Greg Norman and the Birkdale Redemption

There's a scene in the film The Shawshank Redemption that shows Andy Dufresne, played wonderfully by Tim Robbins, arriving at the cafeteria table after spending a few days in the hole, also known as solitary confinement, for playing music over the prison's PA system.

Easiest time he ever spent in the hole, he says to Red—played by the amicable Morgan Freeman—because he had the music to sustain him.

Andy: ... there are places in this world that aren't made out of stone. That there's something inside... that they can't get to, that they can't touch. That's yours.

Red: What're you talking about?

Andy: Hope.

Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane

I figure this might be a conversation Greg Norman has with his caddy every time he starts a tournament like the British Open.

Norman is Andy, alone and forgotten by the golfing world but brimming with hope, so much so that he takes us all along for the ride.

His caddy is Red, grounded in reality, reminding his friend if you set your sights too high, you're bound to be disappointed.  It's a road Norman has been down before.

After a wild and magical three days which saw the Shark in the hunt for the first time in a very long time, driving and chipping his way to rounds of 70, 70 and 72, respectively, his final day—while gutsy—was not what he was hoping for, finishing with a 77 on the day.

Hope began to fade from the beginning of the last day.  One doesn't win majors when you hit  five of fourteen fairways and missing five and six foot putts.   

It's a trend in Norman's career, the tragic figure who, for a decade now, always comes up a little short, the trophy just out of arms reach. 

To go through the list would probably drain all hope (six blown leads in majors) but that doesn't mean Norman is hopeless.

According to film critic Roger Ebert, one of the underlying themes of Shawshank is integrity.  Andy is trapped in a world lacking integrity and he is one of the few still standing tall, despite the atrocities he faces.

Norman is, and always has been, a class act and showed it again this weekend, giving the winner, Padraig Harrington, nothing but encouragement on the course.  When speaking to reporters afterwards, he called Harrington's performance "brilliant" and played "like a true Open champion...".

So, in the end, it's not all doom and gloom for Norman, who had been written off long before the British Open even began. If Norman's caddy—or anyone else for the matter—had given up hope of seeing the 53-year-old Great White stalk some of golf's greatest courses while remaining competitive, Norman could easily quote another Andy Dufresne line from Shawshank,

"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies."

And if that's not enough, remember that Norman is easily worth millions, has his own helicopter to ferry him to any golf event and was just married to retired tennis star Chris Evert.

For every lovable loser out there, that gives us all more than enough hope.