Early years

Norman was born in Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia to Merv and Toini Norman. His mother was the daughter of a Finnish carpenter, and his father an electrical engineer.^[1] As a youth, he played rugby and cricket and was a keen surfer. His mother was a fine golfer with a single-figure handicap. Norman began playing golf at 16, somewhat late for a world-class player, and within a year was playing to a scratch handicap. Norman attended Townsville Grammar School in Townsville, Queensland (enrolled 1964) then moved on to Aspley State High School on the north side of Brisbane.^[2]

 Career

 Early professional career: 1975-1982

At the age of 20, Norman served as assistant professional under Billy McWilliam OAM at Beverley Park Golf Club in Sydney, New South Wales. His professional career had begun as Charlie Earp's trainee in the Royal Queensland Golf Club pro shop, earning $A38 a week.^[3]

In 1976, Norman turned pro as a tournament player, and that year earned his first victory at the West Lakes Classic at The Grange in Adelaide, South Australia. He joined the European Tour in 1977, and won his first European event that same season, the Martini International, at the Blairgowrie Club in Scotland. In 1982 he was the European Tour's leading money winner. He won his first Australian Open in 1980, his first of five wins in that event. The following year, he joined the U.S. PGA Tour.^[4]

 First PGA Tour win

In 1984 Norman won his maiden PGA Tour victory at the Kemper Open. Norman first came to worldwide prominence a week later at the 1984 U.S. Open. Norman holed a dramatic putt on the 72nd hole to force a playoff with former Masters champion Fuzzy Zoeller. The next day's playoff was a blowout, with Zoeller beating Norman 67–75.^[5] This was the first of what would be numerous narrow defeats, unlucky breaks and unfortunate collapses throughout his career. He was able to put the defeat behind him and win the Canadian Open in July for his second win to finish off a great year.

 First major, near misses

In 1986 Norman won two regular PGA Tour events; the Panasonic Las Vegas Invitational and the Kemper Open (for the second time), but 1986 is remembered for the Norman Slam or the Saturday Slam. Norman held the lead for all four majors through 54 holes. This meant he played in the final group for every major and had perhaps the best chance in history of winning the Grand Slam. Unfortunately for Norman he was only able to win the Open Championship at Turnberry. At the Masters Norman held the lead with Seve Ballesteros through nine holes on Sunday. Norman double-bogeyed the par-4 10th and fell out of the lead. With Norman seemingly out of the contention the focus moved towards Jack Nicklaus, Tom Kite and Ballesteros. By playing behind the leaders, Norman was able to rejoin the pack and eventually tie for the lead with Jack Nicklaus by birdieing the 17th. He nailed his tee shot on the 18th, but pushed his approach shot to the green into the spectators and made bogey when a par would have gotten him into a playoff. At the U.S. Open he also faltered, shooting a 75 on the final day at Shinnecock Hills. He finally broke through at the Open Championship for his first major title. Norman shot a brilliant 63 on Friday and survived the weekend's brutal conditions to win by five shots. He was again in contention at the PGA Championship, showing amazing consistency during all four majors, the likes of which had not been seen since Bobby Jones (golfer) in 1930. Once more Norman found himself in the lead at Inverness until he stumbled on Sunday again. A clear favourite for the title, he shot a 76. The tournament is famous for Bob Tway's hole-out from the greenside bunker on the 72nd hole. Tway eventually won by two strokes over Norman. 1986 established Norman as one of, if not the best player in the world; he topped the Australian Order of Merit for the fifth time and the PGA Tour money list for the first time. Norman ended the year officially ranked number 1 in the brand new Official World Golf Rankings.

