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The Great White Shark has put in some serious preparation for his Open challenge which begins tomorow.

Veteran Aussie Greg Norman, who finished an impressive third at Birkdale a year ago and in fact triumphed here at Turnberry in 1986, clearly means business again.

Norman has been preparing on both sides of the Atlantic and in contrasting conditions which could well work to his advantage this week.

He revealed: “I’ve spent a little bit more time practising in Florida where it was 98 degrees and 98 per cent humidity and no wind. I went through about eight gloves in a practice session!

“Then I came over to Ireland, went to Dunvegan and stayed there for a couple of days but it was miserable weather – it was blowing and raining about 30mph so to be honest I didn’t do too much practice there.”

Can Norman carry on where he left off last year? “I don’t know to tell you the truth. I wish I could sit here and say yes or no.

“To be honest, I’m already looking forward to next year at St Andrews  because I think the way it played a couple of years ago suits me, especially with the new groove technology coming in next year.

” The younger generation have nevr experienced it and won’t have a clue what is going to happen to their game as a result so they’d better start making the adjustment very early on before January arrives.”