For a 24-hour period during the recent NEC Invitational, it must have seemed to Greg Norman that he had achieved the golfing equivalent of walking on water. With his various business activities in decidedly buoyant shape, he had shot a five-under-par 65 over the formidable South Course at Firestone.
"I've established myself in the business world, but I love to play golf," he said at the time. "I get a great sense of satisfaction out of this, because it's my life, my career." Twenty-four hours later, he was ruminating on a less than spectacular 71. And the regression continued at a pace through the weekend, when a third-round 74 was followed by a crushing 80 on the Sunday. Suddenly, the ability to mix business and competitive golf must have seemed far less viable than it had done three days previously. Especially as a 46-year-old.
The headquarters of Great White Shark Enterprises, which Norman founded in 1993, employs 35 people and has an estimated value of $142 million. On a world-wide basis, the company has a staff of 120.
All of this began to take shape back in 1987 when the Greg Norman Course Design company was formed. And the expanded operation includes Medallist Golf Developments, the Greg Norman Turf Company, the Reebok-owned Greg Norman Collection, the highly-successful Greg Norman Estates Wines and as a concession to information technology, we have Greg Norman Interactive.
Along with these, there is Greg Norman's Australian Grille in Myrtle Beach and Norman Expedition Yachts. Yet he claimed: "I bet I haven't gone six or seven days without hitting a golf ball this year. Even if it means going to the back of my house at the end of the day and hitting 150 balls into the river." Still, playing golf is not the 100 per cent priority it once was, when he was amassing the formidable total of 84 international victories, including British Open triumphs in 1986 and 1993. "It's now probably 60-40, golf and business," he said. "But my business is allowing me to get back to what I love to do, which is to practise and play." For a player who could appear flashy and shallow, Norman has been a remarkably successful businessman, far more so than his Florida neighbour Jack Nicklaus. "The first step to failure is thinking that you know everything," is one of his favourite mottos. "You can't know everything that's going on; you need the input of others." And it seems that Norman has rather special skills when it comes to surrounding himself with the right people. Particularly revealing has been the success of his wine business, which had an initial annual shipping target of 25,000 cases and will shift 200,000 cases by the end of this year.
Even more remarkable has been the success of his own, special strain of grass known as GN-1. I read in a recent interview he did with Canadian golf writer Lorne Rubenstein that Norman's was the turf of choice for the 1999 and 2001 Super Bowls, the 1999 World Series and as the biggest prize of all, last autumn's Olympic Games at Stadium Australia in Sydney.
All of which would make a closing 80 at Firestone easier to bear. And ever courteous, even in the aftermath of that wretched round, he talked of a possible post-operative visit to Doonbeg next spring. Whatever the future may hold for him at tournament level, one suspects Norman will continue to have a significant impact on the game.
"We had a great time. I can still hear Christy O'Connor Jnr singing Irish drinking songs." US Ryder Cup skipper, Curtis Strange, with fond memories of playing in the 1989 matches at The Belfry.
