greg norman yacht name

Greg Norman’s Yacht Makes Skyscrapers Look Small

At 285 feet long, Greg Norman’s new yacht is like his own personal portable island – or country. Possibly the largest aluminum yacht ever built, the $70 million “Aussie Rules” was built by Oceanfast and features anything you could want.

Image: murase.net

“Included in that price tag is a $1 million home theatre, two hyperbaric chambers (to restore your breath after you find out how much this thing costs!), seven auxiliary boats (in this case, one being a sportfish yacht that looks the size of a dingy in comparison!), several jet-ski’s, a work-out gym and rumor has it… some 200 fishing rods,” according to the Boatcatch Facebook page.

Whether or not this thing comes with an 18-hole golf course built in, I know who I want to invite me on their next fishing trip.

Image: Boatcatch

Update: Over the years, Norman has owned a veritable armada of sport-fishing vessels and pleasure cruisers.  The yacht no longer belongs to Norman; he sold it for a reported $77 million. But don’t think he couldn’t buy another if he wanted. Bottom line: If you want to travel the seas like this Shark, you’re going to need a bigger boat.

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Legendary Golfer Greg Norman’s Florida Mansion & Insane Yacht

Legendary golfer Greg Norman, who has won 88 times worldwide including 2 Major Championships, gives a tour of his incredible Palm Beach Gardens mansion and insane yacht.

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Here is Greg Norman's yacht.  Say hello to Aussie Rules as she is called.

Have you ever dreamed of buying your own yacht and putting out to sea to cruise the world?  This story answers the question of what the super-rich do with their money when they decide to have fun.  Most of us have no shot at something this magnificent, but it is pretty wonderful to see what is possible nonetheless.  I suppose some people might criticize Mr. Norman for making his opulent toy so conspicuous, but I don't mind at all.  Indeed, I feel very grateful that I have been permitted to get a peek at this marvelous lifestyle.  I thoroughly enjoy stoking my fantasies!    I am sure that right about now you are wondering to yourself if it is too late to take up golf.  Who would have ever imagined that an odd little Scottish game like GOLF could be parlayed into a yacht as magnificent as this!?!   Wow!

In addition to being opulent, the yacht is also built for Jacques Cousteau - type fun and exploration. There is onboard diving equipment for 30 people including a decompression chamber and two huge compressors. Dives of all types can be accomplished by operating the Nitrox Mixing Panel onboard, enabling each guest's air tank to be customized with a mixture of gases.

Even the Bridge looks comfortable.  That helps make those long nights of cruising the Pacific Islands more enjoyable. 

The more we see, the more the yacht resembles a floating mansion! 

Very pretty.  As you see, dining can be held outdoors if the weather permits.  

The picture above gives us an idea of the breath-taking views that might accompany a simple morning breakfast at this open air table!    Now check out the sunken cocktail area.  Are you envious yet?

When night falls or stormy weather comes calling, we see that the yacht has an exquisite interior dining room as well.  All the comforts of home but no grass to mow and no property taxes to pay!   What a dream. THE FUN SHIP! Mr. Norman wanted his yacht to be practical in addition to comfortable.  When visiting tropical islands and scuba locations, he wanted everyone to have as much mobility as possible.  To get the people out to those choice dive spots or maybe to visit a deserted beach for a splash in the warm water , the following additional "small" boats are kept onboard: A 42-Foot Custom Built "Game Fisher" c an be launched and retrieved from the deck. Perfect for a 4-person overnight fishing expedition. Has a gourmet galley for cooking up the catch while it's still fresh. There is a 2 2-Foot Novurania Equator with a meager 800 horsepower so you can get to the best diving sites ahead of everyone else. It has beach landing capability as well. Two 18-Foot Hewes Bonerfishers for those special occasions when Norman a n d his friend s wish to maneuver over the sand flats in Key West, Florida .

Well, now it's time to wrap it up.  Hope you enjoyed the visit.  If you have enjoyed viewing these pictures, you will definitely enjoy seeing even more pictures at the home page for AUSSIE RULES What you see here is only the tip of the iceberg.   There you will find dozens more pictures plus a great deal of explanation about the yacht. As for me, I'm signing up for golf lessons today.   Maybe I will see you on the golf course!      Rick Archer

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Golf: New $129m toy for Greg Norman

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Nothing is ever too grandiose for golfer Greg Norman, especially when it comes to yachts. He has taken taken delivery of an 85.5m craft that is said to have cost US$70 million ($129.5 million) and is believed to be the world's largest aluminium motor yacht. "There are many interesting and unique design features that will place the yacht [named Aussie Rules] at the top of her category when she is seen cruising around destinations throughout the world," Norman said. Unique might be an understatement. The yacht has seven auxiliary boats and a US$1 million home theatre. Optional extras include a gym, several jet skis and a tackle room with 200 fishing rods.

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Tiger Woods' New Yacht

Photograph shows golfer tiger woods' new yacht., david mikkelson, published nov. 28, 2009.

Claim:   Photograph shows golfer Tiger Woods' new yacht.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, 2006]

Not many people know that Tiger Woods owns a yacht.

Ever since the golfer Greg Norman got his big yacht, people around the world have marvelled at how big it is.

Well, Tiger Woods earned a lot more money playing golf than Greg Norman, and he invested it in all the right places so he too could have a yacht.

Recently, Tiger withdrew some of his money and bought a yacht. He had it decked out to his specifications, with all the things he wanted on a yacht.

He secretly did all of this until the yacht was ready to set sail.

A photographer on assignment to photograph sea turtles in the ocean happened upon the yacht during its initial shakedown cruise, and got the very first photo of Tiger Woods' yacht.

This is Tiger's new yacht.

Origins:   The above-displayed picture of golfer "Tiger Woods' new yacht" is easily dismissable not just as a fake, but as a two-step manipulation: First the photograph of the aircraft carrier was layered with a lawn, golf hole, and clubhouse, then someone expanded on the joke by adding the golfer figure and the name "Tiger" across the bow:

The interesting aspect lies not in the analysis of the image, but in why so many readers considered it plausible enough to forward to us for verification.

Certainly one element at work here is that Tiger Woods' golfing prowess (in combination with his youth and good looks) has made him not only one of the most recognizable celebrities in the U.S. (and many other parts of the world), but also one of the highest-earning sports figures of his

time. (In 2006, Forbes listed Tiger at #5 on its "Top 100 Celebrities" power rankings, estimating his income from tournament winnings and endorsements at $90 million.)

The linkster also enhanced his reputation for big spending and extravagance in 2006 when he shelled out a reported $38 million to purchase a 10-acre waterfront estate in Jupiter Island, Florida. (Perhaps not coincidentally, it was right around then that photographs of an opulent Hawaiian beachfront rental estate began circulating via e-mail mistakenly identified as pictures of "Tiger Woods' house.")

Finally, many people who inquired about this image probably recalled Woods' name being associated with a big, expensive yacht, as Tiger plunked down a reported $20 million in 2004 to purchase a 155-foot craft. (Several news outlets also reported the somewhat amusing coincidence that Woods, who named his yacht Privacy , filed a privacy-rights lawsuit against the yacht's builders, claiming they used his name and image in promotional materials without authorization. The suit was settled in Woods' favor for a reported $1.6 million.)

So, although we can say that Tiger Woods does not own a floating golf course the size of an aircraft carrier, we might just have to qualify that statement with the word "yet" ...

Last updated:   24 April 2007

  Sources:     Samples, Eve.   "Woods Pays Record $38M for Jupiter Island Property."     The Palm Beach Post.   26 January 2006.

    Agence France-Presse.   "Tiger Woods Buys $40 Million Estate."     International Herald Tribune.   10 January 2006.

    Associated Press.   "'Privacy' for Tiger: Woods Settles Yacht Suit."     MSNBC.com.   8 May 2006.

By David Mikkelson

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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Ocean Independence - A Conversation with Greg Norman

Known worldwide as an athlete and a businessman, Greg Norman has seen international success both on the golf course and in the boardroom. An icon of the sport, Australian-born Norman started golfing at the age of 15 and joined the PGA tour full-time in 1983. He went on to hold the second-longest reign as world number one and win over 90 PGA tournaments, earning him the name “Great White Shark”.

Now a successful entrepreneur, Greg is chairman and CEO of the Greg Norman Company, which owns over a dozen businesses worldwide – encompassing golf course design, global real estate award-winning wine, lifestyle apparel, and a diverse investment division. He lives with his family in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, where he continues to be involved in sporting, business and charitable endeavors. An avid yachtsman, Greg has owned multiple superyachts, including the 70m Oceanfast superyacht AUSSIE RULES, which he sold in 2004.

Having sold AUSSIE RULES once as FLORIDIAN and then for a second time as NOMAD at the Monaco Yacht Show (agreeing the deal as yacht horns blared to signal the end of the event), Ocean Independence were keen to learn more about what drives Greg and discuss his love of yachting.

Did you have a connection to the water from an early age?

I grew up in Townsville, close to the beach, and my family had a holiday hut on Magnetic Island, only eight kilometers from the shore, so the Great Barrier Reef was in my blood! Every day as a young kid, I would come home from school and we would go out fishing, surfing, snorkeling, and diving. I would ride my horse bareback along the beach, skim-board, and fish in a little boat with an 18-horsepower motor on the back. My sister and I grew up sailing a little boat called Peter Pan with the Townsville Sailing Club. I was very fortunate – I had a wonderful childhood.

