Greg Norman sets sights on new Aussie winery home
Greg 'The Great White Shark' Norman - who flew into Sydney this week - might be coming back to Australia on a more permanent basis.
The golfing legend, who has spent the last 40 years across the pond in the US, has signalled he is looking at buying a place Down Under.
And no ordinary home - he wants a vineyard. But his wife, Kirsten Kutner envisages their dream home in Queensland.
He apparently spends rainy Sundays in Florida checking out realestate.com.au for the current offerings.
"I would love to go back and have a place there," Norman told The Weekend Australian.
"I would love to have a vineyard.
"I don't know where; I love Margaret River, I lose the Barossa Valley, the Yarra Valley, the Hunter Valley."
His wife however, Sydney interior designer Kirsten Kutner, is a self-declared beach girl.
"I am a very chilled beach girl at heart so I hope one day to move back with Greg to build out dream home somewhere in Queensland."
"Australians are very hip and trendy and the culture is much more interesting than Florida," she says.
Norman, who was born in Mount Isa, far away from any beach in outback Queensland, owns a 2,400 square metre Florida mansion home, known as Tranquility.
It is on the ultra-exclusive Jupiter Island.
Featuring its own putting green, it was listed with US$55 million hopes last year. He paid US$4.9 million in 1991.
No sightings after he touched down this week on any vineyards, but Norman might be interested in the Rothvale vineyard and Winery in the Hunter Valley which has just hit the market through Alan Jurd of Jurd's Real Estate.
The 5.5 hectare vineyard in Pokolbin has an established Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz vineyard.
There are five separate self-contained cottages for tourists sit on the estate.
If Norman doesn't want any cellar door, a more private estate is the nearby Duview in the Hunter Valley which comes with spectacular views of the Brokenback Range.
Officially Norman was here to visit a $1 billion tourism development proposed for a former colliery site near Wollongong which will come with an 18 hole championship golf course and golf academy named after Norman by its Chinese developers.
He also attended the Cathedral Lodge course in Victoria which was designed at Thornton, about 130 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, for the former Essendon Football Club chairman David Evans.
Evans had a vision modelled on great private clubs like Augusta National.
This article was first published in the Saturday Daily Telegraph.
