Golf Central

On this day in 1990, Greg Norman beat Wayne Levi (well, who couldn’t?) to win the Nabisco Bonus, capping, at the time, one of the finest years in PGA Tour history.
     With the win, the Great White Shark ended the season as the PGA’s leading money winner with $1.1 million. He also grabbed the tour’s most ‘honourable’ honour by nailing down the Vardon Trophy for the lowest scoring average at 69.10.
     But somehow, in a way that only Greg Norman can do, he found a way to turn a win into an ultimate loss. By the end of the season, the Aussie two-time major winner was on the receiving end of yet another kidney-punch from Nick Faldo, who was still named PGA Player of the Year despite Norman’s heroics.
     Norman has more money than most people can imagine – and he’s planning to marry tennis great Chris Evert after messy divorces for both sports legends, proving the Shark can turn defeat into victory as well. More an entrepreneur nowadays than competitive golfer due to his balky back, at the end of the day, the man’s a winner – just ask him.
     Like most days in history, there was trouble brewing somewhere, and on Oct. 28, 1922, the fascists led by Benito Mussolini marched on Rome and took over the Italian government. Like clockwork, exactly 18 years later, the Italian army invaded Greece, only to be driven out by the Desert Rats and some very brave Kiwis.
     There was relief as well on this day in 1962, when USSR honcho Nikita Khrushchev backed down to US pres John F. Kennedy, ordering the dismantling of the Soviet missile sites in Cuba and ending one of the Cold War’s scariest moments – the Cuban Missile Crisis.
     This was a landmark day as well, for the grateful people of the United States, who celebrated a gift from France in the glorious form of the Statue of Liberty – and on this day in 1886 President Grover Cleveland officially dedicated Lady Liberty, whose torch burns over New Your Harbour today.
     Along with Lady Liberty, another American landmark is celebrating a birthday today: “Pretty Woman” Julia Roberts, the highest-grossing female movie star of all time, turns 40. And Julia's is not the only big-bucks birthday on the slate – Microsoft magnate Bill Gates can afford whatever kind of party he wants for his 52nd.
     Birthday shots at the bar as well for country fiddler Charlie “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” Daniels (71) and actor Joaquin Phoenix, who did a stellar turn as Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line” (33). On the football front it’s lap-dances at a horrible nightclub all around for Nigerian and Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins (23) and Czech Republic and former Liverpool hitman Milan Baroš.
     No doubt Baroš will celebrate with his countrymen and women, as today is a national holiday in his homeland. On this day in 1918, Czechoslovakia got its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, hence the holiday. Today is also marked as Remembrance Day in Slovakia, so it’s Vsechno nejlepsi k Tvym narozeninam!!, as they say in Prague to Baroš and his buddies on both borders.