Sport - Golf

Norman wants to design courses in India

Dubai: Greg Norman, one of the most charismatic players to have walked the golfing greens, said India was a land of opportunities and he was interested to take up golf course designing projects in the subcontinent.

The 52-year-old Australian, described as `Great White Shark', was the World No. 1 for 331 weeks, a record that Tiger Woods broke. He won 86 titles worldwide including two British Opens and finished in top-10 of the Majors as many as 29 times.

Norman, now considered a legend in golf course designing, said he was negotiating to take up a few projects in India.

"We have been approached for numerous projects (and asked) if we're interested in going to India, and the answer is yes. We have looked at them, and we are in the negotiation stage right now," said Norman, who is playing at the Desert Classic.

Sharp business mind

Norman, who was one of the first designers to come to India and lend his name to a course — now called Jaypee Greens near Delhi, is one of the sharpest business minds in sport.

"Like any designer you want to be at the tip of the sphere and the growth of the game of golf is at its peak at present," he said.

"Normally, golf course design is a very good barometer to what's happening to the economy no matter what continent you're on, because when people go and build a golf course, they are either doing a residential golf course community or a resort development," he added.

"And any time you have a resort or residential community, people have done their due diligence and understood there are opportunities. And there is probably a seven-to-ten-year growth cycle there. We are seeing that happen with India right now," Norman said.

He said India and China were among the prime opportunities.

Fall in returns

"There are a lot of opportunities out there outside the United States. The United States is fairly stagnant right now. I think the net on golf courses in the U.S. last year was less than double digits. Golf courses were bought, converted into residential communities.

"So really the net gain was only ten or 11 or nine or something like that. In the 90s, it was 400 or 300 in a year. So you can see how it's really slowed down in the United States." — PTI

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