Can wedded bliss rejuvenate Greg Norman enough to conquer Augusta National?
By John Garrity Contributing Writer, Sports Illustrated Published: April 07, 2009
"Shouldn't be more than 10 minutes," Norman says, turning the pages of his newspaper. A careful reader, he subscribes to Financial Times, USA Today, Time and Newsweek, and most days he peruses the online editions of The Wall Street Journal and The Sydney Morning Herald. His reading informs his small talk — as now, when he shares an item about coastal flooding in the Maldives, or a minute later, when he says, "Here's an amazing statistic I've heard: China has to employ an additional 15 million people a year just to keep up with the birthrate."
Norman's ability to compartmentalize is a continuing source of amazement to Evert. "Greg can run all his businesses and still play great golf," she says. "I had to just play tennis. I couldn't have my fingers in a lot of different pies." She is quick to add that the G 550 — which Norman bashers disparage as the aerial counterpart to Aussie Rules, the 228-foot luxury yacht he sold in 2004 for a rumored $77 million — is no flashy indulgence but rather an essential tool that allows him to conduct business on a global scale.
Not that her first flight to Australia on Air Norman didn't leave her starry-eyed. "You get on the plane," she recalls with a smile. "A flight attendant serves you the best food, you have all these movies to watch, and then you walk back" — she hoists a thumb toward the back-cabin seating — "and they've put a king-sized mattress on the table. So we're in a king-sized bed going to Australia!" She tilts her head and rests a cheek on steepled hands. "I slept eight hours, and for the first time in my life I arrived in Australia with no jet lag." (The next day Evert will worry that her description of the plane as "a perk of marriage to Greg" might sound crass. "That's his business jet," she says, stopping short of providing fuel receipts and expense logs. "When I do my own stuff, I fly commercial.")
For the young Evert, the distinction between business and pleasure was always clear. "Chris was an implacable opponent, and she didn't choke," says one tennis insider. "Chris on the court was all business," echoes another. One time, after Evert had won a match 6-0, 6-0, a smiling reporter asked her if she couldn't have let her victim win just one teeny-tiny game. Evert's shocked response: "No!" But she was no Iron Maiden after dark. High-spirited and flirty, Evert enchanted some of the 1970s' most eligible bachelors, including — in alphabetical order — 10-time Grand Slam champ and mixed-doubles partner Jimmy Connors (to whom she was invitations-stamped engaged), British pop star Adam Faith, presidential scion Jack Ford, tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis and actor Burt Reynolds.
The young Norman, oddly enough, was Evert's opposite — flamboyant in public, introverted by nature. Raised in Townsville, Queensland, on the apron of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, he grew up riding horses on the beach and spearfishing in Nelley Bay. He didn't become a brand until a Friday morning in 1981, when he woke up to a headline in The Augusta Chronicle: Great White Shark Leads Masters. Intuiting that his striking appearance and Aussie accent could set him apart, Norman began to work the media and play to the galleries.
"Greg understood how golf should be promoted," says Australian broadcaster Graeme Agars. "I reckon he drew a hundred thousand people one day at the Australian Masters." But the radio man didn't fully appreciate Norman's appeal until one day at the Taiheiyo Masters, when he noticed a young Japanese woman walking behind the Shark while making rubbing gestures. "She was rubbing his aura," Agars recalls with awe.
Norman's family life, on the other hand, excited little interest. He met flight attendant Laura Andrassy in 1979, and they dated for two years before tying the knot. Their 25-year marriage produced a daughter (Morgan-Leigh, now 26 and dating golfer Sergio Garcia), a son (Gregory Jr., 23) and an air of marital stability that held up until four years ago when, Norman says, Andrassy asked for a divorce.
The plane banks and a dark landmass fills the windows.
"I was telling Chrissie that the Dominican Republic has 15,000 golfers and 35,000 tennis players," Norman says, shifting in his chair. "That's surprising, isn't it?"
