FORMER WORLD number one Greg Norman has laughed off a dramatic arrival in Switzerland for this week’s Omega European Masters. The 57-year-old Australian’s private jet closed a runway at Geneva Airport after a malfunction on landing.
“We were going 60, 70, 80 knots, the wheel went 90 degrees, the nose started kangarooing and stuff in the cabin was going everywhere,” Norman said. “All the cabinets in the galley came out. The shaking was pretty violent. Nobody knew what was going on.
“Always an adventure and good stories with me, boys.”
Norman was with his third wife Kirsten, son Gregory and business manager Bart Collins.
Paul Lawrie is flying high as he tries to pull off the same double that Thomas Bjorn achieved last year. A month before his return to the Ryder Cup after a 13-year gap, Lawrie won the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles on Sunday.
Now he is out to take Bjorn’s title as well – and the pair will go head-to-head in the opening two rounds at Crans-sur-Sierre.
Peter Hanson is the only other member of Jose Maria Olazabal’s side in a field which also includes Chinese amateur Andy Zhang, the 14-year-old who in June became the youngest-ever player to qualify for the US Open.
There is also Hanson’s fellow Swede Kristoffer Broberg, whose recent form has been nothing short of sensational.
On Saturday the 26-year-old became the fastest player in Challenge Tour history to earn three victories and instant promotion to the European Tour. After wins in Finland and Norway earlier in the month Broberg won the Rolex Trophy in Geneva with a closing 40-foot birdie putt.
He had played just five Challenge Tour events and finished third and ninth in the other two. He is also 75 under par for this month alone.
Olazabal and his four assistants Darren Clarke, Bjorn, Paul McGinley and Miguel Angel Jimenez are all playing and former world number three Paul Casey will try again to turn his game around.
Casey, who dislocated his shoulder snowboarding last Christmas, is now out of the sport’s top 100, although he did make only his second halfway cut of the season at the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina a fortnight ago.
Colin Montgomerie is hoping his sixth place at Gleneagles is the start of a comeback for him too.
Joining McGinley and Clarke will be compatriots Michael Hoey, Damien McGrane, Peter Lawrie, Shane Lowry and Gareth Maybin.
Deutsche Bank
Course: TPC Boston
Prize money: €6,385,696 (€1,117,496 to the winner)
Length: 7,214. Par: 71. Field: 98.
The layout: Although tinkered with since 2006 the course remains a straightforward test. It ranked only 37th out of 51 in terms of difficulty on the US Tour last season. With some tough holes the 298-yard par four fourth is drivable. The par-five 18th has been viewed as the easiest in the past but the green has been raised and halved in an attempt to cut out the birdie fest.
Last year: Webb Simpson after a play-off.
Type of players suited to challenge: Combination of power and good course management.
Key attribute: Touch.
Weather forecast: Sunny and hot.
On TV: Sky Sports 4 (8pm tomorrow)
