Greg Norman admits downturn has forced him to cut staff

Golfing entrepreneur Greg Norman has revealed the global economic downturn has hit his golf design business hard, with the Great White Shark forced to lay off staff for the first time in his 20-year business career.

“My business is like any business, you have to make adjustments,” Norman told reporters ahead of the British Open, which starts tonight.

“Nobody can really pick when a recession is going to hit, nobody really knows to the magnitude of what it is, but if you have a good business model and you have the flexibility and adaptability to work with that, you can get yourself through it.”

“I’ve had to make changes. I’ve unfortunately had to lay people off, which is not a good feeling. It’s the first time in my entire life, in my short business life of nearly 20 years that I’ve had to do that, because of the golf course design business.”

The big problem is the market in the United States, where the savage downturn had hit the property sector particularly hard.

“America is absolutely dead, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to come back for quite a while, to tell you the truth – this is in golf course design.”

Norman says he is hoping to grow his business in China, citing predictions that the number of golfers in that country is growing by around 50% a year, and will hit 26 million in 2020.

“So if we all study what’s happening in China, then golf, all of us, are going to be much better off and there will probably be more events there and it will be a destination to go.”

Norman said he felt sorry for all entrepreneurs who had been caught in the recession.

“I’ve been through three of them, but nothing to this magnitude,” he said. “It’s one of those things, we have to suck it up and go forward with it.”