It's 11:40 a.m., Atlantic time, when the famous couple scrambles out of a chartered helicopter, crouching beneath the decelerating rotors. They have landed on a paradise shore of palms and gentle breakers, a place for lovers to oil up and sizzle in the sun — only not today, because the site is overrun with growling front loaders, banging dump trucks and beeping backhoes, along with a small army of sweaty, muscled men who seem bent on moving rocks and sand from the shore over to a distant riverbank, and vice versa. A TV crew and a backpedaling knot of photographers and reporters greet the Shark and his bride, who have donned socks and sneakers.
Norman has designed more than 70 golf courses on six continents, so he knows the drill. He voices his pleasure at being back in the Dominican Republic, explains that the billion-dollar Costa Blanca development will offer residents a pleasing mix of condo towers and fairway villas, plus a mega-yacht marina and a Chris Evert Tennis Center. He expresses confidence that his Costa Blanca course, nine holes of which are already roughed in, will rival any tropical track in the world for beauty while providing a challenging but fair test to golfers of all skill levels. The Shark then gives Evert an off-to-work kiss and strides to the west with McCoy and a work-booted foreman, while Evert heads north with the white-shirted developers and their aides — causing panic among the journos as they weigh which celebrity to follow.
Those who pursue Evert wind up on a dusty stretch of landfill by the river, where Steve Ankrom, Costa Blanca's sales veep, points to an imagined tennis clubhouse and 10 imagined courts. He wants her recommendation for the residential component. Town houses? Cottages? "Off the top of my head, tennis villas are a big thing," she replies, trying to picture a garden complex with balconies overlooking a yacht harbor. "Two or three bedrooms, that comes to mind." Court types? "Kids like to play on the hard courts, and a lot of tournaments are on hard. Obviously, clay is easier on the body for the club player and older person."
Ankrom has to be nervous — this is November 2008, when the market for leisure properties is collapsing like a house of CDOs — but he expresses an almost religious faith that Norman and Evert will fulfill his dreams. "It's all about branding," he says, gazing at the distant silhouette of the Shark, unmistakable at 200 yards. "With so many big projects in the world, you've got to set yourself apart."
The sun is near its zenith by the time Norman finishes his site visit. The helicopter's next touchdown is just up the coast, at the Metro Country Club, where a hotel suite has been reserved for the sweaty couple. After a quick shower and a change into resort casual, the twosome saunters onto the clubhouse veranda, where a crowd has gathered for their press conference. Norman speaks first, trading eights with his interpreter, and then Evert takes over. "Buenos dias," she says, and then in English, "I'll translate for people who don't understand Spanish," giving the Shark a sideways glance. He grins.
During the Q&A, Evert is asked to compare Norman's tennis with her golf game. "Greg's been playing for two years," she replies. "He's very quick on his feet, he has great hand-eye coordination and he's very competitive. So he's picked up tennis very quickly." She adds, "I don't play golf, but wait till I do!" It's a spunky line, but in private Evert will admit that she was embarrassed years ago when she topped her ball off the 1st tee at a pro-am. "I can't simply dabble in something," she says after the press conference. "But Greg" — and here she gives the Shark another one of those I-could-eat-you-for-breakfast looks — "is exceptional."
That past weekend, in fact, Norman played in his first tennis pro-am, a charity match for 5,000 spectators at the Delray Beach (Fla.) Tennis Center. (The Shark and Justin Gimelstob defeated Evert and comedian Billy Crystal 7-5.) The next day Norman partnered with Greg Jr., a professional kiteboarder who will caddie for his father at the Masters, at the ADT Skills Challenge in Aventura, Fla. The Shark won the putting and short-pitching categories with hole outs and then watched Junior steal the finale by hitting a 111-yard pitching wedge to within an inch of the hole.
"How'd it go?" Evert asked afterward.
"We won the event. We won $290,000."
"Oh. Nice weekend, honey."
Telling the story, Evert rolls her eyes
