GOLF ROUNDUP : Norman Storms to 66, Then Gets in Some Rips

Greg Norman took 66 shots on the course, then leveled a couple of more at his critics.

Norman went off after his six-under-par round Friday gave him a two-stroke lead midway through the Western Open at Lemont, Ill.

“Everybody expects things of me,” said Norman, the winner of 1986 British Open and 66 other tournaments around the world--but none in more than a year.

“When I don’t win, everybody is making up excuses and reasons--that I’m an alcoholic, that I’m seeing a psychologist, that I’m going to quit the American tour and play in Europe.

“I never said anything like that. How can they write that without checking their facts? I don’t know where they get all this stuff.”

Norman is at 135, nine under par, after two rounds and two strokes ahead of Mark Lye.

He says it could have been better.

“I let a great one get away today,” Norman said after finishing with a bogey-6 on his last hole, where the wind knocked his third shot into a bunker.

“I missed out on a real low one. It could have been four shots better. Conservatively, the way I played, a 62 definitely was on.”

Lye had a 71 and is one shot ahead of Andrew Magee (69), left-hander Russ Cochran (72), Gary Hallberg (71) and Fred Couples (68), a winner last week in Memphis, Tenn.

Ray Floyd, one of four tied for the first-round lead, slipped to a 73 and is at 139.

Norman’s year-long slump started with a drubbing at the hands of Nick Faldo in their third-round head-to-head confrontation at the 1990 British Open.

He missed the cut at the Masters earlier this season, took an unscheduled three-week vacation when he said he was suffering from burnout, and withdrew after 27 holes of the U.S. Open last month.

Dale Douglass, Terry Dill, Al Geiberger and Dudley Wysong shared the first-round lead at five-under-par 66 in the Kroger Senior Classic at Mason, Ohio, but a crowd of 40,000 turned out to watch three also-rans.

Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino played in the final threesome, the only time other than in the Skins Game that the three all-time greats played together in competition.

It was a special day even though the golf wasn’t so special. Trevino had a 68, Nicklaus shot 71 and Palmer struggled to a 76.

Deb Richard shot a four-under-par 67 to take a one-stroke lead in the opening round of the Jamie Farr Classic at Sylvania, Ohio.

Richard had six birdies and one bogey on her card heading into the par-5 18th. She hit her second shot out of bounds, almost holed a 52-yard sand wedge for par and tapped in for bogey.

Amateur Vicki Goetze birdied the 15th, 16th and 17th holes and shot a 68 in her second pro event, sharing second with Nancy Rubin, Brandie Burton and Elaine Crosby.

Masters champion Ian Woosnam made five birdies in the last six holes and shot an eight-under-par 61 to take a three-stroke lead entering the final round of the Monte Carlo Open at Monaco.

Woosnam started the day six shots off the lead but carded nine birdies and passed nine others with a 54-hole score of 13-under-par 194. Rodger Davis of Australia shot 67 and was alone in second place.