Honeymoon Continues for Cool Norman

Sounding like a love-struck teenager and playing like the champion he used to be, Greg Norman yesterday shot a thrilling, if occasionally fraught, second round of 70 to take center stage at Royal Birkdale on a day which saw the weather abate, the scores improve and KJ Choi edge into the lead at the halfway stage of the 2008 Open championship.

The Korean signed for a three-under-par 67 and a 36-hole total of 139, which was good enough for a one-shot lead over the field. His was a terrific effort but it was overshadowed by the performance of a 53-year-old Australian whose preparation for golf's biggest week was a holiday in Scotland with his new bride, the former Wimbledon champion Chris Evert. Norman, who twice won this tournament in his heyday, shot his second successive level-par round to play his way into the final pairing alongside the leader for today's third round. No prizes for guessing where most camera lenses will be focused.

With near gale-force winds forecast for this afternoon the chances are the least-prepared player in the field will end up as the most exposed but this is Open championship golf, where anything can and usually does happen. It is also the case that love conquers everything, even shin-high grass and heavy seas.

"Absolutely. My life is great. I have got a wonderful new wife and my whole being is just beautiful, to tell the truth," Norman said when asked if his recent marriage, and the happiness surrounding it, was responsible for his performance over the first two rounds. Evert followed her husband's round from outside the fairway ropes and greeted him with a hug and a kiss after he walked off the 18th green having holed a 20-foot putt for par.

There had been plenty of cooing, too, from the galleries as Norman charged around the Birkdale links with a fearlessness and a flair that hallmarked his Open victories at Turnberry in 1986 and Royal St George's in 1993. Level par overnight, the Australian immediately gained a stroke with a birdie at the 1st. He followed that with four successive pars before double-bogeying the brutally difficult 6th hole. But on this particular day he was not to be denied. Birdies at the 7th and 8th re-established his momentum heading to the back nine where, buffeted by the rising wind, he occasionally strayed from the fairways but never from his purpose.

On the inward nine, birdies proved elusive and pars hardly less so but, as all great players do, he found a way to get the ball in the hole. At the par-four 16th he left himself in a pot bunker 20 yards short of the green but still knocked it out to five feet and holed the putt for par. At the par-five 17th the fairway was just a rumor as he meandered through the rough from one bad lie to another, before hitting his fourth shot into a greenside bunker and his fifth 20 feet beyond the hole. The wheels had come off but, as swift as Ferrari's mechanics, he screwed them back on, holed his bogey putt and headed to the next tee with his hopes - and his chances - still intact.

A wonderful drive and well struck approach into the amphitheater of Birkdale's final hole left him with a birdie chance but, buoyed by a hero's welcome more normally seen on Sunday afternoon, he rushed his effort past the hole and off the back of the green. It was a shocking mistake but it was quickly corrected as he eased his come backer across the slope and into the hole - a perfect exclamation mark on what was an exclamatory day.

It came as no surprise afterwards to find the Australian more than happy to contemplate the prospect of winning. After all, if Jack Nicklaus could win the 1986 Masters at the age of 46, he could win this Open championship at the age of 53. "I have got to take this in my stride and be a little bit more careful on some shots and be a little bit more relaxed out on the course. I have got to make sure I don't get caught up in the moment of it all," he said. "If it gets to Sunday afternoon and I am still in this position, then I will probably start thinking about it [winning] a little bit more. Hopefully I will be able to hit my shots if that happens."

Norman will indeed have to hit his shots but he will also have to get lucky with the weather and he will have to hope that the likes of Choi and Camilo Villegas, one shot further back on one over, succumb to the pressure of contending in a major championship. Choi has form, or rather a lack of form, in such circumstances, having played himself into a similarly promising position at Carnoustie last year only to disappear without trace. And for all the brilliance of his 65 yesterday the Colombian has yet to live up to his reputation as one of the game's brightest young things. He has yet to win a PGA tour event, far less a major championship.

More ominous from Norman's point of view is the presence on the leaderboard of last year's Open champion, Padraig Harrington, who finished his round of 68 with an eagle and birdie to be two over, and the former US Open champion Jim Furyk, also on two over. Both are hardened pros and major winners, possessing the kind of skill and fortitude required for the challenges that lie ahead.