Greg Norman
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| Personal Information |
| Birth |
February 10, 1955 (1955-02-10) (age 53)
Mount Isa, Queensland |
| Nationality |
 Australia |
| Wife |
Laura (married 1981, divorced 2007), Chris Evert (married June 28, 2008) |
| Children |
Morgan Leigh, and Gregory |
| Residence |
Hobe Sound, Florida |
| Career |
| Turned Pro |
1974 |
| Current Tour |
PGA Tour |
| Professional wins |
87 (PGA Tour: 20, European Tour: 14, PGA Tour of Australasia: 33, Other: 22) |
Best Results in Major Championships
Wins: 2 |
| Masters |
2nd/T2: 1986, 1987, 1996 |
| U.S. Open |
2nd: 1984, 1995 |
| The Open Championship |
Won 1986, 1993 |
| PGA Championship |
2nd: 1986, 1993 |
| Awards |
PGA Tour of Australia
Order of Merit Winner |
1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1988 |
PGA Tour
Money Winner |
1986, 1990, 1995 |
| PGA Player of the Year |
1995 |
PGA Tour
Player of the Year |
1995 |
| Vardon Trophy |
1989, 1990, 1994 |
| Byron Nelson Award |
1988, 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995 |
| GCSAA Old Tom Morris Award |
2008 |
| GWAA Charlie Bartlett Award |
2008 |
Gregory John Norman AM (born February 10, 1955) is an Australian professional golfer and entrepreneur who spent 331 weeks as the world's number one ranked golfer in the 1980s and 1990s. He is nicknamed "The Great White Shark," or simply "The Shark," a reference to a shark inhabiting Australian waters as well as Norman's blond hair, size and aggressive golf style.
Career outline
Norman was born in Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia to Merv and Toini Norman. His mother was of Finnish descent. As a youth, he played rugby and cricket and was a keen surfer. His mother was a fine golfer with a single-figure handicap. Norman began playing golf at 16 and within a year was playing to a scratch handicap. His professional career began as Charlie Earp's trainee in the Royal Queensland Golf Club pro shop, earning $A28 a week.[1] The first professional tournament he won was the 1976 West Lakes Classic at The Grange in Adelaide, South Australia.
Success on the European Tour and later the PGA Tour followed. Norman won The Open Championship twice, in 1986 and 1993, and also won The Players Championship in 1994 in record-setting fashion (averaging 68.81 per round for the year). Despite his huge success on the U.S. PGA Tour and his many wins around the world, Norman is sometimes regarded as an underachiever (given his talents), a characterization fueled by his myriad near-misses in The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship. He was equally a victim of his own bad luck and good luck on the part of his fellow golfers in major championships. He infamously lost a near-certain PGA Championship in 1986 after Bob Tway holed a greenside bunker shot (though Norman himself shot a 76 that day), and lost The Masters the following year in a playoff on an even more miraculous 45-yard chip shot by Larry Mize on the second play-off hole. In 1989, Norman played brilliantly in a final-round 64 to force his way into a playoff for the Open Championship, but on the final hole of the playoff (while leading) drove the ball into a fairway bunker that he thought was out of reach even for his prodigious driving length, and was unable to rescue himself, allowing Mark Calcavecchia to snatch victory; and in the 1993 PGA Championship he had a final green putt of around twelve feet for victory that lipped right around the hole and failed to drop, and lost the subsequent playoff to Paul Azinger.
In 1986, he led all four majors after the third round but won only The Open. This has been referred to as the "Norman Slam" or the "Saturday Slam," as he was leading after the third round on Saturday but lost in the final round on Sunday. He is one of only two players to have competed in - and, like Craig Wood, to have lost - play-offs in all four of the major championships. Perhaps the worst meltdown occurred at The Masters in 1996, where he blew a six-stroke lead in the final round and lost the tournament to Nick Faldo by five strokes, shooting a Sunday 78 to Faldo's 67. ESPN, as part of their "ESPN25" 25th-anniversary celebration, ranked Norman's 1996 Masters mishap as the third-biggest sports choke of the last 25 years. Despite the losses, though, Norman still has 30 top-ten finishes in the majors.
