GREG NORMAN, ALIAS ”THE Great White Shark,” was about to complete a rather aggravating round of golf at the Australian Open a few months ago. A national hero Down Under, Norman did not shoot the anticipated low score, and his idolatrous gallery was predictably disappointed.
But wait. As Norman completed his work at the 18th green, he spotted a boy in the crowd. With a smile from earlobe to earlobe, Norman walked over to the lad, putter in hand.
”Here,” Norman said. ”Take this. I hope you can do better with it than I can.”
The next day, three television crews followed the youngster to school and then home, where his father revealed that the family had been offered $2,500 to part with Norman`s gift golf club. No chance. Some things in life you just can`t buy. Like sportsmanship, grace under pressure, and an upbeat attitude-traits that Greg Norman, the most charismatic golfer on the planet, possesses in abundance. He did not win that tournament-only a few thousand more admirers, not an unusual development for the man who might also be the most star-crossed golfer on the planet.
The Shark has been wounded, but The Shark is alive and The Shark is everywhere.
During the next two weeks, there shall be numerous Shark sightings around these parts because Chicago and environs will become golf headquarters to the world. On Thursday at Butler National in Oak Brook, the Centel-Western Open will be staged. The venerable Western is the Professional Golf Association Tour`s annual appearance here. That concluded, many of the same players-with some notable additions, such as Jack Nicklaus-will remain in the same area code for the United States Open at northwest suburban Medinah Country Club, commencing June 14. The Open, our national championship, is awarded to a different course every year; not since 1975, also at Medinah, has it been held in Chicago.
Norman will participate in both events, and regardless of whether he plays well or poorly, contends or struggles, wins or loses, he will be among the featured attractions. During the last decade, Norman has proven he can not only hit the ball a mile but walk many miles in a solitary sport with a certain passion for the game he plays and the people who come to watch him. Being around Butler National and Medinah isn`t likely to alter that equation. ”I`ve probably spent more hours in the city of Chicago than I have in any other city in the States,” Norman says, ”whether it`s for dinner downtown with (wife) Laura and friends or standing on the sidelines of Soldier Field at a Bears` exhibition game, as I did a couple years ago when the Western was scheduled during August just as the football season was starting. New York . . . well, New York`s not my favorite place. But Chicago is super, friendly. Unbelievable enthusiasm for golf.”
Chicago can`t claim a patent on golf hysteria; Chicago can only serve to underscore a sonic boom throughout the country. According to the National Golf Foundation`s latest survey, for 1988, the number of golfers in the U.S. increased from 21.7 million to 23.4 million-a 7.8 percent rise over 1987. Moreover, the percentage of the population participating in golf reached 10.4, the highest rate ever. Illinois, despite its many months of inclement weather, is one of seven states with more than 1 million golfers-specifically 1,485,815, or the fourth largest number behind California (2.36 million), New York (1.66) and Texas (1.56).
Given this information, the foundation projects that 40 million people will be playing golf by the year 2000, requiring 400 additional courses a year during that span. The current average is only 125 new courses a year, and it seems that they`re all going up in the Chicago area, which already has more places to play than any U.S. city. The six-county region has more than 200 courses, with dozens more on the way, including those attached to plush residential communities and bearing designer labels of Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Fuzzy Zoeller and Curtis Strange, luminaries all.
Chicago golfers, golfers everywhere, show up at daily-fee facilities at ungodly wee hours to sign up for tee times, if tee times can be had. Or one can apply for membership at, say, Medinah, tender a deposit toward the $40,000 initiation fee, then wait five or six years until a spot opens. At which time a monthly assessment (currently $320) will be levied, and if you want to bring a guest to savor the No. 3 course on which the U.S. Open will be contested, that`s another $150 or so for greens fees, cart, sandwich, beverage and golf balls to replace the ones you lose.
