The former World No. 1 has put the Meeker property named Seven Lakes Ranch (What, you thought you were only getting a river?) that covers nearly 12,000 acres back on the market at the low price of $40 million. And we’re only partly joking considering the previous price tag of $55 big ones. Anyway, check out these views of the estate that straddles the White River in the shadow of the Rockies(All photos courtesy of the listing agency, Hall and Hall):

I’m not even a big nature guy and I’m entranced. The listing also includes this photo of Norman and wife Kirsten Kutner riding horses in the snow:

Just a regular winter wonderland, huh?

Oh yeah, the house itself, isn’t too shabby either. In addition to the 12,000 acres, $40 million will get you a 14,000 square-foot lodge—and a lot of antlers.

When he’s not being a business mogul or posing naked, Norman, 65, seems to spend most of his time at his Jupiter, Fla. residence. After unsuccessfully trying to sell it for as much as $65 million, Norman had it bulldozed and built a new mansion in its place.

 

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There one minute gone the next. The main house has stood proudly since 1902 with a few additions added since owning this magnificent property from 1991 on Jupiter Island, it was time to take down the old and bring in the new, which we hope to have completed by end of 2019.

A post shared by Greg Norman (@shark_gregnorman) on Jul 21, 2018 at 6:15pm PDT

Who knows, maybe that’s the plan with the Colorado property if it doesn’t fetch the right price. Either way, The Shark seems to be doing quite well for himself.

The post Greg Norman’s Colorado ranch is so big a river runs through it, can be yours for a cool $40 million appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The new  ‘Jordan’s Ayla Golf Championship’ and the lofty elevation of Ajman’s Al Zorah Golf Club to season-ending Tour Championship status highlight the tour’s six-tournament “post summer” schedule unveiled Monday.

Dubai Creek, The Els Club Dubai, Yas Links (Abu Dhabi) and Sahara Golf & Country Club in Kuwait return, meaning the 7^th MENA Tour season will ultimately offer its pro-am members 16 tournaments (including Q-School) across six countries with a total purse of US$673,000 (AED 2.47 million). But it’s the official world ranking points and European, Asian and PGA Tour exemptions on offer, as much as the money, which is helping the developmental Middle East and North Africa circuit continually spread its wings.

MENA Tour chairman Mohamed Juma Buamaim is “delighted” to welcome Jordan to the fold as the MENA Tour chips away at getting an Arab golfer to the Olympic Games. It will be hosted at the new Greg Norman-designed Ayla Golf Resort, the country’s first all-grass 18-holer, in Aqaba.

“We are also excited to be making our first visit to Al Zohra for the season finale which, for the first time, will be a 72-hole affair,” Buamaim said. “Their [Al Zorah’s] support is a reflection on the strides being made by the tour in putting the region on the sporting map. I am sure our members will have a memorable experience playing on the Nicklaus-design layout.”

Al Zorah replaces Muscat Hills Golf & CC as host of the October 23-26 Tour Championship. Another Oman event, the Ghala Open, and the Shaikh Maktoum Dubai Open at the now closed Al Badia GC in Dubai are also missing from last year’s summer schedule.

The Tour Championship will be contested by the top 50 professionals and 10 leading amateurs in what is shaping as a tight order of merit (OOM) points race.

Al Zorah GC in Ajman

Jamie Elson, who has played all nine main tour events thus far, currently leads the pro OOM from fellow Englishmen Luke Joy and veteran Andrew Marshall while Brazil’s Dubai-based Tiago Lobo sits atop the amateur points standings by two points from England’s Sam Hobday.

But with nine first time winners this season, there is much to play for including a start in the PGA Tour’s 2018 DEAN & DELUCA Invitational (for the MENA Tour champion) as well as the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the Hassan II Trophy, Maybank Championship Malaysia and KLM Open during the wrap-around 2017-18 European Tour schedule. Playing privileges on South Africa’s Sunshine Tour, and exemptions into the final stage of the Sunshine Tour and Asian Tour Q-Schools are also up for grabs.

“With each event producing a new winner, including Netherland’s Pierre Junior Verlaar, who became the second amateur after Rayhan [2016 Dubai Creek Open champion Rayhan Thomas] to win a MENA Tour event, the first-half of the season turned out to be a great success, further amplifying the strength of the tour.