After a career slump in the early 1990s, Norman turned to Butch Harmon for help. Together, the two rebuilt Norman's game to top form (The Pro, by Claude 'Butch' Harmon Jr., 2006) by solving mechanical problems that had crept into Norman's swing.
With Jack Nicklaus past his best, Norman was regarded as probably the game's greatest long hitter. In his heyday, driving long and incredibly straight off the tee similar to that of Nick Price his contemporary with a persimmon (wood) clubhead, he intimidated most of his fellow professionals. However, with the advent of the "metal-wood" by TaylorMade and other subsequent advances in golf ball and golf club technology (especially the variable face depth driver), his dominance was significantly diminished, as the "new technology" enabled less precise ball-strikers to achieve equal or better accuracy and distance. Whether the cause was shaken confidence, the new technology, or the emergence of golf's next generation of young stars (including Tiger Woods), Norman was never the same after his final Masters collapse.
Since then he has focused more and more on business ventures and golf course design than on competitive play. He turned 50 in February 2005, but has kept his distance from the senior golf circuit. Partly this is because of his other interests, but also because of back and knee injuries. (He required knee surgery for the latter in October 2005 and February 2006.[2]) Norman believes his back injuries could have been averted had he been introduced to the concept of golf fitness early in his career.[3]
Articulate and with a friendly image, Norman has for years been a spokesman for companies including General Motors-Holden, which developed a Commodore model named after him. His own businesses interests include MacGregor Golf and Greg Norman Golf Course Design. He continues to play tournaments, his growing business interests take up an increasing amount of his time. His personal wealth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.
Norman's hobbies include offshore game fishing. He has owned a succession of increasingly large and luxurious boats (though his latest, called Aussie Rules, after the sport Australian rules football, may best be described as a small ship) for the purpose. He even described his "ugly" 1993 PGA Championship loss "[i]n fishing terms, this was a mackerel in the moonlight—shining one minute, smelly the next."[4] He became a wine lover in the 1970s while playing at tournaments in Europe.[5] During Norman's first trip to the United States in 1976, when he was chosen to represent Australia in the World Cup of Golf in Palm Springs, he soaked up as much of the culture as he could, including trying California's wines. In the 1990's, Norman partnered with winemakers from Berringer Blass to launch Greg Norman Estates wineries.[6] Based in Hobe Sound, Florida, he typically plays only one or two tournaments per year in his homeland of Australia.
Norman won the PGA Tour of Australia's Order of Merit six times: 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1988. He won the European Tour's Order of Merit in 1982, and topped the PGA Tour's Money List in 1986, 1990, and 1995. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour three times: 1989, 1990, and 1994; and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001. His dominance over his peers (despite his comparative lack of success in the majors) was probably best expressed in the Official World Golf Rankings: Norman finished the season on top of the ranking list on seven occasions, in 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996 and 1997, and was second at the end of 1988, 1993 and 1994.
In May 2008, Norman played in only his third Champion's Tour event since turning 50, the 69th Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. Norman, having not played competitive golf regularly in the last several years, stayed in contention all week and wound up three shots behind eventual winner Jay Haas (+7), tying for sixth place. His new wife (as of 6/28/2008), tennis legend Chris Evert, has been a large part of Norman's consideration to enter events on the PGA and Champions tour. "I would doubt he'd go back full time," Evert said. "But for him to keep it up, one or two tournaments a month or whatever, would be great. I would 100 per cent support him if that's what he wanted to do."
In July 2008, despite not playing in a major for three years, Norman finished nine over par in a tie for third at The Open Championship after being the 54 hole leader by two strokes. He set the record in becoming the oldest 54-hole leader in a major championship and earned an automatic bid to the 2009 Masters. The following two weeks, Norman continued his strong play, finishing in a tie for fifth at The Senior Open Championship after a weekend 67-68 and fourth in the U.S. Senior Open after being the only player shooting 72 or lower all four days.
In 1986, Norman was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award, a feat he replicated in 1993 to join Muhammad Ali and Björn Borg as multiple winners (They have since been joined by Roger Federer). He received the 2008 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor, at the 2008 Golf Industry Show in Orlando. Norman is a member of The Environmental Institute for Golf's board of trustees and also chairs The Institute's advisory council. He was the also the recipient of the Golf Writers Association of America's 2008 Charlie Bartlett Award.