NOT ONE TO BE LEFT OUT OF this rage, Norman has lent his considerable name to Royal Melbourne Golf Club, a 6,800-yard, par 72 project in Long Grove, due for completion next spring. There will be 125 homesites on 315 acres. Lots will sell for $200,000 minimum and houses from $600,000 to $1 million-most of which will overlook the golf course. Norman will collaborate with Kemper Sports Management on this, his first such undertaking in the continental United States.
”It`s a beautiful piece of property,” says Norman, who has designed courses in Japan, Hawaii, Taiwan, Bangkok and, naturally, Australia. ”The key is to build a golf course that is enjoyable but also tests the ability of the average player. That`s a difficult combination. You have to think of the player who can`t hit it more than 200 yards in the air, the player who might need to run the ball up onto the green when he doesn`t hit the ball flush.
”The penalty for not hitting one of those perfect high, floating iron shots should be there, but the penalty doesn`t have to be so severe that the game doesn`t become fun. Anybody can build the impossible golf course. The trick is to build the one that can be played by a variety of players. This one will be terrific, I think. Royal Melbourne (in Victoria, Australia) is my favorite golf course anywhere. It was designed by Alister Mackenzie, one of the best architects ever, who designed Augusta National (in Georgia) and Cypress Point (in California), two of the best courses anywhere. So we`re off to a good start.”
Indeed. Shortly after plans for Royal Melbourne in Long Grove were revealed, 101 golfers posted deposits for $36,000 course memberships. That`s after a long and serious look at a blueprint. Obviously, business is good, for golf and for golfers like Norman, who couldn`t have come along at a more propitious moment. Whatever the reasons-increased entertainment dollars, earlier and healthier retirements, affinity for fresh air combined with moderate, no-contact exercise-golf is exploding, as are the incomes of those fortunate few blessed with high-enough profiles to capitalize.
Exactly how good is business for Greg Norman? Well, his worth has been estimated at something well into eight digits, a zone neither confirmed nor denied but not bad work if you can get it for a player who earned ”only”
$835,096 in official prize money from his PGA Tour efforts during the 1989 season.
”It`s exceptional when an athlete`s ratio of off-field income to on-field income is 4-to-1 or 5-to-1,” says Hughes Norton, Norman`s
representative and the head of the golf division of the International Management Group in Cleveland. ”Greg is more like 10-to-1. He`s off the board. Arnold Palmer is generally considered the wealthiest athlete, the athlete who commands the most money every year from his ventures. If Greg isn`t right there, he`s awfully close.
”There are several reasons for that. He`s probably the most recognized athlete in the world. He grew up in Australia (a prime breeding ground for the great white shark, hence the nickname) and still returns there every winter. He played golf in Europe for years. That`s where he refined his game. He still plays there. Now he and Laura, who`s American, and the kids (Morgan-Leigh and Gregory) live in the United States. So three continents not only claim him but still have him. He`s extremely popular in all those places-I didn`t even mention Japan-and there are several reasons for that.
”While women see him as a sex symbol, strong and good-looking, males recognize him as a man`s man. Greg is a guy who knows how to laugh, says what`s on his mind, enjoys a good time, but also genuinely enjoys what he does and works hard at it. He is also gifted with the ability to appreciate people and know exactly how to deal with them. Greg really has mastered the art of living life to its fullest. That`s a cliche, but how many of us are really able to do that? There aren`t enough hours in the day for him, not enough days in the year. That sounds trite too, but it`s also true.”
Alas, it`s also true that there isn`t quite enough hardware in the trophy case at the Normans` magnificent oceanfront home in Lost Tree Village, Fla., to satisfy The Great White Shark`s voracious hunger. Norman has won more than 60 tournaments worldwide-including seven of those official-type PGA Tour events that involve official-type prize money. Norman has surpassed the $3 million plateau in that category since joining the tour in 1983, which is not too shabby. He began the 1990 season as the 12th leading wage-earner ever; Tom Kite, the all-time top banker at $5.6 million, debuted in 1972. Business is good and getting better.