And how about golf?

At age 15 we moved to Brisbane because of my dad’s work. I lost all my mates, though I was still surfing a lot at Sunshine Beach and Byron Bay. My golf really came on around the age of 16 after caddying for my mum one day. She was a four handicap, so I figured if she could do it, so could I. After that everything else got tossed aside, including watersports, cricket, rugby, and Aussie Rules.

How did you get involved in superyacht ownership?

It came out of my love of the ocean. My dad built me a boat with wood framing when I was about 11 years old, and I thought the woodworking process was amazing. I had watched my dad working under our house and was fascinated by how much work was involved in shaping, and the tools involved. This whole experience really stayed with me.

The first AUSSIE RULES was a 27m sports fishing boat, built by Oceanfast in Australia. My passion for deep-sea fishing and scuba diving were the motivators behind this build: I wanted a platform that would allow me to do both. I shipped it over to the US, and quite honestly it was one of the biggest sports fishing boats there at the time – I was ahead of the game. It was the platform I wanted with the four state rooms and plenty of dive rooms. Great for the Bahamas and the Caribbean.

Then I bought a Feadship, which I enjoyed, but at the same time I knew there was something missing. I needed to have another sports fishing boat to go diving and fishing. I had the idea of building the 69m AUSSIE RULES at Oceanfast, with a combination of all the things I needed. I designed it to circumnavigate Australia, which I really wanted to do. It had a flat bottom, because tidal flows in the northern part of Australia are 45 feet. I got involved with the tank testing, the stringers, all those engineering things - I was fascinated with the build process and I really studied hard. I wrote the specification book before I even went to the yard.

What did you like about the build process?

All of it! I loved understanding the engine room and the working spaces, the generators, centrifuges and water-makers, all that stuff. There was the question of where we were going to put everything. There is a refrigerated trash compactor in the transom. The boat just grew and grew to be the 230. To build something of that magnitude and sophistication in the late 1990s, we had to be innovative in our mindset. We won the Showboats Yacht of the Year award. It is very important to remember that the yacht is a testament to Oceanfast, my captain (who was present throughout the build), and all the engineers, the sparks, and the skilled people who did a phenomenal job in Australia. This yacht was ten years ahead of her time. I really couldn’t get to enjoy her as much as I wanted as I was still playing golf. If I had the yacht now, you would never see me working. I regretted the day I sold her!

Tell us about a favorite adventure on AUSSIE RULES.

I remember a month in French Polynesia with my family. We almost ran out of fuel as we got back to Bora Bora. We held like 285,000 liters and used the lot on the most amazing experience I’ve ever had: the most beautiful water, great experiences with oceanic white tips and bottlenose whales. Amazing!

How have your businesses been during the pandemic?

My businesses are global, so it’s not a one-size fits all answer. I think the world is in a confused place right now. From a geopolitical standpoint, there’s so much white noise and media bias. I have this saying: ‘The voice of the critic is far louder than the voice of the advocate’. Nowadays, one person challenging and complaining about a company can change everything. You have to be extremely sensitive to those situations and demands from customers.

Through my travels, I love seeing what happens in different countries. Take Vietnam, a communist country loving free market capitalism! It is a red-hot country - great people, great food, great cities and very safe. The Vietnamese recognize that market capitalism is as good as gold. I was asked to be the Golf Tourism Ambassador in Vietnam, and I accepted wholeheartedly.

All of that being said, I love where we are at and I think we’ve done a very good job of managing the whole process with my consumer products during the pandemic. We are in a strong position. Now we are looking into expanding further into the health and wellness space and looking at new opportunities - you have to be a forward thinker. I never look to the past, always to the future.

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19 Things You Didn't Know About Greg Norman

How well do you know the two-time Champion Golfer of the Year?

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Get to know the former world number one, Greg Norman, here.

Greg Norman and Fred Couples captain their sides at the 2011 Presidents Cup.

1. Gregory John Norman was born 10th February 1955 in Mount Isa, Queensland.

2. Playing rugby and Aussie Rules football while growing up, he became hooked on golf at age 15 after serving as a caddie for his mother. 

3. After learning the game through Jack Nicklaus’ book, Golf My Way, Norman amazingly became a scratch golfer after just 18 months.

4. At the age of 19, Norman received media attention at the Queensland Open, with The Canberra Times reporting that "the young amateur Greg Norman" was one shot off the lead after the first round.

5. Working as a trainee in the Royal Queensland Golf Club, he turned professional in 1976, claiming his first victory at the West Lakes Classic when he was just 21-years-old.

Norman during the 1979 Open Championship.

6. Norman has a passion for wine and actually founded Greg Norman Estates in 1996. Currently, there are 10 varietals from Australia, California and New Zealand.

7. Throughout his career, Norman has held the world number one spot for a mammoth 331-weeks, that's just over six years.

8. His nickname is the 'Great White Shark’ which he picked up at the 1981 Masters whilst introducing himself to the Press. Norman, who led the event after the second day, was a relatively unknown player at the time but, when asked where he was from, he said "I grew up in Queensland, Australia. I grew up on the Great Barrier Reef. I’ve dived with sharks. And that was what I just did as a kid." The next day, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had the 'Great White Shark' in their headline.

9. The Australian has won two Major championships, claiming the 1986 and 1993 Open Championship. At his 1986 victory, Norman shot a second round of 63 on Friday at Turnberry. Only 15 players broke par in the second round, with Tom Watson describing Norman's feat as "the greatest round ever played in a tournament in which I was a competitor."

Norman kisses the Claret Jug after his 1986 triumph.

10. His initial ambition was to become a pilot in the Australian Air Force.

11. In 1986, Norman held the lead for all four Majors through 54 holes. At the Masters, he began the final round with a one-stroke lead, but missed a par putt at the last to force a playoff with Jack Nicklaus. At the US Open, he faltered on the final day, finishing with a final round 75, placing him six strokes behind the winner, Raymond Floyd. Winning the 1986 Open Championship, he was again in contention at the PGA Championship, but shot a final-round 76 to finish 2 strokes behind the eventual winner, Bob Tway.

12. In November 2010, Norman married interior designer, Kirsten Kutner. The couple married on Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, with Greg Jr (his son) as his best man.

13. Norman released his autobiography, titled The Way of the Shark, in 2006.

14. He is a five-time recipient of the Byron Nelson Award, a three-time Vardon Trophy winner, three-time Arnold Palmer Award winner, the 1995 PGA Tour Player of the Year, and is the first player in Tour history to surpass $10 million in career earnings.

A post shared by Greg Norman (@shark_gregnorman) A photo posted by on

15. He was one of Olympic torch bearers at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

16. Norman's most infamous moment in his professional career came at the 1996 Masters Tournament. Going into the final day, Norman held a six-stroke lead. However, he would go on to shoot a 78 whilst eventual winner, Nick Faldo, would shoot a 67.

17. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.

18. Norman founded the Greg Norman Company (originally known as Great White Shark Enterprises (GWSE) in 1993. The company reports hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue annually. The brands include golf course design, clothing, wine, real estate, food and dining, as well as multiple other ventures.

19. Norman is currently the CEO of LIV Golf Investments. In 2022, they announced that along with the Asian Tour, they would be introducing 'The International Series' for 2022/23, which features 10 tournaments across Asia and Europe.

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Matt joined Golf Monthly in February 2021 covering weekend news, before also transitioning to equipment and testing. After freelancing for Golf Monthly and The PGA for 18 months, he was offered a full-time position at the company in October 2022 and continues to cover weekend news and social media, as well as help look after Golf Monthly’s many buyers’ guides and equipment reviews.

Taking up the game when he was just seven years of age, Matt made it into his county squad just a year later and continues to play the game at a high standard, with a handicap of around 2-4. To date, his best round came in 2016, where he shot a six-under-par 66 having been seven-under through nine holes. He currently plays at Witney Lakes in Oxfordshire and his favourite player is Rory McIlroy, despite nearly being struck by his second shot at the 17th during the 2015 BMW PGA Championship.

Matt’s current What’s In The Bag?

Driver: Honma TW747, 8.75°

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Hybrid: Adams Super Hybrid, 22°

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Wedges: Cleveland 588 RTX 2.0 Tour Satin, 50°, 56°, 60°

Putter: Cleveland TFI 2135 Satin Cero

Ball: Titleist Pro V1x

The US Open champion said he is "pretty gutted" after his putt to force a playoff at TPC Sawgrass lipped out

By Elliott Heath Published 17 March 24

McIlroy said he welcomes the upcoming meeting between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabian Public Investment fund and discussed the future of the PIF and PGA Tour relationship

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Greg Norman talks winning, losing, and his business career

Published: 06 October 2015

The Great White Shark recently celebrated his 60th birthday. He wanted to mark the occasion by doing something special and so he decided he would swim underneath the Antarctic ice cap. “The water is gin clear, and the sound of the whales and other marine life is extraordinary,” Norman says. “I’ve heard that if you look up at the 60 feet of ice above you, it’s a beautiful blue.”

It also happens to be extremely dangerous. Tied to a rope, you have to jump into the water through a small hole drilled into the ice and return to the surface before the hole freezes over again – otherwise you get trapped underneath.  But sharks don’t think about danger. 