The following year Norman once again found himself tied for the lead at the Masters. After an even-par 72 he found himself in a playoff with Larry Mize and Ballesteros. On the second playoff hole, with Ballesteros eliminated, Norman hit his approach onto the green with a chance at birdie. Mize on the other hand blocked his approach right of the green. Facing one of the most difficult chips on the course, Mize miraculously holed the 45-yard chip. Norman missed his birdie effort and came up short for the second year in a row. Norman had a rough 1987 which featured no wins on either the PGA or European tours. He enjoyed mild success between 1987 and 1989 including four wins in Australia in 1988. He won the MCI Heritage Golf Classic at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina in April 1988, inspired by a leukemia-stricken teenager who got his wish to meet Norman and watch him play; he was only supposed to watch him for two rounds, but Norman arranged for him to stay until the tournament's completion, after which Norman gave him the winner's trophy. At the 1989 Masters Tournament, he came to the 72nd hole ultimately needing a par to make a playoff or a birdie to win, but he bogeyed the hole to miss a playoff, after unconventionally teeing off with a one-iron. He had another great chance at a major in 1989, this time at the Open Championship. He played brilliantly in a final-round 64 to force his way into a playoff with Mark Calcavecchia and Wayne Grady. Norman and Calcavecchia came to the home hole, the fourth in a four hole playoff, level. Calcavecchia sliced his drive badly to the right, but was in a playable position. Norman hit a tremendous drive down the middle of the fairway. Unluckily for Norman his drive bounced to the right and bounded into a fairway bunker 310 yards from the tee. After Calcavecchia hit his approach to five feet, Norman gambled from the bunker and the ball smashed into the bunker's face and limped into another. Norman thinned his next shot and the ball careered out of bounds. That was the end, as Calcavecchia took home the title.^[6

In 1990 Norman would miss the cut at the Masters for the first time in his career, but he did win the Doral-Ryder Open in March and Jack Nicklaus's Memorial Tournament for the first time (Norman was the 54-hole leader and the final round was cancelled due to rain, giving him the victory). He also lost two tournaments in ways which directly echoed his losses to Mize and Tway, and further enhanced his reputation of being unlucky at winning golf tournaments. He was leading the Nestle Invitational in Orlando, Florida by one shot until Robert Gamez holed out a 176-yard shot over water on the 72nd hole to defeat Norman. Within a few weeks, Norman was tied for the lead at the USF&G Classic in Louisiana when David Frost holed out a greenside sand shot on the 72nd hole, to beat Norman by one. It might have not been the strongest year in the majors for Norman, but he finished atop the PGA Tour money list for the second time in his career, along with winning the Vardon Trophy and Byron Nelson Award. Later that year he won the Australian Masters in his home country of Australia for a final and record sixth time.

 Professional career: 1991–2009

After a career slump in the early 1990s, Norman turned to Butch Harmon for help. Together, the two rebuilt Norman's game to top form by solving mechanical problems that had crept into Norman's swing. The new swing brought him great results including his second major at Royal St George's. In ideal conditions, Norman defeated a star studded leader board including Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer and Corey Pavin. Norman returned a 64, the lowest final round in Open history. Gene Sarazen, who stood at the 18th Green of St Georges later said of Norman's achievement: "I never thought I would live to see golf played like this." Norman's playing partner Langer also commented, calling it the finest round he had ever witnessed. The year's PGA Championship was again staged at Inverness. He had a final green putt of around 12 feet for victory that lipped right around the hole and failed to drop, and lost the subsequent playoff to Paul Azinger. At the PGA Championship, he became one of only two players to have competed in -– and, like Craig Wood, to have lost -– playoffs in all four of the major championships.

The next year at The Players Championship, Norman obliterated the records for the lowest 18, 54 and 72-hole scores. After opening with a course-record-tying 63, he followed with three 67s to give him a 24-under 264 total, six strokes better than any previous winner.^[7]

Norman started 1995 with a third place finish at the Masters, and again took the 54-hole lead at the U.S. Open. Even though he held the lead for most of the day, he was passed by Corey Pavin on the back nine. In June, Norman won his second Memorial Tournament, a victory that marked the beginning of one of his best years on the PGA Tour. After his win at the Canon Greater Hartford Open, aided by a chip-in in for eagle on #14 in the final round, Norman overtook Nick Price as the number one golfer in the world. Later, he won the NEC World Series of Golf, holing a 70-foot birdie chip shot to defeat Price in a playoff on the first hole. He ultimately held the #1 ranking for 331 weeks in his career. He also topped the money list for the third time and was named PGA Player of the Year. 1995 is arguable Norman's greatest year even without winning a major title.