HOWEVER, IN NORMAN`S league, a vital barometer of stature is victories in ”major” tournaments, of which there are but four each season: The Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA Championship. Here is where Norman incurs the wrath of giant expectations-his and his public`s. There is no definite dollar figure attached to winning a major, although it is estimable. (Nick Faldo of Great Britian achieved his second consecutive Masters crown in April, and his financial guru thought it worth several million-four going on six).
Problem. Greg Norman, The Great White Shark, has won just one major-the 1986 British Open. And he is 35 years old. And the clock is ticking. And he knows it.
”I should have won more majors than I have, and I want to win more in the worst way,” Norman says. ”It bothers me that I haven`t, but it probably bothers the people who root for me more. I let myself down when I don`t do well, but I let them down even more. Golf age, I`m more like 28. I believe my prime is still ahead. When I won the British Open, I didn`t think I was really ready to win a whole bunch of majors. I feel ready now to win a bunch, but first I`ve got to get the next one, and I`m very aware of wanting it too much. ”If I try too hard, I could lose. I know that. I also know that if I reach 39 and still haven`t done it, it might be too late. But I look at my career this way. The 1980s were the front nine holes, the 1990s will be the back nine holes. By the year 2000, I`ll be 45 years old and I`ll decide what I want to do with the rest of my life. Hopefully, by then, I`ll have achieved what I want to achieve, or at least part of it. I`ve got to believe there will be a day.”
That day appeared to be at hand on July 20, 1986, at Turnberry, Scotland, where Norman won the 115th British Open and by a resounding five strokes over Britain`s Gordon Brand. While many of the other players complained about narrow fairways that were hard to locate midst howling winds, The Great White Shark didn`t blink.
For accuracy under such conditions, golfers generally will opt for an iron off the tee. But Norman used his driver more often than other players, and if his ball happened to land in the thick Scottish rough, so be it. Norman merely muscled the ball out of the shrubbery and went on about his work. He fully declared himself in the second round, when he fired a course-record 7-under par 63. A bogey on the last hole deprived him of a British Open record for a single round.
Norman seemed poised to become golf`s first dominant player since Tom Watson, who had dethroned Nicklaus, the most decorated golfer ever and winner of 20 majors. But the next and last major of the golf season-the PGA Championship at Inverness in Toledo-became the harbinger of heartbreaks to come for The Great White Shark.
He had led the Masters in April after three rounds, only to lose by one shot to Nicklaus, whose fabulous 30 on the back nine at Augusta National brought him a sixth green jacket at age 46. Norman, mounting a characteristic charge, birdied four consecutive holes. He needed only a par on No. 18 to tie Nicklaus, but Norman pushed his approach shot and settled for bogey. It might be that the golf community was so captured by Nicklaus` deeds that it dismissed Norman`s close call.
Two months later, Norman led the U.S. Open at Shinnecock Hills, N.Y., after three rounds-only to balloon to a closing 75 and tie for 12th. But the British Open conquest enhanced his reputation, fortified his confidence, and it was on to Ohio-where, sure enough, The Shark was at the top of his game again. Once more, he led after three rounds. In fact, with nine holes to go, Norman led by four shots over playing partner Bob Tway.
BUT NORMAN, WITH PREVIOUS rounds of 65-68-69, was four over par on the last eight holes and wound up with 76. Still, it took a couple of remarkable shots to beat him, which is precisely what happened. Tway authored a difficult chip from the greenside rough at No. 17, where he one-putted for par. Then, at No. 18, Tway blasted from a bunker before the green, the ball landed on the green, glanced off the flagstick and disappeared for a birdie 3. Norman, shocked, bogeyed the hole and lost by two strokes.
Duffers only fantasize about hitting a golf ball from the sand into the hole, particularly for birdie. In fact, an accomplished pro would consider it to be good fortune instead of a certified miracle. Indeed, moments before Tway showed off his skills, Payne Stewart sank a similar effort from the same bunker. That coincidence didn`t ease the sting for Norman, who captured only one of the season`s majors despite winning the ”Saturday Slam.” (The four majors are golf`s ”Grand Slam”; he led all four events after the penultimate Saturday rounds.)
