Greg Norman

Born:
Feb. 10, 1955, in Queensland, Australia

Nickname:
The Shark, or "Great White Shark"

Tour Victories:
• PGA Tour: 20
• European Tour: 17
(86 victories worldwide)

Major Championships:
2
• British Open: 1986, 1993

Awards and Honors:
• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
• PGA Tour money leader, 1986, 1990, 1995
• PGA Tour Vardon Trophy winner, 1989, 1990, 1994
• PGA Tour player of the year, 1995
• 4-time member, International team, Presidents Cup

Quote, Unquote:
• Greg Norman: "I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and my father."

• Greg Norman: "I'm a very intense person. When I go after something, I want to go after it with everything I have. I want to push myself to the edge."

Trivia:
Greg Norman lost playoffs at all four majors, one of only two golfers to do so. Craig Wood is the other.

Greg Norman Biography:
Greg Norman was one of the most accomplished golfers of the 1980s and 1990s, a golfer with great achievements but who also gained a reputation for falling short of expectations. That's only because expectations for Norman soared so high early in his career.

Growing up in Australia, Norman's games were rugby and Australian Rules football. He didn't spend much time at golf until age 15 in 1970. He caddied for his mother during her weekly round, and borrowed her clubs following the round.

Two years later Norman was playing at scratch. He trained as an Australian PGA professional, and played amateur events around his home country.

In 1976, Norman turned pro. He joined the European Tour in 1977 and that year earned his first victory. In 1982 he was that tour's leading money winner. The following year, he joined the U.S. PGA Tour.

Norman first came to worldwide prominence when he narrowly missed catching Jack Nicklaus at the 1986 Masters. He pushed his approach shot to the 72nd green into the stands, the first of what would be numerous narrow defeats, unlucky breaks and unfortunate collapses.

Bob Tway holed a bunker shot at the 1986 PGA to snatch the win away from Norman; Larry Mize holed a long chip shot in a playoff at the 1987 Masters to deny Norman again. Perhaps most famously, Norman blew a 6-shot lead entering the final round to lose the 1996 Masters to Nick Faldo by 5 strokes.

But amid the bad breaks were plenty of wins - 20 of them on the U.S. Tour. Norman won 3 U.S. money titles and 3 U.S. scoring titles. He was Player of the Year in 1995 and for one stretch in the early '90s held the No. 1 world ranking for 331 weeks.

And there were British Open titles in 1986 and 1993.

Off the course, Norman was a highly successful businessman, building Great White Shark Enterprises into an empire that included course design, apparel, development and production companies, merchandising and licensing.