Greg Norman has become better known for his role as former CEO of LIV Golf in recent years, but he was one of the best golfers of his day.
Because he’s largely remembered for letting opportunities to win major championships slip through his grasp, most notably at the 1996 Masters where he blew up a big lead to Sir Nick Faldo on Sunday, Norman has become somewhat underrated.
He was a two-time major champion, winning The Open Championship twice, and he won 20 PGA Tour events in his career. He’s also a 14-time winner on the European Tour and a 33-time winner on the PGA Tour of Australasia.
At his peak, Norman was the best player on the planet, and Tiger Woods’ former coach, Butch Harmon, says he doesn’t get enough credit for one area of his game.
Butch Harmon says Greg Norman doesn’t get enough credit for his short game
Before forming a legendary partnership with the greatest golfer of all time, Woods, Harmon worked with Norman in the early 90s to resurrect his struggling game.
After years of working with the Australian, Harmon told Golf Digest that one area of his game isn’t appreciated enough.
Harmon said, “He doesn’t get credit for this; he had a great short game. People don’t realize what a great short game he had around the greens and pitching it and stuff.
“I can remember instances down at his house in Florida; he had that beautiful short game area. We were down there one night hitting pitch shots or working on stuff, drinking some Australian beer.
“All of a sudden I’m hitting a few and took a little too much divot, and he said, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing here? You took out my turf!’
“Where he was practising, it looked like he was bruising the ground. It was such a beautiful flight, and I had a little too much shaft where it got stuck in the ground, and he said, ‘No, you’re done here you’re ruining my practice area.’”
Greg Norman’s short game statistics prove Butch Harmon right
The numbers back Harmon’s observation. In 1993, the year he won his second Open Championship while working with Harmon, Norman recorded a 72.8% scrambling percentage on the PGA Tour.
At the time, this was the highest single-season scrambling percentage recorded since the PGA Tour officially began tracking the statistic in 1992.
During his dominant stretch in the mid-1990s, his ability to rescue pars kept him at the top of leaderboards. He posted strong scrambling numbers year after year, such as 67.7% in 1994 and 63.0% in 1995, often placing him near the top of Tour efficiency categories.
Norman was also widely recognized as a master out of greenside bunkers. During his peak seasons, he consistently ranked near the top of the PGA Tour in sand-save percentage, converting over 60% of his greenside bunker shots into pars.
These numbers show that Norman was one of the best short game players ever to live.