Greg Norman blasts out of a bunker on No. 2 during a practice round Tuesday.

He should be changing his golf shoes today in the champions' locker room, eating dinner Tuesday night at the annual champions' dinner. He should have a smartly-tailored green jacket, perhaps several.

Frankly, he should have a lifetime pass to Augusta National Golf Club and The Masters.

He, of course, has none of the above.

There are no Masters victories on his resume, and at age 44, time is running out.

Yet you don't hear his name mentioned as a favorite this week for the 63rd Masters, certainly not like the old days, when the Shark was seemingly everyone's pick for about a decade.

Now, there are bigger questions, such as if he'll ever be a force in the game again.

"It is right here that tells you," said Norman, raising his hand and pointing to his heart. "I don't want to sit around and just come out here and walk on the green grass just to take up space and breathe up oxygen."

Now nearly a year removed from shoulder surgery that wiped out most of the 1998 season, Norman is well down the World Rankings, an afterthought. David Duval is the favorite and Tiger Woods is expected to challenge. Ernie Els will also battle for the spotlight.

What about the Shark?

"I have never been driven by being No. 1," he said. "I am driven to be a competitor, and if you are a competitor on the golf course and your performance on the golf course is good enough, everything else takes care of itself.

"I do the same thing when I am off the golf course. I am very driven in business and I approach business like I do a golf tournament."

Norman could easily walk away. He's a walking conglomerate, designing golf courses, developing his own line of turf grass. He has his own clothing line. He owns a private jet and a helicopter. Who needs the hassles of tournament golf?

But he appears to be a long way from putting the clubs away. Norman begins each day with a 60-minute stretching routine to loosen his shoulder before a workout. He also ends each day with 60 minutes of stretching.

"I have to rehab every day, every morning and every afternoon when I am playing the game. Outside of that, I have no problem whatsoever," Norman said. "The surgery was a complete success and obviously to keep my game going, I have to keep rehabbing.

"The surgery and the down period after the surgery is the easiest part. The hardest part starts when you have to begin rehab and continue going basically for the rest of your life as long as you want to play the game."

That right there says something.

"It doesn't look like he has been away from the game at all to me," said Nick Price. "He is very strong right now and he has put on a bit of weight, which I think he has tried to do. Most of all, he's still got that intensity in his eye."

Figuring Norman out, however, is difficult. He was eliminated in the second round of the Match Play Championship and tied for 19th at Doral. He missed the cut at The Players Championship, then withdrew from last week's BellSouth Classic due to illness.

He obviously was pointing to this week, a tournament he dearly covets. Three times, he has finished second, including the 1987 playoff loss to Larry Mize and the 1996 collapse to Nick Faldo.

But he also appears to be a man who is content, no matter what happens.

"I'm very happy," Norman said. "I enjoy playing the game of golf. I enjoy the way I'm hitting the golf ball. I know it's a matter of time before I'll get back there in the winner's circle. But now I don't want to force it. I'm very easy about things. I'm very relaxed about things. I want things to evolve to the way things were at this time last year.

"Yes, I want to win The Masters, absolutely. But it's not a priority. There are other priorities that I enjoy doing."

Coveted invitation
One of the perks for making it to the finals of the U.S. Amateur each year is a Masters invitation. It's almost as rewarding as winning the tournament itself.

"I tried not to think about. I tried to keep it out of my mind," said Hank Kuehne, the 1998 U.S. Amateur champion. "It was extremely hard to stay focused, to play golf. As I was coming in, I'm thinking if I just don't fall on my face, then I'm going to Augusta.

"I'm getting to fulfill a lifelong dream."

As U.S. Amateur champion, Kuehne will be paired during Thursday's first round with defending champion Mark O'Meara.

Five amateurs are given invitations to the tournament: the U.S. Amateur champion and runner-up, the British Amateur champion and the winners of the U.S. Mid-Amateur and U.S. Amateur Public Links.

Matt Kuchar gave amateurs everywhere a boost last year when he finished at 288, even par. He was the first amateur to make the cut since 1992 and shot the best score by an amateur since Rick Fehr in 1984. By finishing in a tie for 21st, he earned an invitation back this year.

History lesson
The Masters was played for the first time 65 years ago, making it the youngest of the four major championships. Horton Smith shot 70-72-70-72 to win what was then called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament by one stroke over Craig Wood. The tournament was played with today's 10th hole as No. 1. A year later, the nines were reversed.

It wasn't until 1939 that the tournament was officially named The Masters. And it wasn't until 1949 that a green jacket was awarded to the winner. Sam Snead won the first of his three Masters titles that year.

No dinner
For the first time in some 30 years, Augusta National did not hold its annual International players dinner. The tradition began to honor a handful of players who competed in the tournament who were not American-born. But with 27 foreign players in the field, the dinner was downgraded to a cocktail party.

"I don't know why they aren't going to have it," said South Africa's Gary Player, the unofficial host of the event. "It was always a very nice occasion."

Player was the first foreign golfer to win The Masters in 1961.

Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a weekly column for ESPN Golf Online, which appears every Tuesday.