Greg Norman’s cheeky farewell to his Florida mansion
How’s the Tranquility? Greg Norman marks 25 years since his US Masters collapse and farewells his Florida pile with a nude photo on Instagram.
Greg Norman. Cheeky bugger. In the most confronting shower scene since Janet Leigh copped it in Psycho, Norman has kissed his Florida mansion goodbye by posting a photograph of himself that yet again displays the hide of the bloke.
Norman has been a fan of these sort of selfies for a while now. Let’s call them tasteful nudes. You wonder how he spent his last morning at the sprawling Jupiter Island property called Tranquility he’s just sold for about $US60 million. His wife, Kirsten, took the happy snap.
What happened next? Norman, 66, finished his cleansing routine, towelled himself off, got dressed – we’re probably assuming too much there – and then liked the photo so much he decided the world of social media would be a better place with his bum in it? What did he say to his missus? “Great pic, darl! Should I make it my profile?” Is all this a subconscious reaction to never winning a green jacket? A reluctance to wear any clothes at all?
Rock bottom. Norman hit the button for the benefit of his 201,000 Instagram followers. Cue the screeching music. The response was mixed, to put it politely. A lot of, oh Greg, you look great for 66. And plenty along the lines of this one: “Greg you’re a legend but we don’t need 70 year old asses on our phones! No matter how good you think it is!!” What of the new owners? How keen will they be to get in the same shower? Is it a badge of honour, or the Bates Motel?
Norman has been scaling back his business interests and mansions quicker than he’s shedding his clothes. Maybe he’s planning to move back to Australia. He’s said he constantly thinks about returning, but it’s unclear if he means for a visit or permanent residence.
Tranquility sounds a decent joint. One real estate guide described it thus: “Tranquility consists of eight houses in total – main house, coach house, pool house, tennis house, boat house, carriage house, and even a separate beach house on same property – spread across 8.31 acres. The main house offers 10 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 5000-square-foot basement, as well as direct access to the ocean. Reports indicate the dock is suitable for a 150-foot yacht.”
Norman is heading to Georgia’s Augusta National course this week for the US Masters. It’s been 25 years since his shocking defeat to Englishman Nick Faldo after taking a six-shot lead into the final round. He’s the sort of champion ex-athlete worth one of those “Where Is He Now?” pieces. Here he is, in all his glory!
It’s raw Greg Norman
Norman thinks today’s players are too robotic and emotionless. He thinks they should, um, show more of themselves. He says too few of them wear their hearts on their sleeves. So says a man who seems to prefer no sleeves at all.
His raw images are weird or wacky or harmless fun – only he knows why he keeps doing them. One of the few regrets of his playing career is the absence of social media. He wishes he could have engaged with his supporters more closely. Eek. How closely?
He said in an interview with Stellar magazine: “Having spent most of my life in the public eye, I feel like I’ve been put in a box almost the entire time. But social media has allowed me to have direct access to my fans, and that’s what I enjoy about it. I like to be able to share my life outside of golf.
“If I had social media when I was playing golf, then I could have closed the gap between perception and reality … honestly, a lot of people don’t realise I do have a sense of humour about myself. I take the mickey out of myself all the time. I give my friends a lot of s..t and it goes both ways. I can dish it out and I can take it back.
“I think that’s because as an Australian, you’ve got to be able to take the piss out of yourself, right? Most people have seen me in serious mode playing golf, but at the end of the day, when you get into my inner circle of family and friends, I’ve actually got a light, moderate side to me.”
Norman arrives at Augusta on Wednesday. Five Australians are in the field: Adam Scott, Jason Day, Marc Leishman, Matt Jones and Cam Smith. Norman’s 1996 collapse was a huge talking point until his Instagram pic — how’s the Tranquility? — gained even more traction. I saw one story on Tuesday that started, “Adam Scott took it the hardest. Matt Jones can remember it “vividly” and Jason Day “doesn’t want to even think about it”. Was that ’96, or the shower scene?
The former. “I vividly remember 15, the chip shot that we all thought was in. The tee shot on 16,” Jones said. “Of course I was disappointed. From what I hear I think Adam took it worse than others, but I was definitely disappointed,” Jones said.
Day said: “What the Shark did for us as golfers growing up, especially Scottie – Scottie was really close to Greg Norman, and kind of in the start of my career I got to know Greg really well, and just what he did for Australian golf was huge for us,” Day said. “It was unfortunate the couple of times that he had here with Faldo and Larry Mize, but it’s just going beyond that – it was pretty remarkable what he did for Australian golf, and this is probably why we have so many players on tour now, because of him.”
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