Greg Norman has given his strongest hint yet that he may be ready to quit competitive golf. Norman, who is out of action for five months after undergoing shoulder surgery, told the May issue of Australian Golf Digest that he will pack up his clubs forever if he is unable to rekindle his enthusiasm for the sport.

"I get more pain than pleasure now by going to the golf course," he said. "That has to change or I'll hang them up - in a heartbeat - if I can't turn that around."

Norman (43) has always said that he would review his career in the year 2000. But with his business career blooming and his success on the course waning, Norman has not ruled out retiring before the end of the millennium.

"Sometimes, golf gets in the way of all the other things I've got going. I'm very comfortable in the office," he said.

Before his surgery Norman's form this year was uncharacteristically poor. The world's top-ranked golfer for most of the past decade, he has slipped to number four in the rankings.

He withdrew from the Players' Championship in March and failed to make the cut two weeks later at the US Masters after rounds of 76 and 78.

Norman, who holds the dubious honour of being the only player to lose all four majors in play-offs, will miss this year's three remaining majors but had said he would be back in time for the President's Cup in Australia in December.

"I think people believe I'm more tormented than I really am (about losing majors). The Masters I blew to (Nick) Faldo in 1996, I was back in the office the next day," Norman said.

"If my kids can see what (my wife) Laura and I have left them when we're gone, and say `thanks', yet still retain their initiative to do more and do better, then that's more important that the US Masters.

"That's the tournament of life. That's the one I want to win."

The Frenchman Thomas Levet has been named the European tour's Golfer-of-the-Month for April following his victory in the Cannes Open. The 29-year-old had lost his tour card but was invited to play in the event by his national federation and in becoming the first Frenchman to win a tour title on home soil since Jean Garaialde in 1969 he earned a two-year exemption and £50,000."I am the surprise of the year, I think - it's unbelievable," said Levet.