Norman stays at his own pace

Greg Norman is one busy golfer these days, and quite unexpectedly in the news. At 53, with cobwebs on his clubs, Norman was the flavor of the week at the British Open, leading for three days until famously flaming out on Sunday with a 77.

But he still tied for third at Royal Birkdale, which not only surprised just about everyone, it also qualified him for next year’s Masters.

And we all know about Norman’s abject Augusta misery, lowlighted by his collapse in 1996, when he lost a six-shot lead on the last day.

Norman didn’t know he had qualified for his 23rd trip to Masters until after he finished up at Birkdale. He didn’t sound overly excited.

“Time out, OK?” he said. “I’ve got a lot of water to go over the dam to get to that, but I’ve got to play next week and I’ve got a lot to look forward to. Hopefully Troon plays a little friendlier than this one.”

What Norman meant was that Royal Troon, where the Senior British Open will be played this week, doesn’t rip up his insides like Birkdale did.

Norman hit a lot of drivers at Birkdale because he doesn’t hit it very long any more, and when he started getting shaky, he didn’t hit it straight. Long and crooked, bad combination, but it’s better than short and crooked.

Ian Woosnan, who is on hand at Troon, wasn’t surprised that Norman played as well as he did at Birkdale. “I think some of the old guys can do well on a sea links golf course,” he said. “You don’t have to be super long.

“I think some of the more experienced and older guys can get around a course last week with the weather being like it [was]. It’s not surprising Greg did well.”

Actually, it’s probably a huge upset. It’s not as if Norman showed up at Southport, England, riding a hot streak. He had played only three PGA Tour events all year, one since February, and missed the cut in all three.

But Norman did tie for sixth at the Senior PGA Championship in May, at 10 over. He’s a combined 34 over in his four PGA Tour events.

From here on out, the schedule is far from busy for Norman and he doesn’t sound as if he wants to fill in the blanks. After Troon, he’s committed to the U.S. Senior Open next week at the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.

“I don’t have anything on my schedule after that,” Norman said, admitting that it “doesn’t fire me up” to play golf.

That’s probably not what Joe Steranka, the CEO of the PGA of America wants to hear.

Steranka wants to extend a special invitation for Norman to play in the PGA Championship, Aug. 7-10, at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Whether adding Norman to the mix will help is questionable. The PGA Championship has a double play of factors going against it – no Tiger Woods, and the first weekend of the Beijing Olympics.

Steranka was philosophical.

“Any time you lose a pop-culture icon like Tiger, his absence is going to be felt, but with major championships that are part of golf history, you’ll see other people step up, as happened at the British Open,” he said. “I can’t say it’ll be Greg Norman again, but these great stories emerge when you’re talking about a chance to go in the history books.”

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The $2.1 million Ricoh Women’s British Open next week at Sunningdale may decide which of the top five players in the rankings has the best year in the major championships.

Check out their records in the three majors so far:

* Lorena Ochoa: 1st at the Kraft Nabisco, T3 at the LPGA Championship, T31 at the U.S. Women’s Open.

* Annika Sorenstam: T2 Kraft Nabisco, T3 LPGA Championship, T24 U.S. Women’s Open.

* Paula Creamer: T21 Kraft Nabisco, T10 LPGA Championship, T6 U.S. Women’s Open.

* Inbee Park: 9th Kraft Nabisco, T46 LPGA Championship; 1st U.S. Women’s Open.

* Yani Tseng: T21 Kraft Nabisco, 1st LPGA Championship, T42 U.S. Women’s Open.

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Of the top 10 sports-related periodicals in advertising revenue, five showed increases in the first half of the year – three of them golf publications.

According to Publishers Information Bureau, Sports Illustrated pulled in $314.5 million in the first half of the year, but that’s a 3% drop from the same period in 2007. No. 3 Golf Magazine, No. 6 Golf World and No. 9 Travel & Leisure Golf all showed increased ad revenue, including a 10.4% hike by Golf World.

However, No. 4 Golf Digest fell 2.1% to $93.5 million in ad revenue.

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Remember the Wilhelmina 7, the LPGA players who signed deals with the Wilhelmina modeling agency? Five of the seven combined to shoot 55 under at the LPGA State Farm Classic and three finished in the top 20 – Stacy Prammanasudh, Anna Grzebien and Mikaela Parmlid.

“Some people have said to me, ‘OK, the W7 are an attractive group, but can they play?’ ” said Wilhelmina Artist Management chairman Dieter Esch. “I think they summed up the answer to that question pretty well.”

 thomas.bonk@latimes.com