From Domainfax:
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was able to jump the queue to speak to President-elect Donald Trump before other world leaders after Greg “The Shark” Norman was persuaded to pass on his golfing buddy’s personal mobile number.
Joe Hockey, ambassador to the United States, acted quickly after Mr Trump’s shock victory over Hillary Clinton, getting in touch with Norman to seek the details amid a government-wide effort to get the newly elected leader on the phone with the Prime Minister.
The revelation, confirmed by the Prime Minister’s office, comes as US media reveal the chaos besetting the incoming administration’s transition process, including puzzled American allies being forced to call Trump Tower blindly and getting patched through to the President-elect with little warning.
…Norman, one of the world’s best golfers throughout the 1980s and ’90s, has been friends with Mr Trump for a decade. The TV personality’s business empire includes more than a dozen golf courses and the pair have played together regularly.
I am an enormous fan of The Shark having been mercilessly tortured by him through the 80s and 90s as he failed to win the US Masters (or any other US major). Failing so spectacularly for so long elevated him far above boring old winners. He became Shakespearean in his flawed quest. That last day meltdown against Nick Faldo sent me to the psychiatrist.
Yet here he is, decades on, grabbing DFAT ‘by the pussy’, and putting Do-nothing through to The Donald. Could he perhaps have Nick Faldo hit with a drone strike today?
What a strange, strange world it is.