Personal life
Norman attended Aspley State High School on the north side of Brisbane, Queensland.[7] He married Laura Andrassy, an American flight attendant, on July 1, 1981.[8] They have two children: Morgan Leigh, and Gregory. The family lived in Hobe Sound, Florida.
On March 15, 1997, then U.S. president Bill Clinton fell down a flight of stairs at Norman's Florida home, tearing knee tendons which required surgery.[9]
In May 2006, Norman announced he and his wife would divorce.[10][11] He refused to comment on the reasons for this, other than to say there was no third party involved.
In September 2007, Norman announced he and former tennis champion Chris Evert would be married.[12] Evert was married twice, to British tennis player John Lloyd (1979-87) and former American ski racer Andy Mill (1988–2006), with whom she has three sons. The couple became engaged on December 9, 2007 and on June 28, 2008 were married in the Bahamas. Mill went on record as saying he wished Evert and Norman happiness.
While married to Laura, Norman commissioned the 228ft luxury yacht "Aussie Rules", built by the Australian ferry builder Austal/Oceanfast. The boat held four sports boats, including a 60ft custom sportfisherman, along with stowage for related gear: 200 rods. Built of aluminium, she cruised at 15 knots with a range of 8,000 miles.[13] The boat cost $70 million, but resulted in Austal making an AUS$18 million loss. The boat was quickly sold by Norman in 2004 for a rumored $77 million to the founder of Blockbuster Video, Wayne Huizenga.[14] She is now renamed M/Y Floridian, and available for charter at $400 000 per week or sale.[15]
Norman was also an early customer for the Boeing Business Jet, which he had ordered with custom fitted bedroom and office. However, the downturn in the Asian markets adversely affected his golf course design business, and he later cancelled the order after acting as an ambassador for Boeing.[16] He eventually retained his Gulfstream V.
Major Championships
Wins (2)
Results timeline
DNP = Did not play
WD = Withdrew
CUT = missed the half-way cut
"T" indicates a tie for a place
Green background for wins. Yellow background for top-10.
Summary of major championship performances
- Starts - 89
- Wins - 2
- 2nd place finishes - 8
- Top 3 finishes - 14
- Top 5 finishes - 20
- Top 10 finishes - 30
- Longest streak of top-10s in majors - 3
Professional wins (87)
PGA Tour wins (20)
Major championships are shown in bold.
European Tour wins (14)
Wins in Australia (33)
- 1976 (1) West Lakes Classic
- 1978 (4) New South Wales Open, Traralgon Classic, Caltex Festival of Sydney Open, South Seas Classic
- 1979 (1) Traralgon Classic
- 1980 (1) Australian Open
- 1981 (1) Australian Masters
- 1983 (3) Australian Masters, Stefan Queensland Open, National Panasonic New South Wales Open
- 1984 (3) Victorian Open, Australian Masters, Australian PGA Championship
- 1985 (2) Toshiba Australian PGA Championship, National Panasonic Australian Open
- 1986 (4) Stefan Queensland Open, National Panasonic New South Wales Open, West End Jubilee South Australian Open, National Panasonic Western Australian Open
- 1987 (2) Australian Masters, National Panasonic Australian Open
- 1988 (4) Palm Meadows Cup, ESP Open, PGA National Tournament Players Championship, Panasonic New South Wales Open
- 1989 (2) Australian Masters, PGA National Tournament Players Championship
- 1990 (1) Australian Masters
- 1995 (1) Australian Open
- 1996 (2) Ford South Australian Open, Australian Open
- 1998 (1) Greg Norman Holden International
Other wins (22)
Team appearances
- Dunhill Cup (representing Australia): 1985 (winners), 1986 (winners), 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996
- Presidents Cup (International team): 1994 (withdrew), 1996, 1998 (winners), 2000
- Hennessy Cognac Cup: 1982
- Nissan Cup: 1985, 1986
- Kirin Cup: 1987
- Four Tours: 1989
See also
References
External links
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World Number ones since 1986 |
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*Tiger Woods (USA) is the current World No. 1, and has spent the most weeks in that position, currently over 510.