Unfortunately, the boat Norman was going to charter couldn’t accommodate his entourage and so instead, the Aussie celebrated hitting 60, quietly at home, with a small party of 75 or 80 friends. “I will eventually do it, though,” he says. “It’s on my bucket list.”

It is churlish, but appropriate, to mention that there have been several things on Norman’s bucket list he wasn’t able to achieve during his golfing career. Like winning a Green Jacket, for example. Norman says that when he is pushing up daisies, he would like to be remembered as the man who spread the gospel of golf to all corners of the earth. He points out that, in the early 1990s, he was one of the first professionals to conduct a golf clinic in China – which now has close to 30 million golfers. However, he is more likely to be remembered for very different reasons.

In particular, Norman’s inability to win the Masters must pierce his skin like a harpoon every April. On the Tuesday before the Tournament each year, all of the previous winners assemble for the Champions dinner. Outside, a lonely Shark is left circling in the cold water, able only to think about what might have been.

Norman’s ‘near misses’ with majors are legendary and unique. It’s no exaggeration to say that had luck not deserted him at vital moments, the Great White Shark could easily have eight or nine to his name instead of just the 1986 and 1993 Open Championships. Given the pain the memories of those close calls in the game’s premier events must evoke, it’s ironic that Golf World meets Norman at ‘Tranquility’, his home in Jupiter Island, Florida since 1991. Its name hints at peace and contentment, and as you survey the grounds it’s very easy to see why.

Set in over eight acres, Norman’s sprawling home boasts all the trappings of a man who spent 331 consecutive weeks as world number one and who was nicknamed ‘Hollywood’ by his PGA Tour colleagues back in the ’80s and early ’90s when he was the biggest draw in the game. A series of outbuildings house a home gym and a movie theatre. A golf hole looks out onto the beautiful Hobe Sound and a couple of huge yachts. On the other side of the house is a tennis court and pavillion, the venue for our interview. Ironically, but very tastefully, it is surrounded by azaleas.

Ahead of time, The Shark approached, almost unnoticed, down the meandering drive. He was all smiles. The passing of years may have made Norman longer in the tooth; but those same teeth are still incredibly white.

As we talked he relaxed, and answered questions with amazing honesty and candour. We covered a whole range of subjects, including his agonising collapses, his astonishing business acumen, his thoughts on the afterlife, his relationship with Sir Nick Faldo and his new career as a presenter with Fox Sports. But we started by asking him a very easy opener…

Golf World: Do you actually feel 60? Greg Norman: No. I feel good. I feel fitter now than I have ever felt before in my life. I feel 45. I work out in the gym for two hours at a time, three or four days a week.

Are you slowing down at all? No. There is going to come a time when I don’t want to put in the hours. But, by then, I will have the right people in place. I love working with my wife. She is an interior designer, and we now have a new division in the company. In our design business, we do the architectural services – designing clubhouses or villas – and she does the interiors.

Do you think two majors is a fair reflection of how much talent you had? I mean, Andy North won two… No. Look, there were plenty of occasions when I had the chance to win majors. Sometimes, other players did things to win. Other times, I screwed up. But that’s golf. These things happen.

Come on, Greg. They happened more to you than anyone else in the history of the game. Bob Tway, Larry Mize and Robert Gamez, for example, all holed miracle shots to beat you. That’s true. And who knows why that’s the case. I call it ‘destiny’. Everything happens for a reason in this life. I believe that. I really do. I don’t know why it happens. But it does.

Are you religious or spiritual? I believe there is something, I’m not sure what it is. Call it a superpower, if you want. There is some energy out there, which makes these things happen.

At the 1984 US Open, at Winged Foot, you shoot 276 – a score good enough to have won all but four of the 83 previous US Opens. But Fuzzy Zoeller matches that score, and goes on to beat you in the play-off. What are your memories? I drove the ball beautifully that week. I holed a very long putt on the last green, in regulation, probably a 40-footer. That’s when Fuzzy, playing in the group behind me, got his white hanky out, and waved it as if surrendering. Even he thought I had won. He assumed that putt was for a birdie. It wasn’t. It was for a par.

In 1986, you led all four majors after three rounds, but only won one of them – the Open at Turnberry. Tell us about the 1986 Masters? I was a shot in the lead on Saturday night, but had a horrible start on Sunday. In fact, I was nowhere on the leaderboard, and Jack [Nicklaus] playing ahead of me, was doing his stuff, making birdies, and the crowds were going nuts. Then I made four birdies in a row from the 14th, and found myself on the 18th tee, level with Nicklaus; needing a birdie to beat him.

What were you thinking, after a great drive, as you stood in the 18th fairway with a 4-iron, 175 yards out? I had 179 yards actually! The pin was in an unusual spot for a Sunday – right at the back. Steve [Williams – Norman’s caddie] wanted me to hit a 5-iron, but I thought I needed to hit the 4 to get up the step in the green. I wish I’d hit the 5. That’s destiny, right there! What was it that made Jack win? He was 46 and everything that could have gone wrong for him at that time, had gone wrong. He was close to bankruptcy, for example. Everything happens for a reason.

That same year, at the US PGA at Inverness, Ohio, you have a four-shot lead going into the final round. After one hole, the heavens open, play is abandoned until Monday and the course changes completely. From being hard and fast it becomes very soft. In that final round, you’re level with Bob Tway and your approach to the 18th green would have nestled beside the flag 24 hours earlier. But because of the soft conditions, it stops on the front fringe… Yes, but once he’s gone in the bunker, I’m thinking he’s got a really horrible shot. It would have been even tougher if it had been dry, but he’d completely short-sided himself. There was no way he could stop it close. Even he said, at the time, he wasn’t trying to make it, but just get it reasonably close. But it hit the flag hard, and disappeared. That was a big shock.

Eight months later, at the next major, the ’87 Masters, is that déjà vu? I had a putt to win on the 72nd hole in regulation, and I still don’t know how that putt stayed out! It did absolutely everything, but drop. And so, we go to a play-off. On the 11th [the second play-off hole] after Seve has made a bogey at the 10th, I am on the fringe, and I know he [Mize] is in real trouble. That’s just not where you want to be, in that valley, down on the right. It’s an impossible shot. When he hit his chip, and it was rolling across the green, I was looking down at my ball. And then, I heard this amazing roar. I have never heard a noise that loud on a golf course, before or since. Now, instead of thinking I can two-putt for victory, I need to hole it. And, of course, I didn’t.

At the 1989 Open at Royal Troon, you make six consecutive birdies in a final- round 64 and find yourself in a play-off with Wayne Grady and Mark Calcavecchia. You birdie the 1st hole while the other two make pars. In previous years, this would have meant you’d won the Claret Jug. But this was the year the R&A decided to introduce the first ever four-hole play-off. Destiny? For whatever reason, it wasn’t meant to be. I get to the final hole of the play-off still a shot ahead, and hit the most perfect drive. I still don’t know how it reached the fairway bunker. It pitched on a downslope and just ran and ran, right up against the face. As I’m over the ball in that bunker, I have to back off. They had the TVs on in the big hotel, to the right of that fairway. The windows were open, because of the hot weather. And I could hear Peter Alliss describing the shot I had in front of me! After that, things went from bad to worse.

Then, the PGA returns to Inverness in 1993. After what happened to you there with Tway in ’86, presumably you thought you had a score to settle? I don’t remember much about that week, but I do remember the first hole of the play-off [with Paul Azinger]. My putt to win did an incredible horseshoe around the hole. Azinger said afterwards it was one of the nastiest lipouts he’d ever seen!

Then, the famous one, the ’96 Masters, with Faldo? You’re sitting on a six-shot lead on Saturday night… Yeah. I was in the locker room in the clubhouse, after the third round, when Peter Dobereiner, who used to write for your magazine, came in. “Even you can’t screw this one up, Greg!” he said as he walked by. In those days, I had this imaginary little man in my head who I used to talk to; and he used to talk back to me. He told me to get that thought out of my head, immediately! “Rip it up and throw it away”, he said. But I couldn’t. In that final round, the shot that changed things was my approach to the 9th. That came within a couple of feet of being very good; but after that I was always struggling.

Is there any truth that Faldo had a bit of a jinx over you – dating back to the 1990 Open? Was there any scar tissue when it came to playing with him? No. Not at all. I was always very good at recovering from moments like that. I could put that sort of thing out my mind very quickly. Faldo was tough to play with; he just did his own thing. I never understood why, if your playing partner hits a good shot, you can’t say, “Nice shot”. But that was just the way Faldo played.

What did Nick say to you during your hug on the 18th green? He just said: “Don’t let the bastards get you down” – talking about the press. I got some incredible letters after that week. More than I’d ever got before. It was very moving. Everything happens for a reason!

Twelve years later, now aged 53, you are standing on the 16th green, at the 2008 Open, at Royal Birkdale, in the final round. You still think you can win, right? I did. But earlier than that, we came off the 9th green, and I was still a shot in the lead. Then we had a 40-minute wait before we could hit our tee shots at the 10th. I was playing really well at that point, and I wanted to keep playing, of course. But then, suddenly, you find yourself in a goldfish bowl, with everyone looking at you; and you have to just sit there and wait. But, despite all that, I was still in with a chance, as I was putting on the 16th. I still truly believed I could win the golf tournament. It was a great feeling.

