Greg Norman, nicknamed The Great White Shark, was born in Mount Isa, Queensland to parents Mervin and Toini Norman in 1955. His mother, the daughter of a Finnish carpenter, played off a single-figure handicap and it was her who introduced Norman to the game when the family moved to Brisbane.

In 1975, he served as an assistant professional at Beverley Park Golf Club in Sydney, New South Wales before quickly moving back to Brisbane and the Royal Queensland Golf Club, where he worked for six years before becoming a tournament player.

After winning his first event, the West Lakes Classic, during his rookie season at The Grange, he decided to join the European Tour the following year, allowing him to compete at a higher level. He won his first event on that circuit – the Martini International – at Blairgowrie in 1977 so now he was off and running with the big boys.

In a playing career that lasted until 2009, he amassed an incredible total of 88 wins around the world: 18 on the PGA Tour (including the Players’ Championship in 1994); 14 on the European Tour (featuring two Open victories, in 1986 and 1993); 31 on the PGA of Australia Tour (with five Australian Open titles between 1980 and 1996); and 25 other tournaments (such as three Suntory Match Play Championships in 1980, 1983 and 1986).

Norman was loved by many for his bold, aggressive style of play and he was regarded as one of the best drivers of the golf ball in his era. In the fourteen seasons between 1984 and 1997, Norman finished in the top 20 for driving distance on the PGA Tour twelve times and in the top 6 nine times. His long and straight driving off the tee with a persimmon wood intimidated many of his fellow professionals, with a high ball flight carrying the ball a very long way.

Greg spent 331 weeks as the number 1 player in the world, ending the year on top of the rankings seven times between 1986 and 1997. He was the first golf player to earn more than $10 million in career earnings – topping the PGA Tour’s money list three times in 1986, 1990 and 1995 – and he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2001.

He established Greg Norman Golf Course Design in 1987 and in three decades of operation since then, the company – described by one commentator as “one of the most prominent 'celebrity' design firms in the game” – has worked on more than a hundred projects across thirty-four countries in six different continents.

Much of the firm’s design work has been carried out on the ground by design associates such as 

 and for a long time the company had two offices working largely independently to each other. The Australian premises closed in 2010, however, leaving just the West Palm Beach headquarters in Florida to handle business throughout the world.

Around a third of Norman’s courses are located in America, with a dozen of these situated in the Sunshine State of Florida. One of his earliest assignments in this state was at The Medalist in Hobe Sound, which was originally co-designed with 

 in 1995, but was subsequently reworked by Greg in the new millennium.

The Australian office’s best efforts were National Moonah in Victoria, Ellerston in New South Wales and The Grand in Queensland, with honourable mentions due to The Vintage, Pelican Waters and Settlers Run. Norman’s most recent Victorian layouts at Eastern in Yering and Cathedral Lodge in Thornton have both been well received.

Across Asia and the Middle East, the three Norman designs currently operating in Vietnam are among his best offerings, as are his two 18-hole layouts in the United Arab Emirates and a recently opened course in Jordan. The Allegria in Egypt and the Championship course at Al Mouj in Oman are ranked as the number 1 tracks in their respective countries.

In Europe, Norman’s portfolio is a little threadbare, with only three Spanish courses to his name, along with Doonbeg in Ireland, which has just been remodelled by 

 for its new owner. Elsewhere, Greg has one-off designs in diverse countries such as Canada (Wyndance), South Africa (Eye of Africa) and India (Jaypee Greens).

Closer to Greg’s home base in Florida, the Norman design brand can be found in four of the Caribbean nations and his architectural stamp can be seen in several locations across Mexico, from Puerto Los Cabos on the Baja California Peninsula to Playa Mujeres in Cancun, on the opposite side of the country.

After parting company with his management company IMG back in 1993, Greg founded Great White Shark Enterprises, which has since been renamed the Greg Norman Company, and this umbrella organization oversees his design work, vineyards, clothing, real estate projects and more than half a dozen other golf-related ventures.

From the World Golf Hall of Fame: “Norman won 20 times on the PGA Tour and was the first to surpass $10 million in career earnings. He won three Arnold Palmer Awards as the tour’s leading money winner (1986, 1990 and 1995) and three Vardon Trophies (1988, 1989 and 1994). He was PGA TOUR Player of the Year in 1995. But despite his numerous wins, Norman is frequently remembered for his historic losses. He is the only player to have lost all four majors in playoffs.

