Greg Norman - The Great White Shark

Uncanny, but it was exactly 18 minutes. We didn't plan it. But you don't ignore fate, do you? 18 holes. 18 minutes on the Great White Shark. It was meant to be.

This week, Tommy and the crew strapped on the scuba gear and plunged headfirst into the habitat of golf's most iconic—and let's be real, most divisive—predator. Greg Norman.

Love him? Fair enough. Loathe him? Plenty did. But here's the thing—you couldn't look away. The guy was prime-time Hollywood with a club in his hands. Box office. Must-see TV. Every tee shot felt like a scene from a movie. Every Sunday felt like it belonged to him for better or for worse.

So we got stuck in. We chewed the fat on the swagger, the scars, the Shark. The man who put Australian golf on his back and became the sport's original rockstar. The wins. The heartbreaks. The aura.

Is this the definitive word on Norman? Nah. Probably not. But it's 18 minutes of pure gold from the lads, and we reckon it's a bloody good listen.

Hit play. You know you want to.

To learn more about us or to get in touch head to: tommydoesgolf.com   

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Tommy Does Golf, the podcast where three-old timers give you our opinions on everything golf. I'm Tommy Long, joined by fellow KGA professionals James Morgan and Paul Charman. With over a hundred years in counting in the golf industry between us, we are well into our backgrounds. We'll do our best to stay on topic, but just like our teacher's days, this podcast could go anywhere. We're hoping you enjoy the banter, and maybe, just maybe, we'll share a few pearls of wisdom along the way. Let's get into it. Sometimes in sport you get figures who are absolutely impossible to ignore, and Greg Norman was exactly that. It's been said he was like Marmite. You either loved him or you hated him. But regardless of what side you stood on, you couldn't take your eyes off him. For me as a golf fan, he was must-watch TV. That shock of blonde hair, the swagger, the cowboy hat that made him look bigger than life. He had this incredible presence. He looked like a champion. The 32-inch waist, the massive shoulders, that triangular build most of us could only dream of. But here's the thing about Greg Norman's career. It's one of the most complex in golf history. Triumph and tragedy, often on the same stage. He dominated the world rankings for 331 weeks, a record only bettered by Tiger Woods. Yet his major tally is just a fraction of what his talent deserved. So in this episode, we're diving into the career of the great white shark, the stats, the wins, the business empire, and yes, the losses. From Larry Meiser's Impossible Chip to Bob Tway's Bunker Magic, and of course the 1996 Masters. Let's get into it. James, I'll start with you. If you were asked to write an article about Greg Norman's career, what points would you focus on?

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Yeah, that's a good question. I think the image of Greg Norman is one of a swashbuckling I will take anything on. He did it with a smile. He wore his emotions. That's what I used to love. He would wear his emotions on his sleeve so you could see exactly how he was feeling. Fearless. Maybe to a point of detriment. One thing that a lot of the listeners won't know about is his choice of golf ball. In that era when he lost all those majors. Steve Williams reckons the golf ball cost him in the Masters at least two shots around. Really? Purely because of spin. That's when the sporting tour edition came out. If you guys remember it. We do. And it was a ball that you could fizz in and it would just spin. Got a raz on the bottom. Oh, yeah. And the problem was at places like Augusta, you got too much spin, you couldn't control it. And when you look at that last round with him and Fouda, everyone forgets. Faldo played brilliant. Shot 67 final, yeah. Fouder put him under pressure. But then number nine was the classic where he spun it back off the green and down the front. And that's when Faldo got level, and then from then onwards. It was massive, yeah. It was he just started hitting shots. Again, you look at other things, like you say with the Bob Tway holding that bunker shot. But again, Greg shot 75 that day. And there's so many times when you saw him on that last round because he was trying harder, he was he was hitting the ball harder and he was spinning it more. So in the first few rounds when he's sticking it near the flag, last round, there was one particular wedge where he spun it completely off the green from 45 feet where it landed to where it finished. So I just look at something like that. But he was paid an awful lot of money, and I think when you look at Greg Norman's businesses stuff, which I'm not sure I think Paul will cover, you look at that, everything he does, he takes it head on. Yeah, he's got wine companies, he's got so many different companies. Absolutely. And so when you look at it from that point of view, successful businessman based off his attitude, his can-do, I'm gonna do this. So when I think of Greg Norman as a golfer, lots of lost opportunities, but someone who took the world on, because that's when the game was dominated by Americans, he took the game on and said, I'm gonna be the best in the world. And he was one of the hardest practisers, and Butch Harman was quoted as saying that Tiger was the hardest practicer he ever came across, and this number two was Greg Norman. And Tiger based his practice stuff off Greg because he heard how hard Gregor practised, he goes, I'll I'll practice hard. He was a benchmark at the time.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