The following year, Norman came into the 1996 Masters Tournament having already won at the Doral-Ryder Open (though he also missed the cut at the Players Championship and the Bay Hill Invitational beforehand). He opened his championship with a course record 63 which propelled him to the top of the leaderboard. He held the lead through three days for play. With five previous top five finishes at Augusta, and a 6-shot lead, Norman's long-awaited Masters victory seem to be evident. In one of the worst meltdowns in major championship history (along with Ken Venturi shooting a final-round 80 in 1956 Masters to lose by one shot, and Rory McIlroy's collapse, also shooting an 80 in 2011), he took a six-stroke lead into the final round and lost the tournament to Nick Faldo by five strokes, shooting a Sunday 78 to Faldo's 67. Norman's 6-shot lead evaporated quickly with three straight bogeys on holes 9–11, and after Norman found water on the 12th hole, resulting in a double bogey, playing companion Faldo had taken the lead. Norman tried to give himself a chance down the stretch including an eagle chip on the 15th which lipped out of the hole dropping Norman to his knees. Maybe the most infamous shot of his career was on the very next hole; a hooked tee shot into the water ending any chance at victory. ESPN, as part of their "ESPN25" 25th-anniversary celebration, ranked Norman's 1996 Masters disaster as the third-biggest sports choke of the last 25 years. Despite the losses, though, Norman still has 30 top-ten finishes in the majors. And, amazingly, he came back to lead the very next major, the 1996 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, after 36 holes, though he faded on the weekend.

In January 1997, Norman won his largest winner's check to date, one million dollars, when he won the Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf (the precursor to the WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship), making birdie on the last hole to defeat Scott Hoch in the 36-hole final. Then Norman won twice in 1997, but they were his last. In 1998 Norman missed part of the season after suffering hip and shoulder injuries. Norman did make one more run at the Masters in 1999, battling José María Olazábal on the final day, and even briefly leading the tournament after an eagle on 13, before fading to finish 3rd behind the winner Olazabal and Davis Love III. After this, Norman's name virtually disappeared from golf leaderboards and Norman only showed an occasional flash of his previous brilliance, perhaps due to age, shaken confidence, the new technology, the emergence of Tiger Woods and other young golfers, and/or Norman's increasing involvement in business ventures.

In July 2008, despite not playing in a major for three years, Norman finished nine over par in a tie for third at The Open Championship after being the 54-hole leader by two strokes. He set the record in becoming the oldest 54-hole leader in a major championship (broken the following year by Tom Watson, also in the Open) and earned an automatic bid to the 2009 Masters. His trip to the Masters was his first since 2002. Though he missed the cut, he said he was happy to give his (now former) wife and tennis legend Chris Evert an opportunity to experience "golf's Wimbledon" firsthand.

Norman played his warm up to the 2009 Masters Tournament at the Shell Houston Open on the PGA Tour at the Redstone Golf Club where he made the half-way cut. It was only the fourth cut he has made on the PGA Tour since 2004.

Though neither was in a major or PGA Tour event, Norman had two notable faceoffs with Tiger Woods. At the 1998 Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia, Norman and Woods played a close match, with Woods winning 1-up. Under different circumstances, this could have been a very significant match beyond the star power involved, but since the International Team (Norman) won by a lopsided margin over the U.S. Team (Woods), this match had little effect on the final result, though it was a riveting match between the former and current #1 players in the world. (Besides the Woods match, the International Team's victory over the U.S. Team in Norman's home country was one of the great moments of Norman's career, and to date still the only win for the International Team in Presidents Cup matches). Norman got payback of a sort in the 2001 Skins Game, in which he not only defeated Woods (as well as Colin Montgomerie and Jesper Parnevik), he also was the only person in Skins Game history to sweep all the prize money (1 million dollars) and leave the other players, including Woods, empty handed. This was the only year that the Skins Game was contended under the controversial validation format.

