COMMENTARY : Greg Norman Doesn’t Deserve to Be at the Masters

Greg Norman will play in the Masters this year, though not on merit.

A professional player can qualify for this tournament by meeting any one of nine criteria. Greg Norman didn’t meet any. Neither did Tom Kite. But Greg Norman is here and Tom Kite isn’t and there is something a little perplexing and disturbing about that.

The Masters, which begins Thursday, is different from other major tournaments and certainly from other PGA Tour events. Its field is far smaller and is flavored with amateur representation, the legacy of Bobby Jones. The Masters is run by the members of the Augusta National Golf Club, specifically by its new tournament chairman, Jack Stephens. It’s the members’ party and no one can, or ought, dispute that.

But when it comes time to invite people to play, they ought to be invited on merit in a consistent manner, and Norman’s invitation doesn’t smack of consistency, only charisma.

Within the club’s rules for inviting players, there is a special invitation reserved for foreign players who have not met the qualification criteria. It was this rule that was used to make sure Norman is at Augusta. The trouble is that Norman didn’t deserve the invitation.

Norman didn’t win an event in the U.S., Europe or Australia last year. By Norman’s own standards, 1991 was horrible. He finished second twice on the U.S. tour, his best finish anywhere. He missed the cut in the Masters for the second year in a row. He has done nothing within the Masters’ calendar year, which runs from the week after the Masters to the week before the next Masters, to warrant an invitation. Yet he got one, and in the absence of comment from Stephens, it must be presumed that charisma counts toward merit.

Australian Mike Harwood and Mark McNulty of Zimbabwe had far better years than Norman and either deserved an invitation. “It makes you wonder how they decide to issue their invitations,” Harwood told Golf World magazine. “I mean, Tom Kite has been very, very loyal in his support of the Masters tournament and the U.S. tour and I see he didn’t make the field. It tells me they don’t want the best players in the world.”

Kite is the leading money winner of all time. His grind-it-out, unspectacular but effective game has earned him more than money. It has earned him the respect of his fellow players who believe that he has made the most of his talent.

It might be argued that Norman did that, too. But what that says is that for all his promise, all the whirlwind of expectation that he created, he has only proven to be the greatest mediocre player in the history of the game. Good looks, Palmeresque style and bravado have earned him a large following and big bucks both on and off the course. These traits also have earned him an invitation to the Masters.

And that’s just not right.