“With Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) points on offer, I see big things for the MENA Tour. If it keeps going the way it is, it’s a huge pathway for someone from this region to qualify for the Olympics. It gives young professionals much-needed experience, which is difficult to gain.”

An initiative of the Shaikh Maktoum Golf Foundation, the MENA Tour was created in 2011 with the aim of developing golf in the region. It is affiliated to R&A and the Arab Golf Federation and enjoys the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) status.

2017 MENA Tour – Post summer schedule
Sept 11-13: The Dubai Creek Open
Venue: at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club. Purse: US$50,000

Sept 18-20: The Golf Citizen Classic
Venue: Els Club Dubai. Purse: US$30,000

Sept 25-27: The Golf Citizen Abu Dhabi Open
Venue: Yas Links GC. Purse: US$50,000

Oct 5-7: Jordan’s Ayla Golf Championship
Venue: Ayla Golf Resort (Aqaba). Purse: US$50,000

Oct 16-18: The Sahara Kuwait Golf Championship
Venue: Sahara Golf & County Club. Purse: US$50,000

Oct 23-26: The MENA Tour Championship
Venue: Al Zorah GC (Ajman). Purse: $100,000

Completed events
March 6-9: 2017 Qualifying School, El Jadida Golf Club, Morocco
Winner – Jack Doherty (SCO)

March 14-16: Palmeraie Country Club Casablanca Open
Winner – Leo Lilja (SPN)

March 19-21: Royal Golf Mohammedia Open
Winner – Pierre Junior Verlaar (NED/Amateur)

April 24-26: Ras Al Khaimah Classic
Winner – Peter Stojanovski (AUS)

Thailand Swing
May 2-4: Mahasamutr Masters
Winner – Jazz Janewattananond (THAI)

May 8-10: Mountain Creek Open by Golf Citizen
Winner – Lionel Weber (FRA)

May 16-19: Pattana Golf Championship*
Winner – Fredrik From (SWE)

South African Swing
June 7-9: South to East Challenge
Winner – Breyten Meyer (RSA)

June 13-15: Jo’burg City Masters
Winner – Jaco Prinsloo (RSA)

June 20-22: The Roar
Winner – Daniel Hammond (RSA)

*72-hole event reduced to 36 holes due to inclement weather

The post Jordan’s Ayla Golf Resort added to MENA Tour schedule as Al Zorah eyes season decider appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Dave Shedloski 

Though he hasn’t competed in an official tournament in nearly five years, Greg Norman isn’t done with the game of golf. Not remotely. You’ll see in October, he says.

No, the Great White Shark isn’t making a comeback, not at age 62, not after nearly severing his left hand with a chainsaw three years ago while performing some do-it-yourself tree trimming at his palatial estate in Jupiter Island, Fla. And not with all the other scar tissue he has accumulated during a Hall of Fame career that was marked by dominance and disappointment.

What Norman has up his sleeve is something called the Verizon Championship, the product of a strategic partnership between the recently rebranded Greg Norman Company and Verizon. The partnership, which was announced in late March, bills itself as bringing “innovative and disruptive technology to the golf industry.” We shall see what that means. There also are non-golf components to the collaboration, including educational technology.

Last month the Australian native could barely contain his enthusiasm for this latest project when he visited Columbus, Ohio, to join Jack Nicklaus at The Legends Luncheon, a charity event held in conjunction with Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament. Norman was invited to the luncheon, where he and Nicklaus shared stories and memories to help raise money for Nationwide Children’s Hospital, on the eve of Norman being the tournament’s primary honoree for a career that includes 91 worldwide titles, including two majors, and 331 weeks atop the Official World Golf Ranking, second most all-time behind Tiger Woods. Also being honored on Wednesday at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, are Ken Venturi, Tony Lema and E. Harvie Ward, Jr., while Golf Digest editor-in-chief Jerry Tarde will accept the Memorial Golf Journalism Award.

“We’re launching something in the third quarter of this year that is virgin space, something that no one has ever gone into before with the game of golf,” Norman said last month, the week after the Masters. “I’m excited about launching that.”