Then Padraig [Harrington] hit this shot from the fairway, on the par-5 17th, which was one of the best shots I’ve seen anyone play, in my life! I was standing on the other side of the fairway, and I couldn’t believe the club he had pulled out. I couldn’t believe he was going for the green, off a downhill lie. That changed my mind-set; because I didn’t have a great lie in the semi-rough. He dictated the terms by hitting such a great shot.

If you had won just half of the majors we’ve mentioned – and there are others we haven’t – your career would have been very different indeed… It would. But I really don’t spend a lot of time looking back. I would rather look forward. What happens happens. Like I said, I believe in destiny. You learn a lot more when things go wrong than when they go right.

Do you think you would have been as successful in business if you had won nine or 10 majors? I don’t know. Difficult to say.   

What is business like right now? It’s good, actually. Money is moving again. We’ve weathered the storm, and things are turning around. I’d say we’ve only reached about 20 per cent of our potential at Great White Shark Enterprises.

Your company has 20 fully or partially- owned divisions – from course design, grass, event management and apparel to real estate, wine and GPS Technology.   Which element do you get most enjoyment from? Probably my golf course design business. I like that you’re actually creating something. We’ve built 95 courses around the world with 42 currently under contract and 22 under development. People are building golf courses again. The negative trend we’ve had in the US of courses shutting down is flat-lining. Next year, more courses will open than close.

When we last talked, four years ago, you said that of all the courses you had built, you were most proud of Doonbeg in Ireland. Now that Donald Trump has bought Doonbeg, is that still the case? I’m incredibly disappointed he’s not using us [to modify the golf course]. After all we’ve done there, all the site visits, and the way we worked with the environmentalists all the time, no-one else knows more about that place than we do. I think our name is going to come off it now. It’s incredibly disappointing. You won’t hear me talking much about it from now on.

What about Trump’s other recent purchase – Turnberry? Given you won the Open there, why didn’t you buy that?  We looked at it. We looked at it for a long time. But there were one or two things which didn’t make it sensible.

Your company posted $300m in revenues in 2014. Is money a motivator? No. Never has been. It’s more to do with the opportunities and the jobs you are giving to people. I’m a great believer that happiness comes from within; and you’re the only one who can create that happiness. Success doesn’t create happiness. Happiness creates success. I know a lot of successful, wealthy people who are totally miserable. And I know a lot of people with no money who are the happiest people in the world.

How did the nickname ‘Great White Shark’ come about? At the first Masters I ever played, in 1981, I was leading after the first round. In my press conference, no-one knew who I was but they wanted to know more about me. They asked what I enjoyed doing, and I mentioned I sometimes went fishing for sharks. The next morning, the headline in the paper was ‘Great White Shark leads Masters’. That was cool. Before that, I was the ‘Golden Bear Cub’, but I didn’t want a name off the back of someone else. I wanted to be my own entity.

Tell us about your Fox Sports contract? They’ve hired me as a lead analyst on four events this year – the US Open, the Women’s US Open, the Senior Open and the Amateur. They phoned me the moment they signed their 12-year contract with the USGA. I went out to Chambers Bay with the entire team, in April. We sat down with Mike Davis to understand what goes on behind the scenes, with course set-up, adapting to potential weather conditions etc. Mike is doing a terrific job at the USGA, and I’m really excited to be working with them. They’ve stepped out of the box, with a gutsy move, going to Fox; and they’re going to make an impact.

Why didn’t you play The Open at St Andrews? I had one of my Fox weeks a couple of weeks before, so I didn’t have enough time to practise, and so on. I don’t want to take a tee time from some young guy who would get a kick out of the experience.

In your garden, you have an American and an Australian flag, alongside each other. Given how long you’ve spent in America, do you feel a bit American? No. I feel 100 per cent Australian. Always have. Always will. I’m just lucky enough to live here. I go back home to Australia between four and six times a year.

Is there a part of you that would like to live there permanently? Absolutely. But my business is here. I’d have to uproot everything. And America’s tax laws make it very difficult for me to do so, unless I want to pay an awful lot of tax.

Is golf in a healthy place right now? I love where the professional game is at the moment. It reminds me of the mid ’80s and early ’90s where – no matter where you went – you had 12 or 15 players who could beat your ass. That was the unique feature of our era. It wasn’t an era of domination, like you had with Jack or Arnold. Instead, there was myself and Seve and Faldo and Langer and Couples and Woosie and Price and Lyle etc. We could all beat each other. The game is moving towards that again. Rory and Jordan are leading it, and they’re two fantastic leaders for the game. For the next 10, they will set new standards. Come back in 10 years and see if I’m not right…

That’s a date Greg. We will. So, finally, do you have any regrets in life? None. I’ve always lived to seize the moment. What’s done is done. Whatever you can do from this moment on is up to you…

And with that, the Shark says his goodbyes and disappears back into the world of big business and Gulfstream jets. Who knows what the next 10 years hold for Norman. What is certain, though, is that the Australian will spend more time moving forward, rather than looking back. After all, that’s something sharks have to do to stay alive

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Greg Norman on Golf, Ambition and Independence

Australia’s most successful professional golfer, branded The Shark by golf writers almost 40 years ago, is still attacking life.

By Shaun Tolson

Australia’s most successful professional golfer Greg Norman, branded The Shark by golf writers almost 40 years ago, is still attacking life. Here he shares with Shaun Tolson his fondest memories from his career — they’re not what you think — as well as his perceived role in broadening golf’s global appeal.

When the Open Championship is next contested in July, 2021 at Royal St Georges Golf Club , the world’s best professional and amateur golfers will attempt to conquer the historic links course set along England’s southeastern shore just as Greg Norman did 27 years earlier. During that memorable tournament in 1993, the then-38-year-old Australian set a handful of records, including the lowest aggregate score for the championship and the lowest final round recorded by any winner — two achievements that went unmatched for decades.

“That final round was one you just dream about,” says Norman. “I cannot say in my whole career that I have played a round and not missed one shot, but that day I never mishit a shot. I hit every drive perfectly, every iron perfectly, and only made a mess of one putt. That was the best I ever played in my life.”

The victory secured Norman’s second major championship (and his second Claret Jug); it also marked the 68th of 91 total professional victories that the Hall of Fame golfer would claim throughout his storied, 33-year career. More impressive than all of those accomplishments — including the 331 weeks that Norman sat atop the World Golf Rankings — is the manner in which golf’s Great White Shark first took up the game and his meteoric rise once he did.

Norman was a natural athlete who spent much of his childhood living along the Queensland coast. There, he devoted his free time to playing rugby, Aussie rules football, cricket and — most passionately — surfing. Golf didn’t enter the picture, not until Norman was 15 years old and caddied for his mother, who was a highly capable player with a single-digit handicap. After the round, when his mother retired to the clubhouse for tea, Norman again slipped her bag over his shoulder, only this time he went out onto the course for himself. “I said, ‘If she can play the game, I gotta be able to play it,’ he recalls. “And that was it.”

Norman played four holes that afternoon, and while he cannot recall the specifics of his unsupervised introduction to the sport, he acknowledges that he walked off the course encouraged. Soon Norman was partaking in junior clinics on Saturday mornings, carrying his own bag of six cobbled-together clubs. His first official scorecard was marked with a 108, and his introductory handicap was 27 — the highest that the Australian Golf Union would issue at the time. A year and a half later, however, Norman was a scratch player. Five years after that, he was hoisting the winner’s trophy at the West Lakes Classic, the first of the big money tournaments on the Australian golf circuit that year. It was only Norman’s fourth professional event.

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“Because I was a very good surfer, I knew where my body was in space at any given time,” Norman says, attempting to explain his rapid improvement as a teenager. “All the ingredients were there, so I just learned how to rotate around the golf ball.”

Eventually, lessons were instilled through private instruction, but in the beginning, Norman relied on two books written by Jack Nicklaus: Golf My Way and My 55 Ways to Lower Your Golf Score . “I studied his grip, stance, ball position, posture and takeaway. That’s all I studied,” Norman recalls. “I could relate to Jack. I didn’t know him, but [after reading those books] I felt like I knew him.” In time, he really would.

During the 1976 Australian Open — Norman’s third professional tournament — the prodigious Australian was paired with the Golden Bear for the first two rounds. Because their last names were so close alphabetically, Norman and Nicklaus’ lockers were side by side. “I got to know him, and he was very embracing,” Norman recalls. “I felt comfortable with him very quickly.”

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The two Hall of Famers, then at very different stages of their respective careers, shared another connection at that time. Because of Norman’s quick rise up the ranks of Australian golf — not to mention his flowing blond hair, which bore some resemblance to Jack’s — golf writers began calling Norman the Bear Cub. “I’m glad it didn’t set in the way that it could have,” Norman says of the moniker. “It was flattering, but I didn’t want to have that kind of connection. I’ve always wanted to be independent.”

Five years later, the media branded Norman the Great White Shark, a nickname partially inspired by the golfer’s aggressive style of play at The Masters in 1981. “As a kid, I was always in perpetual motion and attacking life, so it was a perfect nickname,” he says. “It was 100% synonymous with me.”

Reflecting back on his career, Norman acknowledges that there are plenty of moments and events that transpired on the course that he remembers fondly, but those aren’t his fondest memories. “There are hundreds of shots that I can sit back and reflect on if I wanted to,” he says. “But they didn’t have the impact on my life the way that meeting people through golf did. It’s not about playing the game of golf, it’s about the people that I met. Those are the things that I cherish the most. It really broadened my horizons more than I had ever anticipated.”

