Shaun

Norris

The 39-year-old Norris, from Pretoria, began the day at The Club at Steyn City in Johannesburg with a four-shot lead, but he was overtaken after just seven holes by a hard-charging Dean Burmester. Burmester extended his lead to two strokes at the 10th hole, but Norris rebounded by carding three birdies over his next six holes to tie for the lead. The momentum swung Norris’ way at No. 17 when he made another birdie while Burmester carded a double bogey, giving Norris a three-shot lead heading to the 18th tee. He finished with a 2-under 70 to end at 25-under 263, three clear of Burmester. An emotional Norris, whose 3-week-old daughter Riley-Grace was on hand for the win, said afterward: “I don’t think words can describe how I feel right now. It’s been a tough journey and having my brother on the bag, my wife here, my little girl – it’s splendid, I can’t explain. It’s absolutely beautiful doing this in front of my home crowd and in front of my family. From the word go, I told my brother, ‘Let’s have fun, let’s actually try and feel like we’re playing back home.’”

Now up to No. 77 in the official world golf ranking, Norris found himself on the podium at the shortened Joburg Open, eventually finishing in a tie for third. He followed it up this past week by collecting another top-20 finish by shooting 5-under 283 at the SA Open Championship. Carding rounds of 69-70-72-72, Norris made easy work of the back-nine throughout the week before slipping up on Sunday. If not for a back-nine of 1-over 37 and a closing bogey on the par-5 18th, Norris likely could have sneaked his way into the top-10, but despite this, he continues to rack up quality results and is someone to keep an eye on heading into the new year.

The 39-year-old South African is ranked at No. 88, with fellow countryman Dean Burmester at No. 76, Denmark’s Marcus Helligkilde at No. 80 and Spaniard Santiago Tarrio at No. 96. This year marks his 13th appearance in the home-country event, set at Randpark Golf Course in Johannesburg. Norris has made the cut five times and finished T-3 twice – in 2018 and 2020. Last season, Norris played just four times on the European Tour, now named the DP World Tour, missing the cut at the 149th Open at Royal St. Georges and notching a T-5 at the BMW International Open. He also made one PGA Tour start, finishing T-39 in the Zozo Championship last month. In 2020, he was 63rd on the Race to Dubai.

The 39-year-old South African posted middle rounds of 64-64 to take a six-stroke lead into the final day, and Norris shot a final-round 70 at Biwako CC to win by four over Yuta Ikeda. The victory marked his second win on the Japan Golf Tour in 2021 – he also won the Golf Partner Pro-Am in May – and his sixth overall. Norris dedicated his most recent win to his wife, who is expecting their second child next March, and younger brother and caddie, Kyle, who celebrated his birthday on the final day of the tournament. He got into the field when Paul Casey withdrew and enters the Zozo standing seventh on the Japan Tour money list. Last season, Norris played two majors, missing the cut in the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot and the Open Championship at Royal St. Georges. In European Tour action last year, he was 63rd on the 2020 Race to Dubai with a third-place finish in the Joburg Open. In two previous appearances at the Zozo, he was T-51 in 2019 at Narashino CC and T-28 last year when the event was held at Sherwood Country Club in California due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 38-year-old South African is playing this week through his play on the Japan Golf Tour. He finished 2nd on the JGTO moneylist last season. The highlight was a win at the 2019 Top Cup Tokai Classic but he also posted seven other top 5s during the 2019 calendar year. More recently, Norris limps in with three straight cuts made, two in major championship and one at the Scottish Open (European Tour). His best finish in a PGA TOUR event is a T37 finish which came at this year’s WGC-Mexico Championship. That remains his only top 50 in 11 starts.

There has been an unfortunate element of symmetry about the South African’s two previous ventures onto the World Golf Championship stage. Back in 2017 he played Firestone in the Bridgestone Invitational and shot 71-77-73-71 to end the week T71. That number reoccurred in this tournament last year, but on that occasion only in his finishing position as he carded 78-80-73-72 to land T71 again. His Strokes Gained rankings were grim on that course debut as he didn’t ranked better than 63rd for anything. Based largely in Japan and Korea, he played well there again last year, and has opened the European Tour season with T36 in the South African Open, T6 in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and T56 in Dubai Desert Classic.

That triple bogey at the 9th saw the South African go from two in front to one back from David Lipsky. Norris burst out of the gate at Emirates GC with birdies at 10, 12 and 13 and was four-under thru 7 after another gain on the 16th. He kicked on again with red numbers at 1 and 3 and missed from four feet from No. 5 when looking to get to -7. But after three more pars, he became a victim of the tough par-4 9th, the hardest hole on the course. Norris shot a Friday 77 last week but bounced back to finish T6 so he has the mental capacity to shake this off.

The duo are two clear of World No. 1 Brooks Koepka and Aussie Jason Scrivener while a bunch at -5 includes Sergio Garcia and Rafa Cabrera Bello. Norris has climbed to World No. 60 after a run of top fours on the Japan Tour and, at 37, is playing the best golf of his career. Today, on his course debut, he birdied 2 and 3 although had a brief lull after that with a run of pars and a bogey at 7. But from there, Norris made four straight birdies at 8, 9, 10 and 11 and added another trio of red numbers at 14, 15 and 16. He had a chance to take the outright lead after finding greenside rough at the par-5 18th but couldn’t get up and down. This is his first 18-hole lead on the European Tour.

The South African last made the field at this level in the 2017 Bridgestone Invitational and could only manage 71st in the 77-man field. However, he was 271st in the OWGR at the time and he’ll make his debut in Mexico ranked 83rd. Looking at his record in other big events, he’s 2-for-2 in the majors. Both were at the Open Championship although he finished outside the top 60 both times. Norris won on the Japan Tour in November and flashed some recent form on the European Tour when shooting an opening 66 and a third-round 64 on the way to T30 in the Saudi International. He’s guaranteed 72 holes in this week’s no-cut event which will ease the pressure but Norris remains unproven at this level so it’s hard to make much of a case for him.