Sportspeople fuelled by love - it could be the latest in sports psychology after the astonishing renaissance of 53-year-old Greg Norman in the British Open golf tournament.

It wasn't so much the fact the Great White Shark, as he used to be known, led the tournament up until the final nine holes. It wasn't even the fact that he tanked it at the end, as many predicted, fading as champion Padraig Harrington put together a surge that would have defeated most other golfers.

Many in the media leapt on the 'choke' train again. One of the world's greatest chokers gagged again, they said. Choke? This was no choke. This was a man in love, a man performing in front of his new wife, a man who refused to compromise on the very thing which had brought her to him.

You see, Norman - winner of only two majors when his talent suggests he should have won many more - was at Royal Birkdale with his new wife, former tennis star Chris Evert. In more ways than one, they were the story of the Open.

Their marriage resulted from an affair which led to messy divorces. Norman and his ex-wife, Laura Andrassy, had been married for 25 years. Evert and her husband of 18 years, former Olympic downhill skier Andy Mill, used to socialise with the Normans.

The two couples knew each other well. Mill said recently: "Greg Norman at one time was my best friend. I would have taken a bullet for this guy. But I didn't realise he was the one going to pull the trigger." Andrassy said of Evert: "She came after him. I have never seen anything like it... I really don't have a lot of respect for her as a woman. She is not a great person."

Norman's divorce cost somewhere around US$100 million, putting a reasonable dent in his business empire and golf fortune, estimated to be about US$500 million.

Evert gave Mill US$7.5 million and their US$5m holiday home in the ski resort of Aspen.

At the Open, Norman and Evert emerged together for the first time since their wedding and extended honeymoon - of which the Open was a part - and it was immediately obvious that this was no flash-in-the-pan celebrity infatuation.

For a start, Norman chose someone his own age. Someone with his fortune and looks could no doubt have acquired a typical golf trophy wife - a 26-year-old blonde with an IQ challenged by her bra size.

He might have 500 million goo-goos, a wine, clothing and golf empire, but it was clear Norman had found something he didn't have before. They were 53, going on 23. During the Open, Norman looked at Evert as you would hope a man looks at his woman, with respect and desire. They cooed and canoodled.