FanHouse Chris Evert

And so ends the fairy tale relationship that most of us thought would last forever. That's right, 15 months after getting hitched, 50-somethings Greg Norman and Chris Evert have separated.

The announcement came Friday, days before Norman was to captain the International side in the President's Cup. I can't imagine it'll have any effect on the team event, and if anything, maybe it'll take some of the focus off Adam Scott, who hasn't played well in oh, I don't know, 15 months.

Good news, though: Norman and Evert part on good terms. Via the Associated Press:

Is there anything hotter than complaining about grunting in women's tennis right now? First you have Michael Stich complaining because the "grunting" is "unsexy" and now we get to listen to Chris Evert complain in a similar fashion for a different reason.

See, Evert doesn't care for grunting, and even seems to imply, in some recent quotes, that she may or may not think that the noises are being used in a purposeful and distracting manner.

Until a few years ago, Greg Norman, despite his two British Open wins, was probably best known for his 1996 Masters collapse. Hardly fair, but people tend to remember the dramatic train wrecks over the less compelling marches to major victory.

Quite frankly, Serena Williams just embarrassed herself. But it's more than that, really. It's time for everyone to stop giving her a pass.

"We all know who the real number one is," she said Monday, talking about the computer rankings, which recently dropped her to No. 2.

"Quite frankly, I'm the best in the world."

Quite frankly, it was about 24 hours later that she lost her first match at the Italian Open, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 to Patty Schnyder, a career bridesmaid. This is Muhammad Ali bragging how great he is, and then getting knocked out by a sparring partner.

Blame the system if you want. It is all wrong. But Dinara Safina is now the No. 1 ranked women's tennis player, and no, she's not the best women's player.

Psycho. That's how Serena Williams, the best player, described it.

"I just ...'' she said. "I can't compute it.''

No, a computer does that. Tennis has its own little BCS-type controversy now, with computers trying to measure greatness. The difference is that the college football can't pick a champ without computers. Tennis does it with tournaments.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- And to think it was supposed to be a post-honeymoon lark, a chance for Greg Norman and his bride, a tennis player of some sort, to have fun and experience a British Open. Little did they know their side trip would take a crazy turn toward a haunted place and time. When he shocked the golf world and played well last summer at Royal Birkdale, flirting with a Claret Jug until the end, Norman had no idea a third-place finish qualified him for ... the Masters?

You can assume something about someone all you want, but until they confirm it, it's impossible to ever know if it really true. We can now, thanks to an upcoming interview in Vogue, cited below by an Australian Web site, all accept the reality that the elderly-superstar-athlete relationship between Chris Evert and Greg Norman did begin as an extramarital affair.

The tennis legend revealed that she and Norman had tried to fight their desire for each other and had undergone couples-counseling with their longtime spouses, Andy Mill and Laura Andrassy, in an effort to overcome their mutual attraction.

But Evert, who married the Great White Shark in a lavish ceremony in the Bahamas last month, said counselling did not work and the pair dissolved their marriages to be together.

"It was like an irresistible force," she said. "How do you explain something like that?"

It is the first time the sporting power couple have publicly admitted they had embarked on an illicit romantic relationship while they were still with their spouses.

Far be it for me to stand on a pedestal and chastise Evert and Norman. In fact, I'm more of the opinion that the affair, while possibly detrimental to other relationships, is at least (now) the most honest part of the whole situation.

In internet time, this is old news, but still merits a mention here because $103 million -- Australian or U.S. -- is a lot of coinage. Last year, MDS mentioned that two-time major winner and owner of the world's best hair, Greg Norman, was in the middle of divorce that could separate him from half the $500 million he was worth.

Good news: it looks like it'll only cost him 20% of his net worth to officially close the book on his first marriage.

Greg Norman's divorce from his wife of 26 years came with a hefty price tag - $103 million. ... According to court documents filed Thursday in Martin County Court, Norman's divorce last year from Laura Andrassy cost him $17.5 million from the sale of their beachfront home on Jupiter Island, a $4 million home in Palm Beach and $500,000 worth of jewelry.

But it's not all 1986 at the Masters up in here; Norman just remarried -- to tennis legend Chris Evert -- and he's still got roughly $400 million to keep them happy (not to mention the wine and golf course design businesses).

So in the end, everybody wins (well, except for the paparazzi).

The paparazzi is not happy with Greg Norman. You see, Norman and Chris Evert are getting married this weekend on Paradise Island and the two-time major champion has hired a security firm to keep the press away, including, according to the Herald Sun, "TV crews and photographers from Australia, Britain and the US."

Taking such measures to keep the prying eyes of the media out of what most people consider a private affair doesn't sit well with some guy named Garry Linnell of news.com.au. You see, according to Linnell, Norman owes the media for making him famous. You know, because golf had nothing to do with it.

As Norman arrived at the exclusive Paradise Island to prepare for his wedding this weekend to former Wimbledon champion Chris Evert, a group of Norman-aligned security goons and cops detained and harassed journalists, photographers and cameramen in scenes reminiscent of a third world dictatorship. ...

There, Greg Norman's dignity and class disappeared into the treacherous waters of The Bahamas in the same manner many of his golf shots once did when he was under pressure in a major.

Look, I'm not Norman apologist, but the guy's got every right to make sure his wedding is free of "get the photo at all costs" a-holes masquerading as reporters. Linnell disagrees, apparently, and offers this inane point as proof:

As the father of Venus and Serena Williams, Richard Williams has been given a lot of attention by the media for the last decade. And every time the spotlight turns his way, he makes waves. He's claimed his daughters are the targets of racially motivated taunts in locker rooms and stadiums all around the women's tour, he's pulled his daughters from commitments and faced lawsuits and, generally, made sure that there was always as much attention paid to him as his kids.

So, it should come as no surprise that his interview with a newspaper in India features plenty of things that will make your eyebrow raise. He blamed the media for Venus and Serena never experiencing Grand Slam success at the same time and then moved on to discuss racism in tennis.

Tennis is a prejudice game. Well, I'm Black and I'm prejudiced, very prejudiced. I'll be always prejudiced as the White man. The White man hated me all my life and I hate him. That's no secret. I'm not even an American, it just so happens that I was born in America. People are prejudiced in tennis. I don't think Venus or Serena was ever accepted by tennis. They never will be. But if you get some little White no good trasher in America like Tracy Austin or Chris Evert who cannot hit the ball, they will claim this is great.

I won't begin to try and parse Williams's feelings about white people or America, we're all entitled to believe what we want, but he's wrong about his daughters.