We all like an anniversary don’t we? So, in the 50th year of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, let’s have a decidedly dodgy Beatles reference in this build up to a golf piece. To paraphrase Lennon and McCartney, “it was 40 years ago on Saturday, Greg Norman taught the rest to play.” We await the summons from the lawyers for crimes against song lyrics on that one.

Four decades ago this weekend, it was Norman who was top of the golfing hit parade. A decidedly dour June day at Blairgowrie in 1977 was illuminated by Norman’s first ever European Tour win in the Martini International at this gem of a Perthshire course. A star was born in the big county. The Herald’s venerated former golf correspondent, the late Raymond Jacobs, witnessed the man who would become known as the Great White Shark take a sizeable bite out of the opposition.

Those who watched this swashbuckling 22-year-old were immediately entranced and Raymond, in his usual colourful and delightfully crafted way, painted his own picture of that particular Norman conquest. “A head of hair as strikingly blond as Nicklaus’s perches above a piratical-looking broken nose and broad-shouldered frame,” wrote Raymond in his report of that day’s proceedings.

While gently sticking the knife into the experienced British contingent that Norman had conquered – Norman had only been a tournament player for nine months and Raymond used the terms “embarrassment” and “humiliation” in his analysis – the man from The Glasgow Herald did offer some comforting words to those who had been left wheezing along in Norman’s wake. “There is little disgrace in being beaten by a talent as prodigious and rare.”

Norman showcased those talents in fine style and his course record six-under 66 in the final round gave him a three stroke victory over a field which included the likes of Sam Torrance and Bernard Gallacher. The £3000 first prize was pretty handy too. “I put it straight into my account and I was off and running,” he recalled.

Among those also competing that week was another rookie, Charles Dernie, who is now the head professional at Blairgowrie.

“That was my first full year on tour,” recalled Dernie, an Englishman by birth but now an honorary Scot due to his long service in this neck of the golfing woods. “I remember the qualifying event at Alyth and even at that time of year, play was held up by snow. I was playing with a South African professional who had never seen it before in his life.

“Greg Norman had arrived in Scotland accompanied by a huge amount of hype. We all knew there was this fantastic player across from Australia. He hit the ball sky high so we all decided that would never work in Scotland. He certainly proved us wrong. He could hit the ball for miles.

“He came here with a reputation as an exciting, attacking golfer and even then he had the persona, the looks, the physique and the big hat. Greg stood out and winning his first tournament in Europe here at Blairgowrie had to be special for him.

“I would say anyone who saw him play knew he was special. Greg Norman was the type of player other pros would watch practice, although back then the driving range restricted you to a 7-iron. His caddie would be catching his shots while mine was sprinting here and there for my golf balls.”

Norman’s landmark victory at Blairgowrie was just one of over 90 he would achieve worldwide during a long, fruitful career which was burnished by Open Championship wins in 1986 and 1993. At the time of that breakthrough win in Scotland on the European Tour, the comparisons with the great Jack Nicklaus were flying about in wild abundance. In tribute to the Golden Bear, Norman was dubbed the Golden Cub and the Silver Bear but the Aussie wanted to make his own mark. “I greatly admired Jack but I did not like all the comparisons with him,” wrote Norman in his autobiography. “It made me feel like I was living in someone else’s shadow rather than being known for who I was. For that reason, I consciously set out to establish my own identity as a golfer and as a person.”

On that June weekend at Blairgowrie in 1977, Norman certainly established himself as a golfing force to be reckoned with.