Through his accomplishments on the course, Norman had an opportunity to meet world leaders such as President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia, and US Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, among other dignitaries. In many cases, those introductions led to long-term relationships, which have since helped Norman in some of his philanthropic endeavors. When a tsunami ravaged Indonesia in 2004, for example, Norman brought Presidents Bush and Clinton together to raise millions of dollars in a single day. “Being philanthropic in the most philanthropic country in the world is not hard to do,” Norman says, not wanting to make a big deal of the charitable work that he’s done while living in the US. “But paying it forward is important.”

Norman also learned from those world leaders and business moguls how to conduct himself professionally. Prime Minister Hawke, for example, taught Norman the art of effective public speaking, and those lessons helped him to later leverage the Shark nickname into a portfolio of successful international business enterprises — some connected to golf and others independent of the sport. In particular, Norman learned the value of quiet observation. “It gave me the confidence to say the right thing at the right time,” he says of the moments he spent with numerous presidents, prime ministers and entrepreneurs. “The power of listening is way greater than the power of talking.

“When you start asking a lot of questions, you can see these other opportunities that can come into your favor,” he continues. “Once you see them you still have to build a business plan. It’s not easy and it doesn’t happen overnight. It took 15 to 18 years for me to build credibility and to establish a footprint of what I wanted to do, but I haven’t veered off course since.”

Despite Norman’s various golf-related enterprises, it is his course-design business that the 65-year-old deems to be the most significant. Through courses that he’s built in far-flung areas of the world such as Vietnam, Norman has introduced the merits of capitalism in otherwise socialist or communist countries. His course-design projects have strengthened golf’s popularity in India, Argentina and Mexico, and in some cases — like with Ayla Oasis in Jordan — his courses have even opened the door for the sport to flourish in new regions around the world.

Although he would enjoy taking on a mentor’s role for some of the younger players on the PGA Tour, much the way Nicklaus acted as a mentor to him during the first half of his own playing career, Norman admits that those opportunities haven’t yet presented themselves. “I have a wealth of experience and information,” he says, acknowledging that right now his work as a course designer provides the best medium through which he can share it. “That might be more my outlet. That’s how I can grow the game around the world.”

Photos: ©Michael O’Bryon

Shaun Tolson

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Greg Norman Yacht

Greg Norman, a legendary golfer, was once the owner of a luxurious superyacht. Now known as the Nomad, the yacht was previously known as the Aussie Rules. This flamboyant superyacht has some exceptional features and specifications that we will look into in this article.

Greg Norman yacht cost

The Greg Norman yacht, as it is famously known, was acquired for a whopping price tag of $80 million. It features several custom facilities that have racked up such a colossal cost. The yacht has a personalized theater that costs over $1 million, to name one such amenity.

Step inside Greg Norman yacht

It goes without saying that a yacht owned by one of golf’s most famous players comes with a heap of luxury features. The Greg Norman yacht has 6 cabins categorized as one master suite, two VIP cabins, and three double-bed cabins.

In total, all these cabins can accommodate up to 12 guests onboard. It also has 8 cabins for the crew, one caption suite, five twin-bed cabins, and two engineer rooms. There are a total of 15 crew members dedicated to the Norman yacht.

A yacht wedding in Dubai is best celebrated on a gorgeous yacht like this.

Oceanfast designed the interior. The other highlights of its interior are a full-scale gym, a luxury dining area, and a tackle room with over 200 fishing rods.

Greg Norman yacht size

The overall size of the Norman yacht, or the Aussie Rules as it was known, is 227 ft. (69.49 meters). It has a waterline length of 204.12 ft. (62.48 meters) and a beam length of 37.12 ft. (11.58 meters). The draught max measure of the yacht is 9.1 ft. (3 meters) with a total gross tonnage of 1260.

“The Greg Norman yacht is one of 187 different motor yachts in the 60-70 meters category that are currently operational.”

Performance of the Greg Norman Aussie Rules yacht

Featuring two caterpillar Inc diesel 3516B DITA engines, the power produced by these engines is 2,986 horsepower. It has two propellers that support a top speed of 16.5 knots and a cruising speed of 15 knots. The Greg Norman yacht has a range of up to 8,500 nautical miles at 12 knots.

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All of this is made possible through a large fuel capacity. The tanks on the Aussie Rules can hold up to 58,117 gallons of fuel. It also has an onboard water storage capacity of 13,208 gallons.

Highlights of the Aussie Rules yacht

Here are all the features, specifications, and other details regarding the Greg Norman yacht.

The Nomad yacht: A legendary superyacht

Previously owned by Greg Norman, this superyacht is currently listed for sale. In a recent interview, Norman stated his regret about selling the yacht. It is not the first time he has owned a yacht. He had two other smaller yachts before the Nomad yacht as it is known now.

The process of  Renting a yacht in Dubai  is easy and hassle free.

While chartering the Nomad is not much of an option since it’s a privately owned one, you can rent another yacht similar to the Nomad. At our luxury yacht charter in Dubai , we have a variety of yacht options you can choose from.

Next, read about the Crili yacht known for its on-screen appearance like Greg Norman yacht .

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About Greg Norman

Arguably the most successful athlete-turned-businessman in the world, Greg Norman is known as much for his entrepreneurial spirit in the boardroom as his dominance on the golf course.

The internationally renowned “Great White Shark” won more than 90 tournaments worldwide, including two Open Championships, and holds the distinction of defending his No. 1 position in the world golf rankings for 331 weeks. As one of the most prolific players in the game’s history, his astounding career culminated in 2001 when he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame with a higher percentage of votes than any other inductee in history. In 2009 and 2011, Greg served as the Presidents Cup captain of the International Team and his strong influence in the game continues today.

Greg Norman now transcends the game of golf, with over a dozen companies around the world bearing his name and the iconic shark logo as part of the Greg Norman Company, which he leads as non-executive Chairman. His internationally recognized brand boasts more than 120 golf course designs across six continents, a global real estate collection, award-winning wine, golf-inspired lifestyle apparel and a diverse investment division.

In 2021, Greg Norman became the first and founding CEO of LIV Golf Investments, a newly formed company whose purpose is to holistically improve the health of professional golf on a global scale to help unlock the sports’ untapped potential.

Gregory John Norman was born on February 10, 1955 in Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia. He played rugby and Aussie Rules football while growing up but became hooked on golf at age 15 after serving as a caddie for his mother. His first golf instruction came through Jack Nicklaus’ book, Golf My Way, and after a mere 18 months, Norman played to a scratch handicap. At the age of 20, Norman continued to concentrate on his golf game while working as a trainee in the Royal Queensland Golf Club, earning $28 per week. In 1976 at the age of 21, he turned pro and won his first professional event, the West Lakes Classic, the same year.

Norman began competing on the PGA TOUR full-time in 1983 and became one of the most dominant players in the world in the 1980s and ’90s. In his prime, Norman’s practice sessions were notoriously grueling and he had a reputation as one of the hardest workers on TOUR. This renowned work ethic combined with his natural ability propelled him to become the top-ranked golfer in the world, a status he held for over six years. He is a five-time recipient of the Byron Nelson Award, a three-time Vardon Trophy winner, three-time Arnold Palmer Award winner, the 1995 PGA TOUR Player of the Year, and is the first player in TOUR history to surpass $10 million in career earnings.

Throughout his life, Norman’s philanthropic efforts have quietly raised millions of dollars for charities, including CureSearch for Children’s Cancer, which for over two decades has been the primary benefactor of Norman’s PGA TOUR sanctioned event, the Shark Shootout.

Greg lives in Florida with his wife Kirsten. He has two grown children, Morgan and Greg Jr.; two stepdaughters Kaya and Kelly; four grandchildren, Harrison, Hendrix, Poppy, and Jade; and loyal pup Apollo.

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The Shark is on the attack again

With decades of resentment and an appetite for combat, golf legend greg norman is throwing his sport into chaos. this time, he’s doing it with saudi money..

In West Palm Beach, Fla.

After lunch, Greg Norman stands at the window of his private yacht club, watching the boats glide across the waterway. Dinghies and fishing boats and superyachts, Norman has had them all, and they each mean something to him.

In the distance, there’s a Hinckley powerboat cutting wide circles, pulling a boy on a tube. Norman sees it and chuckles. A father and son, he suspects.

It was his dad, an engineer, who built Norman’s first boat. He would work beneath the house on weekends as Greg, 8 or 10, quietly watched him work the tools, bending and clamping the slats, gradually crafting a frame. When the little sailboat was finished, Merv and Greg brought it to Ross Creek and pushed it in for its first voyage. They named it “Peter Pan,” after the boy who never grew up.

“It’d be pretty cool to sail up and down right here,” Norman says now. “With this wind …”

He will be back on the water soon enough, no doubt. But he may be alone. His father, with whom he has a tortured relationship, is dying. Norman’s father figure , Jack Nicklaus, is among the longtime allies who now refuse to speak with him. The sport he once ruled is at war, and Norman — one of the most recognizable and accomplished figures in its history — is leading the attack.

