Thursday, 21 June 2012:

Greg Norman says Australia's strike rate in golf's major championships in recent times is unacceptable given the players' talent.

It's now six years since Geoff Ogilvy won the 2006 US Open, and that remains the only major an Australian has claimed in the last 17 years.

In the 17 years before that Australia won six majors - through David Graham, Norman twice, Wayne Grady, Ian Baker-Finch and Steve Elkington.

Norman - at the 1996 Masters famously - was one of several quality players to go close since without quite being able to clinch a win apart from Ogilvy's.

The Shark was entering the back end of his career at that stage but with the likes of Robert Allenby and Stuart Appleby leading the charge and with young guns Adam Scott, Aaron Baddeley and Jason Day on the rise the expectation of success never waned.

"I am disappointed the Aussie guys have not stepped up to the plate and won more, not only just for the game of golf in Australia but for the players individually," Norman said on Wednesday.

"The simple answer is no, it's not an acceptable strike rate considering the talent and the capabilities of the Australian players we have out there.

"There's a slew of them (who are capable), but you can look at other countries too that haven't really done it."

Norman saw no definitive reason why the Australian players hadn't been able to claim ultimate glory but suggested the depth in world golf made it increasingly difficult.

"It doesn't make sense to me because the (Australian) players are good enough to do it on a regular basis," he said.

"But when you think about it, you've got all these great players around the world and there's only four golf tournaments per year, so there's only going to be four winners, so you can see the odds are getting harder and harder.

"You can see that with Tiger Woods now; it's getting harder and harder for him to win it because the older he gets, the younger everybody else gets, and the younger they get, the less intimidated they are by him."

Norman highlighted the fact there have been nine straight first-time major winners and 15 different winners in the last 15 majors as more proof the game of golf is booming talent-wise.

"I've never seen golf as healthy as what it is today on a global basis," he said.

"That's why I think the spoils are being shared around equally and fairly.

"It's a credit to what's happened to global golf."

Norman will tee it up on the Champions Tour next week in the Senior Players Championship in Pittsburgh, the third major of the season for those over 50.

Should he win he would join Jack Nicklaus, Raymond Floyd and Fred Couples as the only players to win the Players Championship on both the regular tour and the senior tour and would earn a ticket to the 2013 Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass.

AAP