Norman Remembers Kerry Packer

Greg Norman learned a lot from Kerry Packer both on and off the golf course

Greg Norman doesn't say it, but he and Kerry Packer were kindred spirits. They were both tough minded and they both had a desire to be the best. So it was with great sadness that Norman greeted the news that his mentor in the business world passed away earlier this week.

They were poles apart when it came to drinking and gambling, Packer legendary when it came to the punt in the casinos and on the racetracks of the world, while Norman's only flutter was on a game of golf. Norman drinks, loves his beer and fine wines, Packer became a teetotaler. Yet the affinity was there, they both loved a solid argument, neither liked to lose.

"I love Kerry Packer," Norman told the Herald via his mobile phone while driving through the mountains of Colorado yesterday where he and his family are spending time at their holiday ranch for the Christmas/New Year period. It was the present tense in which he spoke, as though Packer were still alive. To Norman, and others nearest and dearest, he surely always will be.

The Shark played in the "Packer" Australian Opens at The Australian from 1975 to 1978, but never really got to know the big man of Australian business -- "Hello, Mr. Packer, Hello Greg," was about all it amounted to.

He got to know Packer in 1984 when Packer sponsored a skins game at The Australian in which Norman, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson and Seve Ballesteros participated. Norman was the new kid on the block, the Australian yet to win a major against the trio who had 28 majors between them.

"I really met him that week, starting with the tournament dinner," Norman said. "We found we could talk without fear or favor. He was brutally honest and he wanted to be treated the same way by those with whom he came into contact. I designed his [private] course [Ellerston at Scone] and we had wonderful dialogue along the way. He wanted it this way, and I'd say, 'No, we can't do it that way. We had many an argument, but we did it my way."

They never actually became business partners in any venture, but each was there for the other. In 2002, Norman's first golf course design in Ireland -- Doonbeg -- was officially opened and among the club's advisory board was Packer, along with a former US Congressman, Jim Awtrey, former CEO of the PGA of America, a former US ambassador to Ireland and a heavyweight list of American corporate types.

"Once I was talking with Kerry and he said, 'Greg, you have something I'll never have.' It startled me. 'What do you mean?'

"You are No.1 in the world, and I'll never be No.1.' I thought, 'Wow, such admiration from a man of Kerry Packer's stature'."

It was in the mid-1980s that Norman received a business offer, to be the figurehead for a business entrepreneur with a good idea. He called Packer and set up a meeting in his ACP office to bounce it off him. Packer listened, and then replied, "Son, you keep out of my business and I'll keep out of your business."

Norman was with IMG, after a split with his first manager, Englishman James Marshall, and several years later he did the numbers about how much he was making for the worldwide company founded by the late Mark McCormack and decided enough was enough. He formed his Great White Shark Enterprises in the 1990s, and he is now Australia's richest sportsman because of it.

"I have numerous conversations with Kerry about business," Norman said. "He's been very, very helpful in situations like that and if you're ever going to go into business you want to get all your checks and balances done. Absolutely [I owe him]. I always praise him because he's always been there. I can pick up the phone and get Kerry. I normally speak to him every two months.

"Three weeks ago, four weeks ago, when I was in Australia we organized to have lunch when I'm down there in a couple of weeks, to sit down and talk about stuff. We do that all the time. Kerry is just very open and about being there for me, just as he is for the cricketers and all the other sportsmen and women. He's been great to everyone like that."

Such was their friendship that Norman often stayed with Packer at his Sydney mansion, borrowed the Packer jet before he purchased his own, and Packer would visit Norman in Florida.

The game of golf brought them together, as it does with strangers the world over, and now a part of Norman's life is missing with the passing of Kerry Packer.