 Champions Tour

Norman turned 50 in February 2005, but has kept his distance from the senior golf circuit. Partly this is because of his other interests, but also because of back and knee injuries. He had knee surgery in October 2005 and February 2006.^[8] Norman believes his back injuries could have been averted had he been introduced to the concept of golf fitness early in his career.^[9]

In May 2008, Norman played in only his third Champion's Tour event since turning 50, the 69th Senior PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. Norman, having not played competitive golf regularly in the last several years, stayed in contention all week and wound up three shots behind eventual winner Jay Haas (+7), tying for sixth place. His new wife, tennis legend Chris Evert, has been a large part of Norman's consideration to enter events on the PGA and Champions Tours. "I would doubt he'd go back full time," Evert said. "But for him to keep it up, one or two tournaments a month or whatever, would be great. I would 100 per cent support him if that's what he wanted to do."

After Norman's surprise success at the Open Championship, he continued his strong play, finishing in a tie for fifth at the Senior British Open Championship and fourth in the U.S. Senior Open after being the only player to shoot 72 or lower all four days. He finished 2008 playing in four majors and finishing in the top ten in all of them.

In the 2009 Senior British Open Championship, he held the 54-hole lead after playing three consistent rounds, but faltered on Sunday to finish tied for sixth, 3 shots behind eventual winner Loren Roberts.

 Career achievements and legacy

Norman has earned more than $1 million five times on the U.S. PGA Tour, including three Arnold Palmer Awards as the Tour's leading money winner in 1986, '89 and '95. He was also the first person in Tour history to surpass $10 million in career earnings. He has 30 top 10 finishes in Majors, or more than 38 percent of those he has entered.^[10]

Even with two Open Championships and a Players Championship, Norman is regarded as an underachiever (given his talents), a characterization fueled by his myriad near-misses in The Masters, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship. He was equally a victim of his own bad luck and good luck on the part of his fellow golfers in major championships.

Norman won the PGA Tour of Australia's Order of Merit six times: 1978, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1988. He won the European Tour's Order of Merit in 1982, and topped the PGA Tour's Money List in 1986, 1990, and 1995. He won the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average on the PGA Tour three times: 1989, 1990, and 1994; and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001. His dominance over his peers (despite his comparative lack of success in the majors) was probably best expressed in the Official World Golf Rankings: Norman finished the season on top of the ranking list on seven occasions, in 1986, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1995, 1996 and 1997, and was second at the end of 1988, 1993 and 1994.

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 (They have since been joined by Roger Federer). He received the 2008 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor, at the 2008 Golf Industry Show in Orlando. Norman is a member of The Environmental Institute for Golf's board of trustees and also chairs The Institute's advisory council. He was the also the recipient of the Golf Writers Association of America's 2008 Charlie Bartlett Award.

Articulate and with a friendly image, Norman has for years been a spokesman for companies including General Motors-Holden, which developed a Commodore model named after him. His own businesses interests include MacGregor Golf and Greg Norman Golf Course Design. He continues 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 U.S. dollars.

 Playing style

Norman will always be remembered for his style of play. Norman had one of the best swings of his generation with one of the fastest tempos. He had incredibly high ball flight which enabled him to carry the ball very long distances. He demonstrated the best technique around the greens and was strong in all aspects.

In Norman's heyday, driving long and incredibly straight off the tee similar to that of Nick Price his contemporary with a persimmon (wood) clubhead, he intimidated most of his fellow professionals. However, with the advent of the "metal-wood" by TaylorMade and other subsequent advances in golf ball and golf club technology (especially the variable face depth driver), his dominance was significantly diminished, as the "new technology" enabled less precise ball-strikers to achieve equal or better accuracy and distance. Norman is regarded, aside from Jack Nicklaus, as being the greatest driver of the golf ball in golf history.^{[citation needed]}