If you're a Freakonomics radio listener, you might already know that I'm obsessed with golf.

Here's Stephen Dubner.

I am obsessed with how obsessed you are with golf.

That is my obsession.

Yeah.

I love me. You are, you're nuts, Levin. I mean,

let's face it. I do love golf. I love golf more than any normal person could. I think I love golf

because I really wanted to be good at it as a kid, and I completely and totally failed. And much of my adult life has been devoted to trying to undo the mistakes I made as a child.

As a teenager, the one thing I wanted more than anything else was to be a professional golfer.

Reality, however, was not kind to that adolescent dream. Forget

about turning pro. I wasn't even good enough to play college golf. I quit soon after. Almost 20

years had passed when, on my 40th birthday, I hatched a preposterous plan. I decided I would take

up golf again with the objective of finally

realizing my childhood dream of turning pro, this time on the champions tour for golfers

age 50 and over. That gave me exactly 10 years to go from below average to world class.

Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.

I'm 53 now, and it probably won't surprise you that I never made the Champions Tour,

despite investing an absurd amount of time and effort into the pursuit.

It was, however, one of the most enjoyable escapades I've ever been on,

but much less interesting and successful than the golf journeys of the most enjoyable escapades I've ever been on, but much less interesting and

successful than the golf journeys of the two people I talk with today. My first guest is Greg

Norman, the shark. He was the number one ranked golfer in the world for more than six years.

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