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His reputation is in tatters. He’s increasingly isolated. His default setting has always been aggression, a man who goes for it even when he shouldn’t, and he’s showing no sign of letting up. For now, though, he drifts off, still gazing toward the faraway Hinckley.

“This is a perfect wind,” he says.

During the secret meetings with golf’s giants, Norman, 67, begins by quietly sitting to the side. Jeans, sneakers, open-collared shirt. The vibe is casual. They know who he is: two-time British Open champion, the world’s No. 1 player for 331 weeks, fifth-richest golfer of all time .

Another man opens the presentations. He’s a consultant from Britain who has quietly worked for years to help the Saudi Arabian government establish a foothold in professional golf. He has led roughly 200 of these meetings, he says, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private pitch process.

Last year, a company called LIV Golf Investments — once a grass-roots effort led by the consultant’s marketing and tourism apparatus and backed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund — hired Norman as commissioner and chief executive.

The Saudi government initially pledged $400 million for 2022 alone ($255 million of which is for prize money) to attract golf’s superstars, and LIV has announced a series of high-stakes tournaments around the world . Given Norman’s bona fides, including global renown as “The Shark” and a history of taking on the PGA Tour establishment, he was the “missing piece,” the consultant says.

“I’ve been down this road before,” Norman often chimes in during the meetings. “Free agency is coming to golf. Finally.”

Usually in a hotel suite or rented house, the consultant blazes through a slide show outlining the vision for the renegade tour. An international event schedule. TV-friendly elements inspired by Formula 1 and the Premier League. And, of course, eye-popping prize money.

The Masters, a tournament Norman knows painfully well, is currently the most lucrative event on the golf calendar. This year, its total purse was a record $15 million, and winner Scottie Scheffler pocketed $2.7 million . The 39 players who missed the cut went home with nothing.

On the LIV tour — it rhymes with “give” and was named for the Roman numerals of its 54-hole tournaments (traditionally they’re 72) — even regular season events will have a $25 million purse with a $4 million winner’s share, plus guaranteed appearance fees, no cut and other moneymaking opportunities. A season-ending team championship has a $50 million purse.

“It is landscape-changing,” longtime golf agent Bobby Kreusler says. “A potentially life-changing possibility for players.”

There is, however, the matter of LIV’s financial backer, which recently extended its total pledge to $2 billion for the 2023-25 seasons to further entice top-shelf players. There is a widespread belief that the Saudi government is using golf the way China and Russia used the Olympics , the way Qatar is using this fall’s World Cup: to “sports-wash” a long-hideous global image underscored in 2018 by the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi , who wrote columns for The Washington Post.

Norman’s explanations for doing business with the Saudis have been clumsy at best. “We’ve all made mistakes,” he told reporters recently . The response drew rebukes from Amnesty International and Khashoggi’s fiancee.

Many of golf’s stars have distanced themselves from Norman and LIV, pledging allegiance to the PGA Tour . But many haven’t: Tour stars Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen and Lee Westwood are among those who will be in the field for its first event, scheduled to start Thursday in London. And at least one who had declared loyalty to the PGA ultimately signed up: Dustin Johnson, a two-time major champion .

Johnson’s top sponsor, the Royal Bank of Canada, dropped him , and the PGA Tour has threatened lifetime bans for any player who participates . But Johnson, who has reportedly received guarantees of more than $100 million to flip to LIV, remains in the field. On Saturday, Kevin Na, a five-time winner on the PGA Tour, posted on Instagram that he was resigning from the organization and “exercising my right as a free agent.”

In interviews, both Norman and LIV’s consultant insist golfers don’t seem to care who pays them. “They ask,” the consultant says. “Then they move on.”

So Norman remains all-in. After decades of big risks and torched bridges, he says this latest gambit may be the biggest yet. He claims a lifetime of accomplishments, and being deprived of the things he wants most conditioned him for this moment.

He calls the PGA “monopolists” and suggests critics such as Rory McIlroy have been “brainwashed” by golf’s ruling class. The sport’s executives and agents, Norman says, are conspiring against LIV to protect an antiquated system that prevents golfers from realizing their own power and worth amid a global movement of athlete empowerment.

“You just can’t bully these guys anymore,” he says. “The world is too sophisticated now.”

As for doing business with the Saudis, Norman shrugs. He has built courses in China and Vietnam, using what he calls “golf diplomacy” to open previously walled-off nations. Khashoggi’s murder was “reprehensible,” Norman says, but he seems genuinely confused by questions about the ethics of his new venture.

“I’m not in this thing for Khashoggi or anything like that,” he says. “I’m in here because of the game of golf. That’s what I care about. If I focus on the game of golf and don’t get dragged into this other stuff, that’s my priority.”

Asked about his conscience, Norman again looks bewildered.

“Every country,” he says, “has got a cross to bear.”

They piled into the family car and began the long journey south. Merv had accepted a job in Brisbane.

Greg was a teenager, and like his father, he liked to build things. But his passions were surfing, golfing and sailing “Peter Pan.” His mother, Toini, was a single-handicap golfer who encouraged him. Merv understood none of this. He wanted Greg to attend college, join the Royal Australian Air Force, take over the family business. Instead, his son studied Nicklaus’s book “ The Greatest Game of All: My Life in Golf ” and seemed hypnotized as he watched “The Golden Bear” make another charge on Augusta National Golf Club.

He grew his hair out like Nicklaus and mimicked his swing. He fully committed to the game at age 15 and would later improve his handicap from 27 to scratch in less than two years, earning him the nickname “The Golden Cub.”

Merv would call him no such thing. And when Greg was 15, Merv sold his electrical engineering business and accepted an executive position 800 miles away — a move that felt designed, Greg says, to inhibit his budding golf career. Merv even gave away his son’s golf clubs, Norman says, and his little sailboat. Once, his dad told him golf wasn’t a legitimate career and that, if he pursued it, he would fail.

Norman says he grabbed Merv by the throat and pinned him against the refrigerator.

“I went: ‘F--- you,’ ” he says, “ ‘I’m going for it.’ ”

For a while, Norman tried filling the void with competition, or so goes the legend. There’s a certain mythology associated with “The Shark,” part of his decades-old allure. Among the stories is that, while making $32 a week as an assistant golf pro in Australia, Norman would sometimes wager $1,200 on a match. He would win easily, of course, and parlay his winnings into travel and entry to tournaments in Asia and Europe.

Eventually, Norman’s game brought him to the United States, where he finished fourth in his first Masters and second in the 1984 U.S. Open. A dashing figure from a curious land, Norman’s talent drew in fans and reporters, and his charisma allowed him to further shape a story that occasionally blurred the line between tall tales and the truth. He became golf’s first rock star, and Norman rewarded his new followers by bombing it off the tee and stalking up the fairway with his arms raised.

“He had long hair and was pretty brash. There was some resentment,” says Steve Elkington, a fellow Australian golfer and major champion. “But it’s hard to beat him; he’s just going to run over you like a lawn mower.”

Barry Svrluga: Take note of the PGA golfers who play in Saudi Arabia. They’re accepting blood money.

Norman won 11 events in 1986, topping the world golf rankings — and became a divisive figure on tour, where many fellow players, finding him aloof and phony, refused to socialize with him. “Just because I can play the game of golf better than most,” Norman says now.

He led the 1986 British Open after three rounds but had struggled to a 74 on Saturday. That evening, in the Turnberry dining room, a sympathetic figure approached. Nicklaus had noticed a flaw in the young man’s grip: He was strangling the club. Ease up, Nicklaus told him, and the claret jug was his. The next day, Norman followed his idol’s advice, shot a 69 and won his first major.

But it was the green jacket and its validation that he craved: “I want that golf tournament more than anything else in the world,” Norman once said. The Masters was Jack’s tournament, the one Norman watched on television back home. He led the 1986 edition after three rounds. But Nicklaus shot a 30 on the back nine, Norman’s par putt on No. 18 missed left, and Nicklaus became the oldest Masters champion ever.

Norman started Sunday as the leader at that year’s U.S. Open and PGA Championship, too, but faded and claimed what the golf media dubbed the “Saturday Slam.” In the next year’s Masters, Norman missed a clinching putt on the final hole. Larry Mize chipped in from 140 feet on the first playoff hole for a stunning, sudden-death win. In most of the world it’s known as “Mize’s Miracle,” but in Australia, it is called “The Crash.”

He was a champion, yes, but now was a choker, too. He lashed out at critical reporters and distanced himself from friends on tour who suggested he modify his game. Deep down, Norman says now, he was looking for ways to overpower his lingering self-doubt. He had to prove something, he says, not just to himself but to the man back home who had predicted failure.

Norman signed endorsement deals with McDonald’s, Qantas, Hertz. Reebok started the Greg Norman Collection, an attempt at capitalizing on Americans’ late-1980s infatuation with Australian culture, and he traversed fairways in a bushwhacker hat emblazoned with a colorful shark.

There was no quenching his thirst for wealth. He would fly to Japan for a day to collect $1 million for a golf exhibition, then Asia and Europe to pocket $100,000 in appearance fees. He commanded $40,000 for corporate speaking events, sometimes hitting three in a night, and became the first golfer with $10 million in career earnings. He bought a 12 percent ownership stake in equipment brand Cobra, turning $1.9 million into $40 million.