For a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

No, he was I mean, as a ball striker, unbelievable. Mind blowing. Absolutely mind-blowing, wasn't he? I mean it was just phenomenal. All right, well, Paul, Stato, give us a few stats on Mr. Greg Norman, please.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

It's funny, I actually in great big capitals here highlighted businessman at the top of it. Businessman, businessman. You know, he's worth hundreds of millions of dollars, not just through playing, but playing, that was his actual card. That was his business card because people saw him. There was no mistaking him, as you've already mentioned. The straw hat, that physique, everything. And again, James, you mentioned a couple of things there on some of the other things that he's involved himself in. Course design, real estate, clothing, you know, um, live golf. We have to mention live golf, and uh, as you also mentioned, a successful wine company. A couple of things he was taught by his mum at the age of 15. In 18 months, he had gone from 27 handicap to scratch. He was heavily influenced by a book that we did actually mention in another podcast, Golf My Way, by Jack Nicholas. That was his Bible, that was his book, that was the one that he went to. The other thing, as well, is that he's actually raised a lot of money for different charities, specifically children's charities. And again, these are all things that basically just say businessmen, you know, businessman. I don't think that Greg looks back at any part of his career and goes, Oh, it was a shame that I shot 75 in the last round of this or the last round of that, because I think the bigger picture was that it was all about business. Some players are just golf, the way they play, the way they perform, that's all they have, that's all they can do. Norman was more about the periphery, everything else around him that was going on. Clothing companies, course design later on, all that sort of stuff. So, you know, I think you can sit here and talk about his performance on a golf course, but it's more than that.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

I do think that it's actually one of the most successful businessmen golfers on the planet.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

The other thing I'd just like to say as well is that you know, he was ripped, blonde, surfer-looking, but at the end of the day, he was a mastermind. A mastermind. And a credit to the Australian community.

SPEAKER_02 6:50

Absolutely, he was. Yes. Well, look, I mean, you'd be copying what I've written down, Paul, to be honest, is my stats, but I'm going to go through just a couple of things. Tournament wins, I mean, he was prolific, he won 88 times in total on various tours around the world, which is phenomenal, including 20 wins on the PGA tour, 14 on the European tour, and a staggering 33 on the PGA tour of Australasia. Major championships, two amazing, really. I mean, he won the open in 86. He shot a course record 63 in the second round in brutal conditions, one by five shots. And in 93 at Royal St. George's, he shot a final round 64. On Nick Faldo's birthday. Was it Nick Faldo's birthday? And beating Faldo in both. But his runner-up finishes in majors totals eight. Yeah. And he has runner-up finishes in all four majors. At the Masters, he was the runner-up in 86, 87, and of course 96, which we've touched upon. Yeah. At the US Open he was a runner-up in 84 and 95. USPGA was runner-up in 1986 and 93. And at the Open, he was runner-up at Royal True in 1989. I have a stat as well. He hit eight top five finishes at Augusta.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

Amazing. And let's not forget, you said a little earlier on, Larry Mice. Larry Mice. The most impossible. I can remember watching that. It was cruel.

SPEAKER_02 8:10

It was so cool. It was, well, I don't know, was it a one in a thousand shot? Who knows? Well, it was just called cruel. And again, Bob Twain.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

So there's two that were literally ripped from his grasp. Oh, 100%. Potentially.

