‘Virgin space’: Greg Norman shares the secret of his success

Australian sporting royalty Greg Norman has turned his $14m in golf career earnings into a personal empire worth more than $400m. This is how.

Golfing royalty turned successful businessman Greg Norman has opened up about his success in business, role models and advice he has given his kids.

Norman was in Sydney last week on a whirlwind 48 hour visit to Australia to launch Norman Estates, a luxury residential community with 190 homes in Gledswood Hills.

The great white shark teamed up with developer Sekisui House on the $300m project which was his first Norman Estates residence in Australia.

Norman, who lives in Florida, took a chopper from Sydney Airport to the southwest suburb for the launch and appeared relaxed as he toured the estate and spoke to media.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the 68-year-old said he realised he had potential to succeed in business during his sporting career.

Golfing great Greg Norman in Sydney last week launching a new real estate venture. Picture: Rohan Kelly

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“I recognised I could put bums on seats because I could hit a white ball from point A to point B,” he said.

“I recognised people would turn on TV screens to watch me play golf. That means people were following me. I was lucky enough to get a logo attached to me in the early 80s, the shark logo, and it became globally recognised.”

During his golfing stellar career, Norman spent 331 weeks as World No 1 and had 91 career wins, 20 PGA Tour titles and two Open Championships.

Since retirement, Norman has dived in to the world of real estate, golf course design and development, wine, clothing along with his role as chief executive officer and commissioner of LIV Golf.

When asked if there was an area he was yet to explore, he said “I don’t know, I have been lucky”.

Image of Norman in action from the 1990s.

Greg Norman in 1994 with his children Gregory and Morgan.

“I have been blessed in a lot of ways. I always said a couple of things to my kids, one was ‘find something the masses want’,” he said.

“There is virgin space out there, you just have to identify it, write a business model around it and execute on it. Fortunately I have done a few of those things successfully.”

Norman laughed off any notion his business success was inspired his old friend; businessman and former US President Donald Trump.

“Not at all,” he said before revealing his role models; former head of General Electric (GE) Jack Welch and retired American professional auto racing driver and businessman Roger Penske.

“[Jack Welsh] took two letters and made it a global brand and he didn’t graduate from college,” Norman said.

Norman says his inspirations in the business world come from Jack Welch as opposed to his old friend Donald Trump. Photograph of Mr Trump and Mr Welch at the White House in 2017. Picture: Chip Somodevilla

Norman with wife Kirsten.

He said Welch inspired him to “understand what the consumer wants” and “stay focused on where you want to go”.

Norman became involved in real estate developments worldwide with Macquarie Bank around 25 years ago, however decided to branch out and create a product that “differentiated itself” through his golf course developments and real estate brand.

“I have done that successfully in other parts of the world, America, Asia the Middle East and I wanted to do it here in Australia,” he said.

He said Australian council’s with DA processing times of around 54 days are “ahead of everyone else” in terms of addressing the housing crisis across the country.

Norman inside the display home at Norman Estates in Gledswood Hills. Picture: Rohan Kelly

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“Everybody from prime ministers, down to ministers, down to local politicians … everybody has got to be responsible about the future of what the country has got to do and how it’s going to get there,” he said.

“You can’t put your head in the sand and plead stupid. You’ve got to lift your head out and say ‘we have a problem, what’s the solution’.”

Norman remains chief executive officer of LIV Golf amid its merger with the PGA Tour, however denies it has been a “rollercoaster of a journey”.

“I don’t think it was ever a rollercoaster. I think people were just trying to stop the progress of what golf should have had,” he said.

“There’s an opportunity to create generational wealth which has never been done before … the PGA never did it for me or anybody else in the history of the game.

“We are partners with the player. Golf now is an asset class and golf is looked upon and is invested into. I am proud of the fact that we just broke open that old tin box that has been sealed shut for the past 54 years.”

Norman said he regularly returned to Australia, mainly to visit family in Queensland.

Originally published as ‘Virgin space’: Greg Norman shares the secret of his success