population basis more Australians have won more international sporting competitions, including golf tournaments, than any other country than any other country . This has also applied to many sports, including swimming, tennis and cycling. The others are of course, cricket and rugby union.
The ratio of sporting wins to the population of a country is a nonsense measure. The real measure that should be used is the number of people playing a particular sport compared to the international success. For Australia, an obvious example is swimming: virtually every child in Australia swims. Even the population of the country is small relative to other countries (even compared to other countries such as the USA, UK etc), the number of regular swimmers is high relative to the rest of the world.
Another example of a disproportionate participation rate relative to population is the game of golf. There are golf courses every in Australia. If you want to play you can and it is relatively cheap. This is particularly the case in the country towns.
Yass Golf Course
This brings me back to may ride from Canberra. It took me through Yass. Yass is a quintessential Australian country town. It is has been prosperous for years. Its wealth was, and as still is, based on the wool industry. Like virtually all country towns it has a golf course. I know the course well. When I was young I played the course with my Dad.
When I turned 18 used travel to Yass with my mates. Initially we took our parents cars. In my case it was a Triumph that my Dad had bought from tennis mate who was a Diplomat at the British High Commission. Quite stupidly I did not observe the speed limits on the trips to and from Yass – 100 mph (160 kph) was not uncommon. Fortunately I am still here to write this and the passengers are still around to read it (if they can be bothered).
The course at Yass looks almost exactly as I remember it from over 40 years ago.
Greg Norman
Getting back to the US Masters: the most famous Australian loss was in 1996 when Greg Norman blew a 6 stroke lead to lose. Refer to the link below.
Norman is example of what Australia can produce as sports person. He was brought up in Mt Isa, country Queensland, and had access to a golf course.
I have two memories of seeing Norman playing live. The first was in (I think 1984) t Royal Canberra. It was that Australia v Japan Cup (played by the top Australian and Japanese golfers). Norman was just of his way up in the international scene. The 18th at Royal is 535 metres. There is a big dip around the 320 metres mark. To clear the dip required a drive of 350 metres plus. Virtually none of the players could think about getting anywhere near the dip. If they did, they laid up before the dip and played two more shots to the green.
In the round I saw Norman play, he hit his first shot over the dip – ta least 350 metres. It was an awesome drive. I have never r seen a ball fly so high and so far. The sound when he hit the ball was amazing. The gallery were simply stunned. He was left with a simple 9 iron to the green and regulation two putt for a birdie. He was playing a different game to all the other players.
Tiger Woods
The other memory of seeing Norman play was at the Australian Open in February 1996. It was played at the Australian Course in Sydney. By this time Norman was an international super star and the World No 1. I went to the tournament with my journalist mate mentioned in other posts. Most of the gallery was watching Norman.
My mate suggested we follow an American he had heard about. He was playing a few groups ahead of Norman. This player was not what I expected – a short skinning black guy. We watched him play a couple of holes, including a long par 5. He hit a monster drive on that hole.
We waited for Norman’s group to play the same hole. Norman’s drive came up about 10 metres short of the skinny American’s drive. My mate said: “I think that Tiger Woods guy will go far”.
Good call TR.
Norman won that Australian Open. He tragically lost the US Masters in April of that year.
How Good was Greg Norman?
http://www.ausgolf.com.au/greg-norman
1996 Masters
http://www.golf.com/special-features/normans-collapse-paves-way-faldo
billrider2013 