SPEAKER_02 8:22

But the thing I remember, and you boys will remember this, 1989, Open Championship, Royalty. Right? And he obviously lost in a playoff as a three-way playoff, wasn't there? It was Wayne Grady, Mark Halkovic, and Greg Norman in the playoffs, right? 89. And I remember watching that open, and in the final round, he opened Norman with six straight birdies. Yeah. He opened with six straight birdies. He had the ball's eye putter, and it was just electric. I don't think I've ever seen a player who got so close and yet just seemed to not get over the line. Yeah. He really deserved to have more in the main state.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

That was his that was his style. Yeah. He was crushed by a wallop. I'm going for it. Yeah. You know, and then again, I go back to that bloody golf ball that he used. I seriously think that cost him so much.

SPEAKER_02 9:11

He got zip on that. I remember on that tournament, and the greens were fine. And he was razzing it back on those greens when everybody else was struggling to control the ball. And that was a tour edition.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

And in that open, that's where Kalkavecchio on about the 12th hole hold that wedge with a pinbox groove. It was an impossible lie. Super soft ball, boom, spin. And that's when they started banning those grooves because of the amount of brilliant couplers. The brilliant covers.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yeah, getting five-on into the last out of the rough out there and play off, didn't he? And he hold the puff for 15 feet. So, yeah, I mean he's been incredibly unlucky. Okay, well, look, James, what about the Liv thing? You know, he became the public face of Liv, working with the Saudis to create it seven as the CEO from 21 to 25. Tell us, did he fall out with the US PGA tour? What happened?

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Do you have any inside info on that? So, all the googling I've done on this, and this is what I'd heard as well. Back in 1994, Greg Norn went to the PGA tour and said, I want to make this a global game. So, you know, being from Australia, he just felt there were some great golf courses around the world that the tour should have been playing. And the American pros historically don't like to travel. And it's funny now that Rory is now suggesting that the golf pro should be travelling around the world. That's how he started to do himself. He's starting to play in places like India, played the Australian Open, that sort of stuff. But this is what Greg Norman put out in 1994, and he got snubbed by the PGO. And that was the start of it. And Tim Finchin, who was the commissioner of the PGA Tour, threatened to suspend any player who joined his world tour. So it died. So he's always wanted to have something to do that. So his view of the PGA Tour is that PGA Tour operates as a monopoly, forcing the best players to play primarily in the US. His vision for live golf was a truly international team-based league allowing players to compete globally. Now you look at the market you've got in somewhere like India and places like that. You could really grow the game of golf, but the Americans want to make it. Not solely based there, because they do take the odd event away, like the Scottish Open is on the PGA Tour and stuff like that. So he got a bit better, so then he gets some backing, sets up Liv, and this is the quote that I really like. Norman has frequently stated that he remains a loyal lifetime member of the PGA Tour, and his actions were intended to strengthen the overall ecosystem of golf rather than destroy the tour itself. So that was his greater good thing. And then because Liv then got shot down, I think he was surprised at how it got shot down or tried to shoot it down, so he just chucked money at it, and yeah, now you can see pros starting to drift their way back again. I just hope that the PJ Tour take on board what he was trying to do. They did it with prize money for straight off, didn't they? Yes. And then now it's like, will they start taking events elsewhere?

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Do you think that had the backers for Live Golf not been the Saudis, do you think that would have changed everybody's perception of the whole idea of live golf? No, but I mean if the money had come from somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

No, but when Tiger was sponsored by Nike, I mean they run sweatshops in China. And everyone forgets those sorts of bits and pieces. You can look at so many companies that are involved with the PGA Tour, and if you search in their background, they've got all these human rights issues, other bits and pieces, because they live with Saudi. That's just an excuse, I think. If the Saudis, I think, had gone direct to the PGA Tour and said, hey, listen, let's add six events.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

The interesting thing about what you've just said, James, and it is very enlightening, and it kind of goes hand in hand what you were saying about him being a businessman. But it's almost like when he came up with that idea of growing the game in those countries that needed to see golf, if you like, he was almost a visionary that was almost misunderstood. He's almost been misunderstood in what he was trying to do. So I feel like he's probably faced a lot of unfair criticism. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_01 13:21

