Elite Traveler Summer 2020

“It’s not about playing the game of golf, it’s about the people that I met. Those are the things that I cherish the most. It really broadened my horizons”

haven’t veered off course since.” Despite Norman’s various golf-related enterprises, it is his course-design business that the 65-year-old deems to be the most significant. Through courses that he’s built in far-flung areas of the world such as Vietnam, Norman has introduced the merits of capitalism in otherwise socialist or communist countries. His course-design projects have strengthened golf’s popularity in India, Argentina and Mexico, and in some cases — like with Ayla Oasis in Jordan — his courses have even opened the door for the sport to flourish in new regions around the world. Although he would enjoy taking on a mentor’s role for some of the younger players on the PGA Tour, much the way Nicklaus acted as a mentor to him during the first half of his own playing career, Norman admits that those opportunities haven’t yet presented themselves. “I have a wealth of experience and information,” he says, acknowledging that right now his work as a course designer provides the best medium through which he can share it. “That might be more my outlet. That’s how I can grow the game around the world."

fondest memories. “There are hundreds of shots that I can sit back and reflect on if I wanted to,” he says. “But they didn’t have the impact on my life the way that meeting people through golf did. It’s not about playing the game of golf, it’s about the people that I met. Those are the things that I cherish the most. It really broadened my horizons more than I had ever anticipated.” Through his accomplishments on the course, Norman had an opportunity to meet world leaders such as President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, President Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Prime Minister Bob Hawke of Australia, and US Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, among other dignitaries. In many cases, those introductions led to long-term relationships, which have since helped Norman in some of his philanthropic endeavors. When a tsunami ravaged Indonesia in 2004, for example, Norman brought Presidents Bush and Clinton together to raise millions of dollars in a single day. “Being philanthropic in the most philanthropic country in the world is not hard to do,” Norman says, not wanting to make a big

deal of the charitable work that he’s done while living in the US. “But paying it forward is important.” Norman also learned from those world leaders and business moguls how to conduct himself professionally. Prime Minister Hawke, for example, taught Norman the art of effective public speaking, and those lessons helped him to later leverage the Shark nickname into a portfolio of successful international business enterprises — some connected to golf and others independent of the sport. In particular, Norman learned the value of quiet observation. “It gave me the confidence to say the right thing at the right time,” he says of the moments he spent with numerous presidents, prime ministers and entrepreneurs. “The power of listening is way greater than the power of talking. “When you start asking a lot of questions, you can see these other opportunities that can come into your favor,” he continues. “Once you see them you still have to build a business plan. It’s not easy and it doesn’t happen overnight. It took 15 to 18 years for me to build credibility and to establish a footprint of what I wanted to do, but I