Executive Golf Magazine

A two-time Open champion, Greg Norman’s transformed himself into a multi-million dollar businessman with a mean golf game

It was the black Rolls Royce that initially got my attention, parking as it was beside my own state of the art Ford Cortina at the time.

The place was Sunningdale, that most Woosterish of clubs situated in Berkshire but with the Surrey border reassuringly just a few yards away, and the time was, well the time was an age ago. Memory tells me it was 1979 but from this range it may as well have been 1879.

Whatever, no sooner had I begun clocking the Roller than the driver got out and introduced himself. “Morning mate,” he said, “My name’s Greg and I’m here to play golf. Yourself?”

I shook hands and told this tall, blond, suntanned chap that I was “here to write about golf” and that this was good because, to be honest, I was fairly rubbish at playing the grand, old game. We both, as I recall, laughed.

And so began a friendship with Greg Norman that continues to this day. Of course, now he would not park a Rolls Royce next to me (mine’s a Nissan if you must know) but could, if he so wished, slip one of several Ferraris into the space or, if he was in a particularly impressive posing mood, swing by in his private jet.

Life has changed for each of us since that sunny Sunningdale morning but when it comes to money then it is probably Greg who has taken the biggest leap forward.

I never did what I did, or do what I do, to become a billionaire. I never played for money. I passed on a lot of guarantees to play elsewhere to play where I thought I might enjoy it more whether that was in Australia or Europe

This, of course, may be the greatest understatement I have ever made. Greg, now, is one helluva rich one man band. Except that he employs an awful lot of people to keep his singular show on the road while from his base in southern Florida he runs his various companies with the same keen eye for meticulous detail that he always brought to bear on both the golf course and his wardrobe.

His interests include a clothing line, restaurants, wine, course design and build, and his own special sports turf outfit that may be found all over the United States. He once told me while smearing honey over his breakfast steak – but that’s another story – that he doubted he would ever find anything in life that might get his attention more than the prospect of a 3-wood over 250 yards of water to win something or other.

This was in the early Nineties when he was the undisputed No.1 golfer on the planet and, not for the first time, my pal was wrong. A few years later he began to dabble seriously in business and soon found that playing Wall Street offered him every bit as much fun as that 3-wood. Of course, nailing down a major deal has, ironically, in the end proved easier for Greg than nailing more than two major titles, the 1986 and 1993 Opens.

There should have been at least half-a-dozen more of these really glittering titles but a mixture of seriously bad luck and his sometimes irritating habit of getting in his own way when push came to the biggest shove of all meant he had to settle for just those two. Not that he is complaining. A chronically injured back aside, Norman’s life has been strewn with the softest of rose petals.

Now here he is at 52, divorced from Laura, the American stewardess he also met in 1979, and newly married to Wimbledon’s sweetheart Chris Evert. He plays serious golf too, occasionally, and he can still whack it pretty well as he proved when he pushed eventual winner Padraig Harrington all the way at this years Open at Royal Birkdale.

Norman still competes in The Open and the British Senior Open because (a) it is fun and (b) it does not hurt the Norman brand to have a public outing now and then. At heart he remains an adrenaline freak, his personal motto still fiercely simple and to the point: Attack life!

“It’s the only way buddy,” he points out, before adding: “Who knows what’s next. I have a couple of ideas in my mind and things in the pipeline. The great thing about my business, it’s private. I like it that way because you can actually advance yourself forward and doing the things that I choose to do.

“All my platform has been based on golf, though, and you’re seeing that right through from what you just mentioned from the Greg Norman Collection to all of the things that have happened off the golf course to products like wine and beef and are all related to my lifestyle and what’s happening in the game of golf.

“My golf course design, of all the things I do I enjoy doing that the most, because it’s very hands-on. You can fly in, fly out; and you can do three or four different projects over three or four days and go home and be there on the weekend. As for playing the game of golf, I don’t have the motivation that I used to.

“I don’t have the motivation to go out there and practice 10 hours a day and you need to do that. Guys like Tiger (Woods) or Ernie (Els) walk off the 18th green and head straight to the driving range late in the evening and hit balls. That’s what you need to do. I have no interest in doing that. I’m very fortunate that I can take myself to another place.

“Business has allowed me to do that, but I have structured it the right way for the way I want to attack life in that regard. From a business perspective I can tell you that my life has never been better. I love where I’m going and I know where I’m going. When you have that mindset going forward it feels pretty darn good.

“Obviously I’m in my fifties now but I look forward to the future and I want to make sure that I enjoy myself a little bit more than I have done in the past. Simple as that.”

This desire to throttle back at least a little is hardly surprising. Born in Queensland, Australia, he was a little boy who was desperately afraid of the dark. Nothing rare there but what marked him out from the rest at an early age was his refusal to keep the light on at night. Instead, the boy Norman tested himself in as many dark places as he could until one day he was no longer afraid of not being able to see properly.

It is the way he has lived his life ever since. Every day is a challenge to Greg because he seeks out these challenges. He dares himself to be brave and then he goes and bravely does whatever it is he asks of himself. It is why he often drives too fast, flies too high and now and then swims with sharks.

This side of him is neatly balanced with a fierce pride in achievement and a refusal to accept second best. These twin drives hurtled him towards the edge of distraction when his main focus was as a golfer and now he is a successful entrepreneur little has changed.

“There never is a final score if you keep evolving,” he says. “I never did what I did, or do what I do, to become a billionaire. I never played for money. I passed on a lot of guarantees to play elsewhere to play where I thought I might enjoy it more whether that was in Australia or Europe.

“And I’ve played where I’ve given back half my appearance fee if I missed the cut. Why? Because I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn’t build my life on making money any more than I did to collect trophies. As with everything we do now, the focus is on quality not quantity. If you exceed people’s expectations, whether it’s growing grass or producing wine, you enhance your brand name.”

Of course his full-on approach to life, the universe and golf has not gone down smoothly with everyone. His original nickname on the European Tour was ‘Hollywood’ and though many said it with affection some muttered it through gritted teeth. It was the same on the US Tour when he decanted there in the mid-Eighties.

Americans are good people but some, sadly, are insular to the point of blindness and so not every pro golfer took to this confident Australian when he arrived - especially when he began beating them. He admits now that there were many occasions when he entered a locker-room at this tournament or that and he felt as though he had just pulled the handle on a fridge.

Did all this hurt? Yes, of course it did. It also, however, persuaded him to try even harder to be the best. That he succeeded is beyond doubt. That he continues to succeed, albeit in a very different sort of sphere, is also a given.

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