Just Finished Reading Greg Norman’s Autobiography

April 28, 2008

Greg Norman's Book

I just recently finished Greg Norman’s The Way of the Shark, co-written by Donald T. Phillips. Now, autobiographies, or books co-written with other who can spell better, deserve a lot of qualifications. Someone is writing about themselves. They tend to be self-serving. Sometimes they turn out to be rants. They often try to re-write history and they are generally not even-handed. If I were to write an autobiography, I’m sure I would gloss over the areas that didn’t sound flattering and try to re-write some history before someone came along and did it for me in a way I didn’t like.

Greg Norman’s book is admittedly a bit self-serving. At times he attempts to set the record straight and tell his side of the story, especially with his efforts to create the ill-fated World Tour and the subsequent battle with the PGA and its president Tim Finchem. He also is almost completely silent on his breakup with ex-wife Laura and his new relationship with Chris Evert the tennis star.

Yet, after reading Greg Norman’s book, I find that he is much more than just a golfer. Yes, he was the world’s best golfer for over 300 weeks. Frankly, he was the Tiger or Jack of his day. In his book Norman goes to great lengths to show that he shouldn’t be defined by the huge meltdowns the golfing world was witness to. Yet Norman spends as much time talking about business and the lessons off the course that he’s learned as he does about golf. Norman has become a very successful businessman with holdings estimated to be worth over $500 million.

Greg Norman is also a brand. A conglomerate. An Aussie tycoon. His Greg Norman Golf Course Design company has built 61 courses around the world and has an equal number in development. He owns real estate development companies, a wine company, restaurants, cattle ranches, and his own grass (that’s turf not marijuana) called Greg Norman Turf Company.

Now in his mid 50’s, he is more than qualified to play the Seniors Tour, yet this past weekend he finished tied for 14^th at the Asian Open. Back in December, his previous stop on the European Tour, the South African Airways Open, he finished tied for 7^th . For someone that only occasionally plays competitively, finishing in the top twenty in his last two professional tournaments is pretty impressive.

I’ve also picked up another book on Greg Norman, this time a biography written in 1998 to get another perspective. I’ll report back on how much (or little) whitewashing of the Norman legend that Greg did in his own book.

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