Norman’s 1986 season most accurately captures his exploits and crushing defeats. He led going into the final round of all four majors. On Sunday at the Masters, he hit an errant approach at 18 and couldn’t save par to lose to then 46-year-old Nicklaus, who closed with a memorable six-under-par 30 on the back nine.

At the U.S. Open Norman ballooned to a closing 78, but that paled when he had victory snatched from his grasp at the PGA Championship when Bob Tway holed an improbable bunker shot at the last hole to beat the Shark by a stroke.

Norman won only the British Open in ’86 when he authored a second-round 63 in windy conditions at Turnberry to open a five-shot advantage and cruise to an eventual two-stroke victory. The ovation he received as he walked to the 72nd green remains one of golf’s most memorable scenes.

Norman could have been defeated by his heartbreaking losses, but he wasn’t. In his instructional book, Shark Attack, Norman wrote, “Sometimes I think I have an almost perverse love of being down, even being defeated, because I know it will spur me on to greater things.”

At the 1993 British Open, Norman did add to his major tournament victories when he fired a remarkable final-round 64 to beat Faldo by two strokes at Royal St. George’s. Through his historic losses and gallant victories, Norman played the game with an intensity second to none.”

From Planetgolf.com: "The recent rebranding of the Greg Norman Company has coincided with a new three-tier pricing structure for Greg Norman Golf Course Design – along similar lines to the offerings of 

, Tony Jacklin and others. Clients can choose from the curiously named Eco Signature Design option or either a Signature Design or a GNGCD Design.

One assumes that the involvement of Greg Norman himself, as well as the seniority of the design associate involved in the project, depends on the package selected. This is not a model for design that our industry should support. Greg Norman Golf Course Design’s commitment to a project should be complete, regardless of the size of the signature fee paid.

Such a pricing structure reinforces a popular belief within the industry that they are more interested in accumulating clients than producing exceptional work."

The Way of the Shark: Lessons on Golf, Business and Life 

by Greg Norman and Donald T. Phillips (2007)

World Golf Hall of Fame – Class of 2001: “Australian Greg Norman dominated the golf world for much of the 1980s and early 1990s with his aggressive game and charismatic demeanor. Labelled the ‘Great White Shark,’ he is one of the most recognizable sports figures.”

Greg Norman

Greg Norman Golf Course Design was established in 1987 and in three decades since then, the company has worked on more than a hundred projects across thirty-four countries in six continents.

Michael (“Mick”) Allen Morcom was born in 1876 then raised in the Victorian gold rush town of Stawell, He was married in his early 20s to Alice Kleeberger and in 1898 their first son, Afton, was born. Two years later, after moving to Bendigo, Vern became a younger brother to Afton.

Mick was working for J.W. Horsfall, who was appointed head greenkeeper for Royal Melbourne in 1902, and he brought Mick with him to the club as an assistant. Horsfall only lasted three years in the position, which was then offered to Mick. He would remain in post for thirty years.

By the end of World War I, Vern was working for his father at Royal Melbourne during the day and studying at night for a Diploma in Electrical Engineering. He also played golf to a high standard, playing off a handicap of +1, winning the club championship at nearby Royal Park Golf Club in 1924 and 1925.

On completing his Diploma, Vern worked as a building and fencing contractor, taking on jobs where possible for his father’s firm, M.A. Morcom and Son, with local councils and golf clubs which needed help regarding course design, construction and maintenance.

He never saw himself as a course architect as that was never his primary occupation. His full-time job – one that lasted four decades – was as head greenkeeper at Kingston Heath, which 

 drew up a bunkering plan for the course in 1926 and Mick Morcom’s company won the contract to implement the changes.

As Mick was busy at the time with the new West course at Royal Melbourne, Vern was enlisted to work on the Kinston Heath bunker project in June of 1927 (the same year that he was married to Dorothy Agatha Waller) and the work was completed the following year at a cost of £2020.

The club was so pleased with the final outcome – including the installation of MacKenzie’s remodelled 15th hole – it offered Vern the position of head greenkeeper in March 1928. He then tweaked a number of holes and more than doubled the number of bunkers over the following fifteen years, mainly through dividing large sand hazards into smaller clusters.

His design career got off the ground in 1935, planning three courses that year with his father at Kingswood, Medway and Torquay. Mick’s health began to fail around then and he was to pass away in 1937. A year later, Vern was invited by the Western Australia Golf Association to run the rule over courses around Perth, to ensure they were up to national championship standard.