He fired his agents at IMG and launched his own licensing and course design empire. He would meet with associates in Guam and Indonesia and Thailand. Norman once collected $380,000 on one side of the Pacific Ocean, then a few days later won a tournament at Pebble Beach for $600,000. Friends called him the “Human Mutual Fund,” and he traveled in his Gulfstream III, then his Gulfstream V and eventually a Gulfstream 550.

“We’re all coming in vans,” Elkington says. “He started showing everybody what was possible.”

He spent it as colorfully as he earned it. Merv was a “cheap bastard,” Norman says now, so Norman arrived at tournaments in a helicopter, or in his Rolls-Royce or his Aston Martin or his Range Rover or one of so many Ferraris he supposedly lost count.

“Even though I had seven Ferraris and whatever it was,” Norman says, straight-faced, “I really wasn’t a materialistic type of person.”

He bought a 12,000-acre ranch in Colorado ; a mansion on Jupiter Island , Fla.; and an 87-foot sport fisher named “Aussie Rules.” He later called a watercraft designer in Australia and said he had drawn up specifications for his next yacht. It was to have a helipad and decompression chamber, a wine cellar, a 15-foot herb garden. Norman would design a glass pulverizer that ground his beer bottles into sand and a separate device to crush cans into quarter-sized disks.

The designer knew what “The Shark” was actually saying: He was going to need a bigger boat. And not just bigger than a sport fisher but big enough to carry a sport fisher.

“It was a bit of a chuckle, to be honest, like, how are we going to do this?” says Sam Sorgiovanni, who presented an initial plan to Norman for a 198-foot superyacht. By then, Norman had a few more ideas. “It was a handsome boat. And then it grew.”

Twenty more feet, in fact, with a $35 million price tag. Meanwhile, Norman’s golf game was stagnant. He went nearly two years without a tournament win, and with his business interests thriving, he considered retiring from golf. He silenced those thoughts with adrenaline: marlin fishing with friends, cave diving, surfing. Then he would challenge everyone to a canoe race. They would pound beers, and when everyone else was exhausted or wasted, Norman announced he was going to lift weights.

“He was all systems go,” says Butch Harmon, Norman’s longtime swing coach. “It’s like a racecar: You’re not going to slow it down.”

Not until it blows a gasket, anyway. At the 1993 PGA Championship, another Sunday began with Norman in the lead. Then his four-foot par putt lipped out on the first playoff hole, and it was Paul Azinger who lifted the Wanamaker Trophy. If golf tournaments were 54 holes instead of 72, Norman would have been a five-time major champion.

In 1994, Norman had an idea that rattled the PGA: a global super league featuring a season of showdowns on multiple continents. There would be 40 players in each field, including the top 30 in the world rankings.

The purses would be huge, and players would receive bonuses and travel allowances. Norman had already secured a 10-year, $250 million commitment from Fox for broadcast rights. He called it, simply, the World Golf Tour.

“The F-bombs that were being thrown about, the fingers that were being pointed in every direction, as to how they could let something like this happen,” says a former PGA employee who attended executive meetings then. “It’s not a hard concept. How did we, at the PGA Tour, not come up with this on our own?”

PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem threatened punishments and possible legal action against members who participated. Then he convinced the sport’s stars to pledge fealty to the PGA. It wasn’t hard, given Norman’s reputation. He folded and was “100 percent gutted.”

“They slayed the dreamer,” he says.

Finchem, who declined an interview request through his publicist, later announced an idea of the PGA’s own: a global super league featuring a season of events on several continents. Winners would receive $720,000. He called it the World Golf Championship.

“I don’t hold grudges,” Norman says, again straight-faced.

Longtime associates say Norman’s most remarkable skill is neither golf nor business. It’s his ability to repeat something with enough conviction that it becomes true. It’s his best and worst trait, those close to him say, the one that both pushed him from No. 100 in the world to No. 1 and made him successful in real estate, Wagyu beef, even water parks. It’s now justifying his partnership with the Saudis, associates say.

“There was a lot of: ‘I’m going to prove everyone kind of wrong,’ ” one longtime friend says. “Sometimes he formed his own reality.”

When Harmon pleaded with Norman to set aside power and rely on finesse, especially during a tournament’s emotionally charged final round, Norman would disregard the advice, the coach says. If friends and loved ones confronted Norman with worries that fixations with money and danger may be warping his priorities and blunting his self-control, he would distance himself. Norman’s impulses had made and enriched him, and they should therefore be trusted — even if they defy reason or inflict pain.

In April 1996, Norman dominated the first three rounds of the Masters. He woke up Sunday with a six-stroke lead, at the time the third-largest lead in tournament history. His mom and dad, up early in Brisbane, were watching.

Harmon thought Norman looked anxious at the practice range. Elkington saw a tentativeness in Norman’s swing, confirmed by bogeys on the first, fourth and ninth holes. Nick Faldo cut the lead to two, and after two more bogeys and a double to start the back nine, Norman had fallen out of the lead. Then his tee shot plunked into the pond at No. 16.

Merv and Toini turned off their television and went for a long drive. Norman smiled and congratulated Faldo on the 18th green, and when Harmon found him in the locker room later, Norman shrugged off his collapse.

“This is not the end of the world,” he told reporters.

“I’m a winner.”

“It’s not going to affect my life.”

Norman told himself he was nothing like Merv. Look at who he was, the things he could buy. His friends were presidents and prime ministers, and with his connections and force of will, he believed, he could transform entire nations.

“Sometimes I used to think, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to give my dad a big hug?’ ” Norman told Sports Illustrated before the 1996 Masters. “God, wouldn’t that be great?”

For everything Norman had, of all the trophies that could be bought or won, this was always what he had wanted most. He had never found a substitute, and though the dollar may not be as powerful as a father’s embrace, in the modern world it remains the almighty. It’s also a way to keep score when there are no more tournaments to win.

In the years following his ’96 collapse, Norman’s social circle kept shrinking. So did his national profile. He fell out of touch with Raymond Floyd and Nick Price. After Tiger Woods burst onto the golf scene by dominating the 1997 Masters, Norman became just one more relic of the game’s past.

He sold his yacht and his Ferraris. Norman found that many younger Americans had never heard of him or his brand. In 2008, he left his wife of 25 years amid a highly publicized affair with tennis legend Chris Evert. Evert’s then-husband, former Olympic skier Andy Mill, had gone elk hunting and day-tripped in helicopters with Norman.

“He was one of my best friends,” Mill says now. Norman paid ex-wife Laura Andrassy some $100 million in a divorce settlement and married Evert, only to get divorced after 15 months; he has since married a third time. Mill says that when he and Norman spoke a year after their marriages dissolved, Norman told him it was time to move on. “You don’t get over those types of things,” Mill says. “I cried for three years.”

Amid so many detachments, at least Norman still had Jack. When he needed to talk, he would drive over to Nicklaus’s and vent for hours. Nicklaus offered wisdom, guidance, affection. When Norman and his family moved to West Palm Beach, it was Jack who found them a house, Jack who pre-enrolled Greg Jr. and Morgan-Leigh in private school.

It wasn’t precisely what he had spent a lifetime pursuing. But he was used to runners-up. “A father figure,” Norman calls Nicklaus.

Four years ago, Norman flew to Australia to see Merv. The old man never said much about regrets, but with disease now in his liver and heart, it seemed he wanted to die with fewer of them. He was visibly affectionate with Toini, Norman says, and he thanked his son for buying them a house closer to Janis, Norman’s older sister with whom he used to sail Peter Pan.

Merv, in his 90s, stepped forward and put his arms around his son. Norman stood there, in this moment he had fantasized about. But it didn’t feel as he had hoped.

“It’s like, I would’ve loved this back in ’86 or ’87 or ’91 or ’92,” he says. “Or whatever it is, those moments in time, when you need that shoulder. You look for that, right? You don’t have it; I never had it. I never had the closeness of a friend, of a really, really true close male friend.

“It’s just those things that you need — ’96, ’93, when s--- that happens in April in those times. Like, Jesus, I’m exposed, right? It’s not the same as going to your wife at the time, and I definitely, definitely did miss that. But you learn to …”

His words catch.

“It makes you stronger, I think.”

If you’re a traditionally despotic kingdom looking to use golf as an avenue to global acceptability, you might think one of the two greatest golfers of all time would make the perfect partner. Indeed, Nicklaus, 82 and forever genial, recently said he was offered more than $100 million to be the public face of LIV.

The tour’s consultant also pitched representatives for Woods, who once staged his own public coup with the PGA Tour over marketing rights. Norman says Woods turned down a deal that was “mind-blowingly enormous; we’re talking about high nine digits.”

Those icons were logical choices, with money and fame and experience building robust brands. But they lacked the willingness, at least in part because both are concerned with generational legacy, with lives (and after-lives) filled with ceremonial tee shots and stirring montages.

Greg Norman? “I don’t care about that s---,” he says.

Greg Norman’s long-running beef with the PGA Tour explodes back into the spotlight

When Norman met with LIV’s investment group last year, he says, he already had conducted economic stress tests of LIV’s vision. He laid out his experiences designing courses and luring tourists in Vietnam, on mainland China and in the United Arab Emirates. And he talked about the lessons learned from his mistakes with the World Golf Tour three decades earlier.

“We already had the playbook,” he says, “so I knew what was coming.”