Norman has been disruptive in golf before—to the benefit of today’s players. The World Golf Championships, begun in 1999, were an outgrowth of a big idea called the World Tour that Norman proposed in 1994. That initiative was billed as a series of events for the top 30 players in the world. Although Norman contended that PGA Tour and European Tour players would be able to play World Tour events in concert with their home tours, the PGA Tour saw the idea as competition, and then-new tour commissioner Tim Finchem quashed the $25 million circuit. And since 1989 Norman has hosted the Shark Shootout, an unofficial tour event featuring two-man teams.

I really don’t miss it all. … I tried to win as much as I could, and I always tried to get better and better. And every time I got better, that rung got higher and higher. And it’s hard to maintain that game and that edge. I’d rather pour my energies into my business. — Greg Norman

Norman’s latest gambit might reap significant rewards for players. A long-time golf official who claimed to have some insight into the deal indicated that the event would feature team play and have a fantasy component using scores and statistics. It is believed that the Verizon Championship could put up a purse that far exceeds this year’s richest official tournament, the U.S. Open, which offers $12 million.

Norman would not confirm any details. “I haven’t talked about it, so I don’t know how anyone could know anything about it,” he said.

The Shark was not gritting his pearly whites when he said it. Instead, there was a gleam in his eye, which he gets when expounding on his varied and highly successful business interests. Last year, he rebranded his company, changing the name from Great White Shark Enterprises to The Greg Norman Company as he retreats from the sports-marketing world to focus on business-to-business ventures.

The kick he gets from running his empire addresses the competitive hunger he used to sate with golf, but while many of the players he once dominated enjoy senior-level competition, Norman has no appetite for it. He sounds much like his idol, Nicklaus, when he explains his aversion to the commitment required for competitive golf. At the same time, he remains uncannily fit—and has often proudly displayed his physique on Instagram. The most recent example was a video of Norman executing leg raises crunches the crutches, which he needed after suffering a torn tendon in his left foot the week after the Legends Luncheon.

Norman’s on-course competitiveness is now channeled into his off-course pursuits

“Look, I’ve done it long enough,” he began in explaining his departure from the competitive golf arena. “I’m enough of a realist. I never wanted to be a ceremonial golfer. You realize that you go up against these young kids, or even against the guys who play regularly on the Champions Tour, you’ve got to keep practicing, keep practicing. I’ve hit nearly 5 million golf balls. I don’t want to hit another 5 million. On top of that I have the other side of my life, which is my business. I love it, I love growing the business and I’m optimistic about the future of it. That’s enough of a challenge for me by itself. You have to commit to that as much as you do your golf game.”

Even years removed from his golf prime, Norman’s silhouette remains iconic to many fans

“I understand what Greg is saying, totally,” Nicklaus said. “I miss the competition, but I don’t have a game to compete anymore. You’ve got to have things that take over your competitive juices. To me, most of my competitive juices have been in golf-course design. But that has been slowing down. Actually, the charity work has taken over. My wife has got me more involved, and I’m enjoying meeting all kinds of new people and new challenges.”

Norman said he played five rounds of golf last year. Before his foot injury he had played five rounds this year, primarily at grand openings for his golf-course designs.

“I really don’t miss it all,” he said. “It’s a very easy decision for me. I did all I could do in my career. I tried to win as much as I could, and I always tried to get better and better. And every time I got better, that rung got higher and higher. And it’s hard to maintain that game and that edge. I’d rather pour my energies into my business.”

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Tony Navarro, who caddied for Norman during much of the Shark’s prime. “The way he went at it for some many years, as hard as he worked, I can understand. The guy never even takes a nap. Working out is his nap. These guys today work hard at the game. But Greg in his prime worked harder than anyone else, and he has moved on to work hard at other things. There is no point to golf anymore.”

That’s not to say Norman will never play tournament golf again. “One thing that might get me out a little more is the Father-Son Challenge with my son [Gregory] at the end of the year,” he allowed. “And if I do commit to that, then I will give it my full attention, as much as I can. I’ll probably start six weeks out, get the rotation going. We did play in it before, but not for a long time because it has been scheduled opposite the Shark Shootout. That’s probably one thing that would get my interest in playing, but that’s one time. That’s the one exception I’d be happy to make.”

Before that, however, is the so-called Verizon Championship venture. True to his life goals at the present, he’ll take on tournament golf at the executive level and leave playing the game to others. Say this for the Shark, he always has been comfortable swimming with the big fishes, whatever the challenge.

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