World War II then intervened and Vern concentrated on maintaining Kingston Heath during the war years. In 1944, a huge bushfire took hold and Vern spent a couple of days fighting the flames. Reports of his death appeared in the local press but he emerged from his work shed on the third day; hungry, thirsty and a little weary but very much alive.

In the late 1940s, Vern earned design commissions in a few of the more outlying areas of Victoria, with Gisborne (1946), Euroa (1946) and Kyneton (1949) all turning to him for full design services.

Morcom also secured an assignment closer to home at Spring Valley in Clayton (1948). When author Doug Courtney later came to write the history of this club, he found when reading through eight of Vern’s notebooks that from 1953 to 1959 he had been in communication with fifty-one clubs during those years, across every state except Western Australia.

His design advice was highly sought after from clubs starting from scratch, others that were expanding from nine to eighteen or perhaps planning to redesign or renovate a number of their holes. In 1956 alone, Vern designed five courses and remodelled ten others throughout Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

Vern’s wife died in her mid-50s in October 1958 and his own health deteriorated around that time, apologising to several clubs for delays in their design work due to being hospitalised with an ulcer. His final design of note was Rosanna outside Melbourne in 1962, by which time his daughter Faye and her family had moved in with him in Baumaris, his home since the 1920s.

Morcom retired from Kingston Heath Golf Club in 1967, aged 67 and passed away in 1976, two years after his older brother Afton.

“Much of Vern’s design work was done for clubs in small country towns, with limited water supply and negligible maintenance budgets. MacKenzie, Colt & Alison disdained rough as a hazard but Vern saw its practical upside – it required less upkeep than bunkering. MacKenzie, Colt & Alison favoured wide fairways unbounded by trees to maximise choice in playing lines, whereas Vern seemed less concerned by the prescriptive effects of trees and recommended their planting to beautify the surroundings.

No account of Vern’s design principles would be complete without mention of the dogleg. Vern had a penchant for designing holes where the bend was too sharp and too early. To some, this is his fatal flaw. In many cases, these holes force better players to hit an unimaginative long or even mid-iron tee shot to the corner, followed by another mid-iron to the green. Given his top-level playing pedigree, it wasn’t that he didn’t understand how far good players could hit the ball.

His reasons may have been practical – a sharp dogleg can help an architect solve a tricky routing dilemma over difficult ground or in a tight corner of a property. With only a small acreage to work with, Vern might have seen the acute dogleg as a way to defend the approach shots. Extend the second shot by forcing people to take a shorter club off the tee. Yet pragmatics alone can’t explain just how common those holes were on his courses.

We can only assume that Vern saw the sharp dogleg as a legitimate strategic challenge and if he was to avoid the situation of a weaker player being blocked out on their second, the turn couldn’t be too far from the tee. Presumably he reasoned that the better golfer would either bravely fly the corner or be able to shape the tee shot as required. And yes, some of these holes do pose interesting risk-reward questions.

It is evident from his writing that Vern was a disciple of the golden age: guided by the natural topography, striving for variety, mindful of the strategic importance of bunkering and features of the green complex. His design principles were grounded in practicality: drainage considerations, maintenance costs and the imperative to avoid playing towards a low sun. To the end, Vern saw his architecture projects as more hobby than career.

The years following WWII, when Vern was most active, were a very different time. The days of Cargie Rymill and Alex Russell had passed, MacKenzie’s 1926 visit a distant memory. Only Sloan Morpeth and Vern Morcom could be called upon, with the occasional cameo from Sam Berriman. None of these men were golf course architects by profession; they did what they could in their spare time. Viewed through this historical lens, Vern Morcom’s output – both its size and its quality – is truly remarkable.

Vern’s design portfolio includes a number of top courses in Australia’s southern capitals: Spring Valley and Kingswood and Rosanna in Melbourne, the Grange and Glenelg in Adelaide, Royal Hobart and Devonport in Tasmania. Perhaps his greatest legacy, though, is the set of courses he designed in regional areas, away from the cities. Such places often lacked a connection to golf’s leading schools of thought in architecture and greenkeeping, and Vern was able to provide this link.

The shaping of a green and its surrounding bunkers, mounds and hollows was a strength of Vern’s. Even when a club lacked the money or water needed for grass greens, Vern planned for them anyway. He saw their importance not only as an arena to test the short game, but as a lynchpin to a hole’s strategy, worked out in reverse from green to tee. At some clubs, the conversion from scrapes to grass greens was a major part of Vern’s remit.

