Facts About Greg Norman

Golf Monthly

18/11/2024

Transcript

00:00Famous for being one of the most prolific golfers of his generation, many

00:04of you may now only know Greg Norman as the CEO of a controversial breakaway

00:09golf league. Whether you know him for his golf or his LIV golf exploits, let's get

00:15to know more about the career and life of Greg Norman. Born in Queensland,

00:21Australia, Norman played rugby and cricket in his youth while he aspired to

00:25be a professional surfer. His mother, Toni, was a single-figure handicapper and

00:29taught Greg how to play golf when he was just 15. Within 18 months of that, Norman

00:34went from a 27 handicapper to scratch. He would then turn pro six years later in

00:391976. Norman joined the European Tour in 1977, securing his first win in his debut

00:46season. After much success, he joined the PJ Tour in 1983 and won his first event

00:51over there in 1984. Throughout his decorated career, Norman would go on to

00:56claim 88 professional titles, including two majors, a Players' Championship, 20

01:02PGA Tour wins and 14 European Tour wins. So let's dig a little deeper into those

01:07two major wins I just mentioned. Norman's first major win was at the 1986 Open

01:12Championship at Turnberry and his second came, also at the Open Championship, in

01:171993 at Royal St. George's. However, Norman could never quite go over the line

01:21in the other three majors. He had a whopping 28 top ten finishes in the rest

01:26of the major championships combined and came runner-up eight times. At the 1996

01:31Masters, he relinquished a six-shot lead on the final day to finish second to Nick

01:36Faldo. Shall we dig a little bit deeper again into that 1996 Masters, probably

01:41the most infamous moment of Norman's career. In the first round, he shot only

01:46the second ever 63 recorded at the Masters, birdieing nine at the final 12

01:51holes at Augusta National. He followed that up with solid rounds of 69 and 71 to

01:56hold a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo heading into the final round. Norman

02:00still maintained a four-shot lead after seven holes on the final day, but

02:04proceeded to lose five shots over the next five holes to hand the tournament

02:08on a plate to Faldo. In the end, Faldo shot 67 on the Sunday while Norman shot

02:1478 and he finished in second place, five shots behind Sir Nick. To this day, it is

02:20one of the greatest collapses in major championship history. It is also the

02:24largest ever lead blown in a PGA tournament, a record that has yet to be

02:28broken. His nickname is the Great White Shark, which he picked up at the 1981

02:33Masters while he was introducing himself to the press. Norman, who led the event

02:37after the second day, was a relatively unknown player at the time, but when

02:41asked by one of the media where he was from, he said I grew up in Queensland,

02:46Australia. I grew up on the Great Barrier Reef. I've dived with sharks and that was

02:51what I did as a kid. The next day, the local paper, the Atlanta Journal

02:56Constitution, had the Great White Shark in their headline. Despite his relative

03:00lack of success in the major championships, Norman is still regarded

03:04as one of the greatest talents of his generation. His dominance over the world

03:08of golf in the 1980s and the 1990s is probably best expressed via the official

03:13World Golf Rankings. He finished the year on top of the rankings on seven

03:18separate occasions and spent 331 weeks as the world's number one golfer. This

03:23hall of ranking points is second only to Tiger Woods and Norman was also the

03:28first person in tour history to surpass ten million dollars in career earnings.

03:32So let's move away from his exploits on the golf course and start to learn more

03:36about Greg Norman, the entrepreneur. He founded Great White Shark Enterprises in

03:411993 after leaving his previous management group. Starting with course

03:45design and apparel in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the larger company now

03:50represents over a dozen smaller companies. They include things like real

03:55estate, eyewear, golf carts, wakeboarding complexes, beef products, restaurants,

04:01investments and wine. The company, which is now simply known as Greg Norman

04:06Company, reports hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually. Norman is

04:11the CEO of LIV Golf Investments. Funded entirely by the Sovereign Wealth Fund of

04:16Saudi Arabia, LIV Golf Investments launched the Live Golf Invitational

04:21Series in June 2022. Thanks to the huge spending power of the Saudi Public

04:25Investment Fund, the series has attracted the likes of Phil Mickelson, Dustin

04:30Johnson and Brooks Koepka away from the PGA Tour. The LIV Tour is one of the

04:34clearest examples of sports washing that can currently be seen in the industry.

04:38Sports washing is the practice of a government using sport to improve a

04:42tarnished reputation. It's used to try and direct attention away from poor

04:47human rights records and corruption within the government of a nation-state.

04:50Saudi Arabia has been using sport in this way for a number of years now to

04:55cover up its appalling human rights record with F1 Grand Prix, boxing matches

05:00and one-off football matches being hosted in the country. As well as

05:04recently buying Newcastle United Football Club, the Public Investment Fund

05:07has turned its sights onto golf and Greg Norman is, at the time of recording, the

05:12current mouthpiece for the Saudi regime funding this breakaway series. Moving

05:17away from his highly controversial involvement with LIV Golf, Norman had a

05:21very brief broadcasting career. In 2014 Fox Sports announced that Norman would

05:26join Joe Buck as part of its coverage of USGA Championships. Following plenty of

05:31criticism after his on-air performance at the 2015 US Open, Norman was let go

05:36from his role at Fox Sports in January 2016. Norman has been married to interior

05:41designer Kirsten Kutner since 2010. His first wife was American flight

05:45attendant Laura Andrasi and the pair were together from 1981 until 2006. They

05:50had two children together as well called Greg Jr. and Morgan Lee. He was

05:55also married to former world number one tennis player Chris Everett, but the

05:58pair's marriage only lasted 15 months. Greg Norman has led quite the life on

06:05and off the course. If you hadn't heard of him prior to his LIV Golf exploits,

06:09hopefully you've learned a little bit about how good he was on the course

06:12prior to his extensive entrepreneurial endeavors. If you want to hear more about

06:17the LIV Golf series or find out more about some of golf's greatest players,

06:21check out the news and tour sections on the Golf Monthly website.

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