Interview: Top Gun

Getting down to business with Greg Norman as he reflects on life's successes, heartbreaks and another Masters

The Shark in front of his private helicopter

Photo: Brian Smith

By Bob Verdi

Photo By Brian Smith

April 2002

Greg Norman was No. 1 in golf's World Ranking for a total of 331 weeks starting in 1986, including a stretch of 96 consecutive weeks — a record until Tiger Woods came along. Norman won two British Opens and was oh-so-close to winning a number of other majors. Yet, as he sits behind his desk, impeccably dressed in jacket and tie, Norman at age 47 could pass for anything but a professional golfer.

Despite a lack of formal education, Norman is involved in a variety of business ventures, whether it's growing grass and grapes or designing golf courses and attire. The man who earned $28 a week as a kid in a golf shop has enjoyed fabulous success off the course, and he credits golf for everything he has, despite a series of traumatic defeats. None was worse than the 1996 Masters, when he led by six shots entering the final round but lost by five. That setback, according to Norman, and the public reaction to the way he handled it, "changed my life ... I couldn't have affected more people if I had won that tournament."

Unlike so many athletic figures who have endured heartbreak, Norman neither hides from reality nor wallows in self-pity. "As you can see," he says before his 22nd Masters, "I'm as comfortable here in the office as I ever was on the golf course."

Golf Digest: Evidently, reports of your retirement have been greatly exaggerated.

Greg Norman: I have no intention of retiring, and people who think I've retired just because I don't have a PGA Tour card anymore [he played 11 tour events in 2001, one shy of retaining membership] should look at my career. Very seldom have I played more than 15 or 16 tournaments a year in the States.

Besides, golf is not like other sports. I'm not Dan Marino, who is never going to throw another football in a competitive situation. You never really "retire" in golf unless you just shut it down. In fact, when I turn 50, I'll play some on the senior tour — if it's still there.

You still love golf? At least a little?
Of course, but my situation is not a lot different from anybody else who works his tail off to get to the position where you pick your spots. I've been at this for a long time, and I'm at the point where I can decide when I don't want to go to the office — my office being the golf course. I would think a lot of businessmen at age 47 are pointing in the same direction. So, when people say I don't want to play as much as I used to, so what?

We can't say we weren't warned.
Exactly. I've made no secret of my objectives. Life is compartmentalized. Early years, 0 to 18, you're a kid learning as much as you can learn. From 18 to 20, you start developing an idea of what you want to do and how you want to do it. From 20 to 30, that's when you try to establish yourself. From 30 to 40, you solidify what you have, you get married, you have children, you slow down a little along with your body. When you're 40, you should start thinking about where you're going to be when you're 50-plus. You should have all your ducks in a row.

It's a process with a game plan, and that's what I've done. As a result, I'm lucky enough to have multiple choices. The last five years have been the best five years of my life. My kids can travel with me if they want, they can fish or climb mountains with me, or we can all just stay home with [wife] Laura and have a great time. Or play golf.

Laura has told you many times that you should relax more, back off. If there is a thread throughout your career, is it that you tried too hard?
Oh, I don't think so. I don't think you can try too hard. I think you can be too uptight. There's a difference. "Relax your effort" — that's a great saying. When I'm 60, and I look in the mirror and ask how I did at life — family, friends, business, golf — it will be about more than golf titles. If I were single, it would be golf, golf, and more golf.

My attitude, so upbeat despite all these so-called terrible things that have happened to me — that's the real me. Either that, or I'm a hell of an actor, right?

If you ask the average golf fan, the perception is probably that you're tormented by some of the things that have happened to you on the course.
People say I'm very resilient, and I am. If I'd have won all those tournaments that I could've won or should've won — Bob Tway beating me from the bunker, Larry Mize chipping in, Nick Faldo coming from behind at the Masters — the only thing that would have changed is my trophy case.

Would I have liked to win all those tournaments? Of course, because I'm a competitor. Nothing would have satisfied me more in golf than winning the Masters.

Have you abandoned hopes of winning another major?
I haven't given up on the possibility, no. This is the fittest I've been in years, and I think I can still compete with these young kids. But what's really comforting is that I play on my own program. I've always had strong beliefs about being independent, and that's why I'm anti-establishment in so many ways.

You went across the grain in 1994 with an idea for a world tour for the best players — an addition to the PGA Tour— and it blew up in your face.
Each event was to be for $3 million, for the top 40 players in the world. Start with eight events a year, building to 12 down the line. We had an agreement with Rupert Murdoch of the Fox Network for $120 million. That's what turned the sirens on at PGA Tour headquarters. That caught their attention. How did they do that? Why can't we do that? They still haven't figured it out.