Vern was adept at summing up a site from a topographical map. He could visualize and stake out holes over ground covered in forest and thick scrub. He didn’t shirk a challenge [but] he was also realistic. On flat sites, Vern worked to avoid bland holes. Sometimes this involved maximising the use of existing natural features, other times it meant focussing on strategic bunker placement. When sought out by quality, established clubs, Vern demonstrated that he could make modest changes that were major improvements.”

From the August-September 2004 edition of 

Aerial photos going back to 1931 reveal only 53 bunkers which would have been essentially as MacKenzie’s plans dictated. Later aerials portray the vast difference between the original bunkering and that of fifteen years later – 53 bunkers had become more than 130. The position of a few had changed dramatically but most remained in the original locations.

This was where Vernon’s work is most obvious. His eye for harmonious balance within the landscape caused a rethink of the style of the bold expansive original bunkering. At Royal Melbourne the large expanses of sand blended well into the wide fairways and rather bold contours. Kingston Heath was another story, where the flatter ground and narrower fairways called for less obtrusive bunkers.

So he set about turning one bunker into as many as five or six and developing what made Kingston Heath so famous. These old aerial photographs changed preconceived views on who was really responsible for the design and construction of Kingston Heath. Photos of 

 and Alister Mackenzie took pride of place in the clubhouse but nothing was seen of Vernon or his father.

In 1945, Morcom’s set of six architectural principles were published:

Keep to the natural appearance of the country by making greens where they fit and not by fitting them where convention might suggest.

Place bunkers to make the good player play a better game, not to get the poorer player in trouble.

Six thousand yards is long enough for a course under present conditions. Players shouldn’t be exhausted before they reach the 19th.

Never attempt to make a new course on the same lines as an established one. People who say one course is better than another have got the wrong idea. No one course should be like any other.

Short-hole greens should be placed so that players can see them from the tees. Better still, they should be able to see the pins clearly.

Balance short holes with long holes, and the first nine with the last nine, where possible.

In 'A Round Forever' by John Scarth, Mike Clayton wrote in the foreword: “Vern Morcom was clearly one of the most highly regarded men in Australia’s golfing community and aside from his full-time employment at Kingston Heath, was a prolific consultant to golf clubs and was engaged to design, modify or construct numerous golf courses throughout Australia.”

Vern Morcom

In 1928, Morcom took over as the course superintendent at Kingston Heath, a position he held for forty years, and he made sure MacKenzie’s bunker plan for the layout was implemented in every little detail.

Cargie Rymill

South Australia

Espirito Santo Trophy

Australian Amateur

Australian Women's Amateur

Australia

It’s hard to believe that today’s modern 36-hole parkland golf complex at The Grange Golf Club was once nothing other than an enormous sandy swamp that was not even fit for agricultural purposes. Reclamation of the land led to its development as an Adelaide suburb and part of the site was turned over to the sporting pursuit of golf.

Founded in 1926, The Grange Golf Club had a Cargie Rymill-designed course in play the year after its formation. Quite a few changes were made to the layout after The Great War before Vern Morcom was engaged to carry out improvements. It then took nine years before the remodelled course was finished in 1965. It became known as the East course when the new West course debuted in 1967.


The East course at the Grange Golf Club came of age nine years after it opened when a fresh faced, 21-year-old professional named Greg Norman won the 1976 West Lakes Classic; the first of an incredible thirty-one professional tournaments the Great White Shark would win on the Tour of Australia.


Two years later, another Queenslander in the shape of Wayne Grady, would also win his first event on the East. He and Norman would, of course, go on to much greater things by claiming Major titles – Norman with the 1986 and 1993 Open Championship and Grady with the PGA in 1990. Nonetheless, both golfing greats took their first step onto the ladder of golfing success here on the East course.

In 2010, Greg Norman was selected to renovate and update the ageing East course to modern design standards. Greg Norman Golf Course Design and the members of the Grange Golf Club green committee visited many of the Melbourne sand belt courses and the sand based East course re-opened for play in 2011 with more than an echo of the classic courses in Victoria.

Grange (East)

Royal Adelaide

Oceania

The East course at the Grange Golf Club came of age twenty years after it opened when a fresh faced, 21 year old professional named Greg Norman won the West Lakes Classic...