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The Open champions |
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1860 Willie Park, Snr. · 1861 Tom Morris, Sr. · 1862 Tom Morris, Sr. · 1863 Willie Park, Snr. · 1864 Tom Morris, Sr. · 1865 Andrew Strath · 1866 Willie Park, Snr. · 1867 Tom Morris, Sr. · 1868 Tom Morris, Jr. · 1869 Tom Morris, Jr. · 1870 Tom Morris, Jr. · 1871 No championship · 1872 Tom Morris, Jr. · 1873 Tom Kidd · 1874 Mungo Park · 1875 Willie Park, Snr. · 1876 Bob Martin · 1877 Jamie Anderson · 1878 Jamie Anderson · 1879 Jamie Anderson · 1880 Bob Ferguson · 1881 Bob Ferguson · 1882 Bob Ferguson · 1883 Willie Fernie · 1884 Jack Simpson · 1885 Bob Martin · 1886 David Brown · 1887 Willie Park, Jnr. · 1888 Jack Burns · 1889 Willie Park, Jnr. · 1890 John Ball · 1891 Hugh Kirkaldy · 1892 Harold Hilton · 1893 William Auchterlonie · 1894 John Henry Taylor · 1895 John Henry Taylor · 1896 Harry Vardon · 1897 Harold Hilton · 1898 Harry Vardon · 1899 Harry Vardon · 1900 John Henry Taylor · 1901 James Braid · 1902 Sandy Herd · 1903 Harry Vardon · 1904 Jack White · 1905 James Braid · 1906 James Braid · 1907 Arnaud Massy · 1908 James Braid · 1909 John Henry Taylor · 1910 James Braid · 1911 Harry Vardon · 1912 Edward Ray · 1913 John Henry Taylor · 1914 Harry Vardon · 1915-19 No Championships due to World War I · 1920 George Duncan · 1921 Jock Hutchison · 1922 Walter Hagen · 1923 Arthur Havers · 1924 Walter Hagen · 1925 Jim Barnes · 1926 Bobby Jones · 1927 Bobby Jones · 1928 Walter Hagen · 1929 Walter Hagen · 1930 Bobby Jones· 1931 Tommy Armour · 1932 Gene Sarazen · 1933 Denny Shute · 1934 Henry Cotton · 1935 Alf Perry · 1936 Alf Padgham · 1937 Henry Cotton · 1938 Reg Whitcombe · 1939 Richard Burton · 1940-45 No Championships due to World War II · 1946 Sam Snead · 1947 Fred Daly · 1948 Henry Cotton · 1949 Bobby Locke · 1950 Bobby Locke · 1951 Max Faulkner · 1952 Bobby Locke · 1953 Ben Hogan · 1954 Peter Thomson · 1955 Peter Thomson · 1956 Peter Thomson · 1957 Bobby Locke · 1958 Peter Thomson · 1959 Gary Player · 1960 Kel Nagle · 1961 Arnold Palmer · 1962 Arnold Palmer · 1963 Bob Charles · 1964 Tony Lema · 1965 Peter Thomson · 1966 Jack Nicklaus · 1967 Roberto DeVicenzo · 1968 Gary Player · 1969 Tony Jacklin · 1970 Jack Nicklaus · 1971 Lee Trevino · 1972 Lee Trevino · 1973 Tom Weiskopf · 1974 Gary Player · 1975 Tom Watson · 1976 Johnny Miller · 1977 Tom Watson · 1978 Jack Nicklaus · 1979 Severiano Ballesteros · 1980 Tom Watson · 1981 Bill Rogers · 1982 Tom Watson · 1983 Tom Watson · 1984 Severiano Ballesteros · 1985 Sandy Lyle · 1986 Greg Norman · 1987 Nick Faldo · 1988 Severiano Ballesteros · 1989 Mark Calcavecchia · 1990 Nick Faldo · 1991 Ian Baker-Finch · 1992 Nick Faldo · 1993 Greg Norman · 1994 Nick Price · 1995 John Daly · 1996 Tom Lehman · 1997 Justin Leonard · 1998 Mark O'Meara · 1999 Paul Lawrie · 2000 Tiger Woods · 2001 David Duval · 2002 Ernie Els · 2003 Ben Curtis · 2004 Todd Hamilton · 2005 Tiger Woods · 2006 Tiger Woods · 2007 Pádraig Harrington · 2008 Pádraig Harrington
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