Great White Shark moves to the top of a different leaderboard

Former Australian golfing great Mr Greg Norman might not be seen at the top of the leaderboard on the tour these days but his off-course activities have nudged him closer to the top of a different kind of scoreboard - Australia's rich list. Through his business, Great White Shark Enterprises, the Australian legend has built up a portfolio of business interests as impressive as it is diverse.

The man who once beat all-comers at will has so far this year played just 14 tournaments around the world and his tour earnings in 2001 have been a modest $328,000 (€356,000). He has not won a tournament on US soil since 1997 but much of that is attributable to what is now happening in the Shark's life away from the greens and fairways. Last year his business commitments saw him fly 500 hours in his Gulfstream IV jet, covering 360,000 kilometres - twice the distance flown by the then US president, Bill Clinton.

With such a hectic schedule it is little wonder that his business interests have become so successful. They net him an annual income, excluding golf, of an estimated 280 million Australian dollars (€118 million).

Just a decade ago it was all very different. He employed just one person then, his secretary, and his interests were looked after by a company called the International Management Group (IMG). The turning point came when he poached his current business manager, Mr Frank Williams, from under the nose of IMG.

With Mr Williams, he has developed Great White Shark Enterprises into an international business employing 180 full-time staff, with offices in Florida, New York, Sydney and Melbourne. He has turned his golfing clout into a highly lucrative course-design business, the unimaginatively titled Greg Norman Golf Course Design Company. To date he has completed 30 courses worldwide. One such project is currently in its final phase of construction in Doonbeg, Co Clare. The £22.4 million (€28.4 million) development has met with a storm of protest from many locals over much of the past two years, with some claiming it has spoiled the surrounding countryside and particularly local sand dunes. But the facility will open next April, when players will pay £31,500 for their annual memberships.

Away from golf course design, Mr Norman has teamed up with Australia's Macquarie Bank to form a property development joint venture, Medallist Golf Developments. The value of that division's work currently under way in Australia alone is set at more than 250 million Australian dollars. It is also working on residential developments in the US, the Middle East and Asia.

Great White Shark Enterprises includes six other core units. One is an events management business, which is another joint venture, this time with SFX Sports Management and Entertainment. Then there is Mr Norman's interactive company, which includes his shark.com website.

He also owns a merchandising business, which he works on closely with a number of world corporate heavyweights, including Chevrolet, Gulfstream Jets and Bell Helicopters. He has his own wine business, Greg Norman Estates, through which he has sold 220,000 cases of wine in the US this year worth a cool 21 million Australian dollars.

His own clothing brand, Greg Norman Clothing, with Reebok, is thriving and is perhaps his most visible presence in his native Australia. The last major piece of the empire is the Greg Norman Down Under chain of restaurants.

He has an increasing number of smaller irons (no pun intended) in the fire too. Take his Greg Norman Turf Company for example.

He sells his own distinct variety of turf - grass if you will - called GN-1 to a host of different groups around world. He supplies the grass for the Super Bowl every year and also supplied the turf used for the field events at the Sydney Olympics last year.

Norman also owns the Australian distribution rights for such prestigious golf brands as Footjoy, Titleist and Cobra - combined worth an estimated 25 million Australian dollars annually.

Another little sideline is his more ostentatious boats business. This, his newest venture, is building its first vessel, a custom-built, 60-metre power yacht. It comes with a mini submarine, a gym, mini cinema, two barbecues, two bars, its very own swimming pool (yes, on a yacht) and an office with full satellite communications. It will cruise for 15,000 kilometres on its 220,000-litre diesel fuel tank.

In short, it will make the former Royal Yacht Britannia look like a Pound Shop lilo. Only three will be made to order each year. But then, at 70 million Australian dollars a go, Mr Norman will not have to build too many to keep the wolf from the door.

The Shark has clearly long subscribed to the "go big or go home" school of business - but then, he has taken his lead from the biggest Australian of them all, media mogul Mr Kerry Packer.

When his sporting star was shining at its brightest in the late 1980s, legend has it that Mr Norman was at a party with Mr Packer, Australia's richest man, when he asked him for some business advice. "You stay out of my business son," Mr Packer told him, "and I'll stay out of yours."

But within a few years he had designed his first golf course on one of Mr Packer's sprawling properties, a 6 million Australian dollars, 18-hole project.

The course has only just been completed but designing it was Mr Norman's first sortie away from hitting little white balls into little holes and he has not faltered since. And, at just 47 years of age, the top of that rich list may soon be his.