Greg Norman (born February 10, 1955 in Queensland, Australia), is an Australian professional golfer who spent 331 weeks as the world's number one ranked golfer in the 1980s and 1990s.

He won The Open Championship twice, in 1986 and 1993. Despite "The Great White Shark"'s (a reference to a shark inhabiting Australian waters as well as Norman's size and blonde locks) huge success on the US PGA TOUR and many wins in other events around the world, Norman will be forever regarded as underachieving given his talents by missing out in The Masters, US Open, and PGA Championship. He was equally a victim of his own bad luck, good luck on the part of his fellow golfers (losing a near-certain PGA Championship win in 1986 after Bob Tway holed a bunker shot, and losing The Masters the following year in a playoff by an even more miraculous 45-yard chip shot from Larry Mize), and a couple of infamous "chokes" where Norman's wobble-prone putting got the better of him. To underscore this point, in 1986, he led all four majors after the third round, but only won The Open. Norman's most infamous "choke" may be the 1996 version of The Masters, where he blew a six-stroke lead in the final round and lost the tournament to Nick Faldo by five strokes.

Norman's friendly image and articulate nature has made him a perfect spokesman for a wide range of products, including the usual array of golf equipment but extending well beyond. Whilst continuing to play tournaments, his growing business interests take up an increasing amount of his time. His personal wealth is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of US dollars.

Norman's hobbies include offshore game fishing—he has owned a succession of increasingly large and luxurious boats (though his latest may best be described as a small ship) for the purpose. Based in Hobe Sound, Florida, he typically plays only one or two tournaments per year in his homeland.

He married his American (?) wife Laura in 1981 and has two children.

In 1986 Norman was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Overseas Personality Award, a feat he replicated in 1993 to join Muhammad Ali and Björn Borg as multiple winners.

See also

Golfers with most PGA Tour wins

External links

• Shark.com Greg Norman's official personal and business web site
• Greg Norman at Golf Stars Online Directory of interviews, sites and feature articles with or about Greg Norman
• Greg Norman on About.com Profile and stats