Norman says he hoped LIV and the PGA Tour could live symbiotically. LIV events avoided overlap with marquee tournaments, and Norman says he repeatedly tried to initiate dialogue with Tour executives. No one responded, he says, and earlier this year the Tour’s response seemed familiar: Players who chose LIV may face a lifetime ban from the PGA, Commissioner Jay Monahan said.

Woods, whose agent didn’t respond to a request for an interview, reaffirmed his loyalty to the PGA. McIlroy, a four-time major champion, said Norman’s league was “dead in the water.” Phil Mickelson has spent the past four months in exile after the release of an interview in which he called the Saudis “scary motherf-----s” but indicated a willingness to take their money.

Nicklaus has admonished any series that would compete with the PGA Tour. As a result, Norman says, he has cut off his longtime mentor.

“I never spoke to him much before then,” Norman claims.

Reminded of their long talks and deep friendship, Norman takes a deep breath.

“One hundred percent truth? Jack’s a hypocrite,” he says. “When he came out with those comments, I’m thinking: Jack must have a short memory.”

Phil Mickelson supports breakaway Saudi golf league despite country’s ‘horrible’ human rights record

He says Nicklaus attended a LIV presentation and later wrote in an email that the new tour had his blessing.

“Quote-unquote, he said: ‘This is good for our game. If it’s good for the game of golf, it’s good by me,’ ” Norman says. “So, you want the facts? You’ve got the facts. Know what you said before you open your mouth.”

A spokesman for Nicklaus, who’s being sued by his own company partly because of his negotiations with the Saudis, declined to make him available for an interview but sent a statement reiterating Nicklaus’s “unwavering support” for the PGA Tour and wishing Norman well.

Norman has said the backlash to Mickelson’s comments about the Saudis scared off some players and stalled LIV’s momentum. But Johnson and Garcia are among those that came on board, and one prominent golf agent suggests Mickelson’s comments “put it all on the table for everybody to see.”

“Everybody is paying attention to it,” the agent continues. Like other reps and players who met with LIV, this agent signed a nondisclosure agreement. “Any guy who plays in one of these events … your marketability is going to go up instantly. And the money is life-changing. They got that right. People who would never had paid attention to this are paying attention now. Because it is life -changing.”

Norman has installed executives from ESPN, the NFL, even Augusta National. He claims LIV has a business model — and an investor — that could give it a 200-year life span. And after the first tournament, when someone pockets millions and the entire field gets paid, Norman believes more superstars will join.

John Feinstein: Phil Mickelson’s self-inflicted collapse keeps getting sadder

Then, he says, everyone will see what he sees.

“Everybody says to me: ‘Greg, you’re the punching bag.’ I’ve been a punching bag for 45 years of my life. It doesn’t bother me,” he says. “I’m not going to back off. I’m not going to show weakness to my team. I’m not going to show weakness to monopolists. I’m going to stand up for the rights of the players.”

He pauses before continuing.

“The players who decide to come on board, God bless them,” he says. “They’re going to make a lot of money.”

Three weeks before this year’s Masters, Norman traveled to Brisbane. The time had come to say goodbye. He walked in for the first time in four years and saw Merv in a chair he rarely leaves, where he sleeps 17 hours a day, the once-muscular man who had raised and taught and scarred him now frail at 135 pounds.

He won’t let Norman pay for a nurse, won’t sit in a wheelchair. Imagine being that stubborn, Norman says.

Merv faded in and out, and Norman spoke fast as he tried to explain this thing he’s building. It’s big, he said, though Tiger and Phil and Jack, of all people …

But Merv couldn’t hear him. He’d fallen asleep. Norman had so much he wanted to say, a lifetime of moments and choices that’d stay trapped inside. He returned each day for two weeks, Norman and his family say, spending hours trying to tell his 94-year-old father as much as he could. In a phone interview later, his mother and sister said they were surprised there wasn’t some meeting or call that stole Norman, like usual.

When it was time to go, Norman walked to Merv’s chair and lifted him. Norman says Merv tried to raise his arms, to hug his son one last time. But he was too weak. His arms dangled, and Norman’s eyes flooded. He carefully lowered his dad back into the chair. Merv had just waited too long, and now both of them were out of time.

Nothing gets the heart racing like a call with the Saudis. Norman, arriving to an interview, compares the feeling to scuba diving into a 200-foot cave and having to remove his oxygen tank to fit through a narrow slip. You swim like hell, hope there’s air on the other side or die.

It’s something few humans can comprehend. And with many of his old friendships gone, controversy chasing off most of the rest, Norman has almost no one to talk to. Certainly no one he’ll listen to.

When Norman was in Brisbane this spring, his mother and sister tried probing him. Toini was alarmed by some of what her son was saying, in particular that Nicklaus had flipped on him. Janis said she recently stopped reading about LIV and her brother in the Australian press because, she says, they’re “crucifying” him.

“I know he doesn’t always care,” Janis says. “But we do.”

“We don’t want his reputation to be ruined completely,” Toini says. “He’s always been looked up to, and now …”

Norman’s 91-year-old mother pauses.

“We don’t know,” she says.

“He’s certainly becoming more and more like Dad,” Janis says.

“When he gets an idea,” Toini says, “then he will just — he won’t give up on anything.”

At lunch, after the Saudi call, Norman sits with his arms crossed. His father liked to design and build things, could be insular and cross, trusted his gut to a point it bordered on myopia. Maybe, Norman says now, Merv had it right.

“I didn’t see it back then,” he says.

But didn’t Merv eventually recognize he had taken it too far? With Nicklaus facing legal troubles and declining health, why doesn’t Norman learn from his dad’s final blueprint and eliminate a possible regret? His mother and sister wish he would. So do some of Norman’s remaining friends in golf.

“I would not let that fester. I would clear the air,” Elkington says. “I can’t speak for Greg. I know he gets hardheaded. I don’t want you to write that he should go talk to Jack. But I would.”

Norman, though, doesn’t give in. Never has.

“Right now,” he says, “if I picked up the phone with Jack, knowing what happened with the presentation with him before …”

He shakes his head.

“It’d just send the wrong message,” he continues. “I’ve got my own life. I’m disappointed, but that’s the way it is.”

Norman stands, takes a last look through the window at the passing boats and heads toward the yacht club’s parking lot. He’s building something, and there’s work left to do. He climbs into his Aston Martin and eases it toward North Flagler Drive. Then, with traffic approaching, Norman floors it. A Mercedes swerves and honks, but Norman ignores it, looking unbothered once more as this solitary traveler charges up the road.

LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman Meets PGA Tour Investor Steve Cohen At New York Mets Baseball Game

I n January 2024, the  PGA Tour completed an historic investment deal with the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) , which was said to be worth around $3 billion. However, just six months prior, the bumper news dropped that the PGA Tour and Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia are set to join forces in a merger.

Currently, there is limited information on the merger available but, over the past week, reports have started ramping up, with PGA Tour player, Jordan Spieth, revealing at The Players Championship that a group from the PGA Tour’s player-directors list are "being encouraged to potentially meet" with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

What's more, on Saturday evening, LIV Golf CEO, Greg Norman, was spotted at a New York Mets game alongside Steve Cohen, a hedge fund billionaire and the owner of the New York Mets. Although it's unclear as to what discussions were had between the two, Norman did post a picture of the pair to his Instagram with the caption: "Thanks Steve. Fun arvo/evening yesterday! New @mets fan!!"

Cohen is part of the Strategic Sports Group (SSG) that has invested in the PGA Tour. SSG is a group made up of considerably wealthy sports owners, including current and former owners of at least eight professional sports franchises. It is led by Fenway Sports Group (FSG), a global sports, marketing, media, entertainment, and real estate company that owns Boston Red Sox, Liverpool FC and Pittsburgh Penguins.

A number of other names form part of the SSG, these include Cohen, who owns the New York Mets, Arthur Blank, who is the founder of Home Depot and owner of the Atlanta Falcons, Mark Attanasio, a private equity billionaire and the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers, Wyc Grousbeck a venture capital billionaire and the owner of the Boston Celtics and Mark Lasry, a private equity billionaire and former owner of the Milwaukee Bucks.

With PGA Tour Commissioner, Jay Monahan, revealing in a press conference on Tuesday that  talks with the PIF are “accelerating” , Monahan also admitted that he had recently met with PIF governor  Yasir Al-Rumayyan  as discussions over the framework agreement, and, ultimately, the direction of the elite game, continue. 

Certainly, with LIV Golf's Norman meeting PGA Tour investor, Cohen, just a few days before the reported meeting between players of the PGA Tour and those in PIF takes place, it only adds intrigue to the situation.

It's worth noting that the deal between the PGA Tour and SSG is separate to the merger news of the PGA Tour and PIF. This investment, led by  Fenway Sports Group  and also including New York Mets owner Steve Cohen’s Cohen Private Ventures, Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank, and former Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry, is preparing to inject the money into PGA Tour Enterprises which will increase the for-profit entity's valuation up to around $12 billion.

A statement from CEO Jay Monahan revealed that - as part of the agreement - almost 200 PGA Tour members will collectively be able to earn circa $1.5 billion in immediate and future equity shares, with players receiving more depending on career achievements, recent accomplishments, and how high up the rankings they sit.

Reacting to the deal between the PGA Tour and SSG , Norman wrote in a widely-circulated letter back in February: "Let me make one thing very clear: nothing announced by other tours or investment groups changes LIV Golf’s positive trajectory or future plans."