Greg Norman Isn't Very Realistic

In Chris Rock's latest stand-up, he jokes that when you lack something, you have the ability to make fun of something that has it, but when you're abundant in certain areas, it isn't socially acceptable to dog someone. An example he uses is while a tall person can't make fun of a shorter person for being short, a short guy can dog tall people all he wants.

I think the same goes here. Greg Norman, who is worth millions upon hundreds of millions, announced that he believes golf purses should be cut down out of respect for all the economic turmoil the world is in. Riiiight.

"Prize money's being scaled back in Europe, I wouldn't be surprised if prize money's scaled back in the US just out of respect to every citizen and taxpayer over there who's suffering dramatically. It seems like on the PGA Tour the players are still playing for a million dollars first week, like they're recession-proof."

As my friend MDS at FanHouse points out, this is an easy argument to make when you are already worth more money than most on tour and don't need the money for you livelihood.

We set a mark in sports where we pay people a certain amount of money and that isn't going to change. LeBron James isn't take a pay cut, Derek Jeter isn't taking a pay cut and the PGA Tour golfers shouldn't just because everyone else is struggling for money.

Would I like to see the purses shrink a little to make it more important to play in more golf tournaments? Sure, I think that seems like a decent enough idea. Do I think it's going to happen? Probably not.

Maybe if Norman is so concerned with the public perception of rich golfers, he should sale his boat and plane. Or his wine company. Or his clothing company.