Norman Returns Just in Time for PGA Championship

Greg Norman, who has been sidelined since the U.S. Open with a wrist injury, returns to action this week at the 70th PGA National Championship, the last of the year’s Big Four events.

“I’m very anxious to get back. I’m chomping at the bit to start playing again,” Norman said.

The return of Norman, who has not competed since withdrawing June 17 from the Open, and the presence of British Open champion Seve Ballesteros, offsets the absense of Masters champion Sandy Lyle in the 150-man field that begins play Thursday at the 7,015 yard, par 71 Oak Tree Golf Club.

Norman had planned to return to competition at the British Open last month, but he found the injury had not healed sufficiently and he was forced to withdraw.

“I’ve been climbing the walls,” he said of the enforced two-month break, probably the longest of his globe-trotting career.

Norman, a transplanted Australian, began practicing at his home in Florida last week and said he now is able “to play without pain.

“I’m very excited about the prospect of getting back at it,” said Norman, the outstanding figure in world golf in 1986 and winner of five international titles this season.

Lyle, the leading money-winner on the United States PGA Tour this year and holder of three 1988 American titles, withdrew last week.

PGA officials said only that Lyle’s management group had telephoned, withdrawing him from the tournament. No reason was given.

The other major foreign figures--who have helped over-shadow American efforts in the last couple of years and have prompted an “us vs. them” theme in golf’s major events--all are included in the chase for a winner’s share of $160,000 from the total purse of $1 million.

Chief among them is a revitalized Ballesteros, the Spaniard who scored his third British Open triumph last month.

Ballesteros, for several seasons mired in the golfing doldrums, said that victory gave him renewed confidence and enthusiasm and proved his point by winning the Scandanavian Open two weeks ago.

Also on hand are Nick Faldo of England, Ian Woosnam of Wales, Bernhard Langer of West Germany and David Frost of South Africa.

The American contingent is led by U.S. Open title-holder Curtis Strange, defending champion Larry Nelson, Lanny Wadkins, Chip Beck, Ben Crenshaw, Paul Azinger and three hometown boys.

Those are Scott Verplank, Bob Tway and Doug Tewell, all members of the large colony of touring pros who have made Edmond their home and Oak Tree their home course.

The deeply-talented Verplank began to fulfill the bright promise of his extraordinary amateur career when he scored his first professional victory last month in the Buick Open.

Tway, the 1986 PGA champion and Player of the Year, and the veteran Tewell both have had consistently strong performances in recent weeks and are strengthened by great local knowledge of the extremely-difficult Pete Dye course.

Strange, Wadkins and Beck all are multiple winners this season. Crenshaw has won once and has a series of high finishes and, like the veteran Nelson, often plays his best in the Grand Slam events.

Some other leading American contenders include Mark Calcavecchia, Tom Kite, Payne Stewart, Joey Sindelar, Fred Couples and Mark McCumber.

And, too, there’s Tom Watson, who lists a PGA championship as his prime career goal.

“It’s my number one target, my chief goal. Until I win it, it will remain my number one golf priority,” Watson said.

Watson, 38, needs only this one title to join golf’s most exclusive company, the four men who have scored career sweeps of the U.S. and British Opens, the Masters and PGA. Only Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Jack Nicklaus have done it.