Shark Still Circling PGA Bait

TROON, SCOTLAND –- Still no word from Greg Norman on whether or not he’ll accept the PGA of America’s last-minute invitation to play in their Championship at Oakland Hills. “He has until Monday to decide,” his bride Chris Evert said this afternoon as she followed Norman in the second round of the Senior British Open at Royal Troon.

“He has a lot to consider,” said Evert, who has faced a few roadforks of her own since retiring from competitive tennis. “What are your motives for playing? Do you play just because you’re flattered that you’ve been invited, or do you play because you feel good about your golf and really want to play?”

The answer, of course, can turn on a single putt that lips out … or tumbles in. As recently as May, Evert pointed out, her part-time-golfer hubbie was a stroke out of the lead with two holes to play in the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. “Everybody’s saying it’s great, he’s back!” Evert said. “But then he goes double-bogey, bogey, and it’s, ‘Do I really want to do this?’”

The mood pendulum swung strong the other way last week at Royal Birkdale, where the 53-year-old Norman thrilled the world –- and himself -- with his T-3 finish in the Open Championship. And now it’s swinging back again at Royal Troon, where the Shark made the turn at +6, nine strokes off the lead of Bruce Vaughan and John Cook.

“I’ll give my opinion, but it’s entirely his decision,” Evert said of the PGA invite. “If he wants to play, I want him to play. I just want him to be happy.”

(Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images)