Greg Norman down with food poisoning at the Australian PGA Championship
Australian Greg Norman has come down with a bit of food poisoning at the Australian PGA Championship at Coolum.
The incident occurred on Thursday. In a prepared press-briefing at Coolum Resort, officials of the Professional Golf Association expressed their sadness over the unfortunate turn of events.
"Feeling for Greg at the moment. He is quite ill, we understand," PGA of Australia Chief Executive Brian Thorburn said. "He is getting medical attention.
"I have spoken to his manager and I have spoken to the guys who saw him this morning. I think Greg was trying to soldier through and clearly it wasn't possible".
"They're all facilitating medical treatment. One person described it as sick as a dog".
The apparently fine Greg Norman had teed off with countrymen Stuart Appleby and Jake Higginbottom. Norman teed the tenth and eleventh holes, but bogeyed on each.
His drop in performance was quickly attributed to an ‘upset stomach’, and he withdrew from the game immediately. He is currently staying at the Palmer Coolum resort whilst he nurses back his health.
However, by the looks of it and the statements the officials are reading out to concerned players and inquisitive persons of the media, he will in all certainty not be taking part in the remainder of the tournament.
Nevertheless, the tournament is well underway, with a tough battle being witnessed among the top slots of the leaderboard.
The Great White Shark, as he is affectionately called in the golfing circles he habituates, has been the no. 1 golfer in the world for a total 331 weeks.
His heyday was in the ‘80s and ‘90s, where his successes at four majors, which eventually came to be known as the Norman Slam or Saturday Slam.
His aggressive game-style has earned him the Shark name, his size, blonde hair and the shark-infested waters of the Australian Great Barrier Reef, of course, adding to it greatly.
57-year-old Norman had been looking forward to putting up a fantastic show at the Championship and for the past week had been so upbeat about it. It really is a shame things had to play out the way they did.
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