Norman Making News Left And Right

President Clinton’s knee. New airplanes. Debates over obscene gestures. Never a dull moment when Greg Norman comes to town for the U.S. Open.

First of all, Norman denied making an obscene gesture to a spectator who yelled at him Sunday during the final round of the Kemper Open, which took place across the street in Potomac.

“I gestured to do it, but I did not give him the bird,” Norman said Tuesday. “So that is categorically untrue.”

So, what was the gesture, Greg?

Norman started to oblige, then stopped when press conference host Les Unger suggested television crews should “turn off the cameras.”

Norman then suggested that anyone interested should join him outside, “and I’ll show you exactly what I did.”

No one took him up on it.

Norman did say he regretted making the gesture. “It’s all emotion,” he said. “And I know that I’m a role model. I know I have to have the responsibility, and that wasn’t a good image to portray.”

As for President Clinton’s knee, Norman confessed to being rattled by the first-tee announcer’s introduction Saturday during the Kemper Open. The announcer told the crowd that “if you’re ever invited to (Norman’s) home to see his trophies, I would suggest you politely decline,” a reference to Clinton’s knee injury suffered at Norman’s Florida home in March.

Norman took the announcer to a nearby tent and dressed him down with a verbal tirade, then bogeyed three of the first four holes.

“It carried over for me a few holes, regrettably,” Norman said. “It took longer than what I’m used to because there was a lot of emotion. … This is something that happened many months ago. You try and let all that stuff die away and take its own slow death.”

Norman took his turn to visit Clinton at the White House on Monday, the same day Boeing announced the golfer had put in an order for a new state-of-the-art business jet. The 737-700 will include an 807-square-foot cabin interior, nearly three times as spacious as the conventional corporate jets that generally sell for $30 million.

No Rocca

Ryder Cup veteran Costantino Rocca, who played the ultimate second banana role to Tiger Woods when the two were paired for the final round of this year’s Masters, withdrew from the U.S. Open on Tuesday with a pulled muscle in his neck.

His place in the Open draw was taken by Bob Tway, who qualified as an alternate last week at Columbus, Ohio.

The first shot

The first shot was fired at the U.S. Open on Tuesday. But it wasn’t a drive off the first tee. It was Colin Montgomerie taking aim at Tiger Woods.

The Scot, ranked fifth in the world, said openly what plenty of his peers believe in private. Or perhaps, we should say, what they desperately hope is true.

“Tiger Woods was very comfortable playing that golf course at Augusta,” Montgomerie said of Woods’ 12-shot romp at the Masters. “Here, it is different. He’s going to run out of fairway on a number of holes. (Congressional Country Club) takes possibly his greatest asset, which is length, more out of the equation and gives us mere mortals more of an opportunity to compete.

“Put it this way: The playing field is more level here than at Augusta. We didn’t perform at all against him there. So, we’ll see how we get on here. … We’re all very anxious to see what’s going to happen here compared to Augusta.”