And again, another thing here, Norman Clems' goal was to bring free agency to golf, breaking the restrictive grip the PGA Tour held over its members. So he basically was looking at it from a player's point of view, saying, Well, hey, I should be able to play all around the world, A, spread the game and B make a really good living doing it. Yeah. And I sh and I shouldn't be held accountable to the PGA Tour all the time. When I play on there, great, I'll play by their rules, but why should they have complete control over where I play when I play? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:49

I think there's a lot of unfair criticism that was placed on Norman with his links to the Saudis. And James, like you said, no one's squeaky clean. Nobody's squeaky clean.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Just the fact that again, Greg Norman is a polarising character. And he again, people either love Live Tour or hate Live Tour. But I see that what it's done to the game, it has increased the prize money, it's increased people's awareness. Will they ever get back together? I can't see it. I think Live Tour might actually die, which is sad.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

The thing is though, when we're talking about players and we're doing legends podcasts, we don't know these people personally. Right? So all we can really go on is what we read in the media, and let's be honest, how true is that? If we don't know these people, we don't have this personal connection, in fairness, we should be just going on what they do for the game of golf. You know, and Norman, during that time period where he was the man, 331 weeks, world number one, he grew the game. People would tune in because he was such a personality. So yeah, I just think the great white shark, he was just phenomenal. He was electric to watch when he was really on it.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

Well, in the pro shop, we had a life-size cardboard cutout of him, which Spording sent round with him there with his golf bag. There was no other company doing anything like that. Yeah, and I know this sounds a bit hard to believe, but when I had his hat on, and I did have one of his head that you didn't like, I could look a little bit like Greg Norman. From five years.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

Blonde hair.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Well, same high blonde hair. Thirty years ago, I was a little bit lighter. But it's also I used to look like Boris Becker as well, apparently, but that's another story to see. You could just go and put that cardboard thing out. Boss just said, go stick, stick it on the pudding green. Yeah, who's that? Oh, and they'd sit from a side. What's Greg Norman doing it? Oh, it's a cardboard cutout.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

He was recognisable. And I think if you saw him walking down the street, people would go, that's Greg Norman. Well, not many other golfers that non-golfers were going, that's Greg Norman.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

The figure, I saw a picture the other day came up on social media, he's at the beach, right? And he's got his top off. And one of the comments, you know, one of the keyboard warriors was like, What's he doing with his top off at whatever age he is now? And I looked at this picture and I thought, you know what? If I had a body like that, down the supermarket, I'd be topless. Everywhere I went, I honestly he's kept himself in shape. Athlete, he was classy. I loved Greg Norman. I loved watching Greg Norman. And yeah, I kind of feel like the whole live thing, it's unfairly tainted his name, if you like. I mean, he's a legend of the game, and he only got those two majors, which I think is a crying shame. It is sad.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

Yeah, Paul. Yeah, I've got one little thing I'd like to say, and that is that I've got a picture on my wall of my old man at the Emirates Golf Club starting Greg Norman, and he's standing there next to Greg, and he's just talking to him before he's about to tee off. And he was asking him, How would you want me to introduce you and all that sort of stuff? And I've just got that picture on my and I, you know, that's my old man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

How many pictures were they taking of your old man with other players? It could be the whole field. But guess what?

SPEAKER_00 17:06

There's one of you with Greg Norman, him with Greg Norman. And if it was a black and white photograph, you would know it's Greg Norman because he's got the hat on, and you just know that that's Greg Norman. Yes, prime time. Greg Norman. Prime time.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Love it. So yeah, I think we'll all agree that it's such a shame that he didn't win more majors because his dominance deserved more. Really did.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

And I just think his legacy, unfortunately, will be for a lot of people the live tour and they'll just forget how much of a great golfer he really was. Yeah, I'd agree with that. I'd agree with that.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Well, that's Greg Norman, everybody. Good pod guys. Yeah, excellent. Nice. Alright. See you next time. If you've made it this far, we hope it's because you've enjoyed listening to Tommy Does Golf. To make sure you never miss our podcast, please hit follow. For more of our content and to get in touch, visit TommyDuzGolf.com. So until next time, no matter how well you're playing, smile, laugh, and most importantly, enjoy the walk. Alright!