Norman is back in action on the PGA TOUR

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Last season Greg Norman didn't make a single start on the PGA TOUR. His only appearance the year before occurred at THE INTERNATIONAL, where he missed the cut.

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Gregory Norman (left) with his father Greg Norman.

Surgeries on his right knee and his back limited his schedule for about three years, meaning he only teed it up in a handful of events on the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and European Tour combined. For the first time since his emergence on the golf scene in the early 1980s, the TOUR wasn't Shark-infested.

"I've been a bit absent for a while, about five years now. I haven't really focused a lot of attention on wanting to get out there and play," Norman admitted.

While noticeably missing from golf, the 53-year-old was still making headlines...by getting engaged to tennis superstar Chris Evert. And players could still feel his presence when they played TPC Sugarloaf, a Norman-designed course, for the AT&T Classic.

Now, there's good news for Norman fans -- he's back.

In fact, he's back in a number of capacities: as a competitive golfer on the PGA TOUR and Champions Tour; as The President's Cup captain for the International team in 2009; and as a golf course designer with another challenging test for PGA TOUR players at the now two-year-old Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya.

What spurred this sudden Shark attack? For starters, the influence of his son Gregory and his fiancée Evert.

His 22-year-old son plays many amateur golf events in South Florida, so Greg begun working with him on honing various aspects of his game. They spent hours at the range together and sparred in rounds of golf.

Dad still won't let his son beat him -- Gregory has to earn a win against his World-Golf-Hall-of-Fame father. As Gregory got better and closer to beating him, Greg felt the old competitive juices flowing again. Being a teacher has also made him a student of the game again.

"When you go to the short game and teach him the short game, you're actually teaching yourself, because what you're doing is bringing up the old habits that I used to look for when I used to practice," Norman said. "By telling myself mentally -- even though I'm physically not doing it -- when I go to practice, I say, well, you told Gregory to do this. Why don't you do that? Rotate your hips a little bit, and then all of a sudden it starts to fall into place a little bit easier."

Being with Evert, a fiercely competitive former professional athlete, has also inspired his recent comeback. If he still loves to play so much, she would say, why not get out there and do it?

"She's an athlete, she understands what it's all about, and she's been very encouraging for me," Norman said. "She sees me practice, she loves to watch me practice just as much as I love to watch her play tennis."

All of his recent hard work has somewhat paid off. He missed the cut at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the Mayakoba Golf Classic at Riviera Maya, held on a course he designed in 2006. Then, in late April, Norman tied for 14th at the BMW Asian Open co-sanctioned by the European Tour and Asian Tour.

This week he will play in Duluth, Ga., for the AT&T Classic, held at TPC Sugarloaf, with his son on the bag.

Norman designed the course 11 years ago as a residential property in an area of Atlanta that was then mostly farm land. The area has grown immensely, in part because of the PGA TOUR event that moved from Atlanta Country Club to the venue in 1997. Despite the changes in the area, the course hardly needed renovations -- it didn't even need to be lengthened.

"There's a couple minor changes, like 18 was designed to go straight down, and the 18th hole now, the green, used to be the 19th hole," he said. "(But, for the most part)...the playability of the golf course stood the test of time, whether it's going to be a residential community or a PGA TOUR event."

As for wanting to win a tournament on a course he designed, Norman shrugged off the question of added pressure. PGA TOUR players crave a victory ever week, he noted, and this week is no different. However, Norman does think having an intimate knowledge of the course will help him this week.

"If you miss a putt, you (say to yourself), 'You stupid idiot, you designed the green to roll off this way," Norman said. "...You know the water goes that way. Why didn't you factor that in?'"

Regardless of how he fares this week, he's treating it partly as a warm-up to the Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hills Country Club in Rochester, N.Y., next week.

"I'm looking forward to playing some of the senior major championships, next week obviously is the Senior PGA Championship," Norman said. "I'm very excited about that, and I figured if I can get into Atlanta, that would be good preparation for me."

He'll also get a firsthand look at several young PGA TOUR players this week, which will be beneficial when he needs to make Captain's picks in 2009.

After being named captain for the Presidents Cup team, Norman has really immersed himself back in the world of golf. He reads golf magazines each week now -- "before (for about six or seven years) I never read a golf magazine," he admitted -- and follows the progress of players around the world to search for potential picks.

"It's a little bit tougher for me than it is a U.S. captain because here you can really focus on one country. I've got to focus on a lot of countries, a lot of tours and see how they come out," Norman said. "That's what I'm doing now, studying that week in and week out."

Who knows? Maybe he will be reading about himself after the next two weeks.