Rainmaker – Hughes Norton, the man who made Tiger Woods rich
Hughes Norton, one of the first IMG super agents, made Tiger Woods rich. Additionally, thanks to Norton, Woods no longer needs to win a golf tournament to earn his first $60 million. This is an unprecedented amount in the golf world. Then, two years after signing his first contract, Woods fired Norton as his agent. Mark McCormack then fired him from IMG. Norton then disappeared for a quarter of a century.What happened between then and now is the subject of a new book called “The Rainmaker,” beautifully written by Norton with the help of former Golf Magazine editor George Pepper. Once you start this story, you won’t be able to put it down. A number of transactions containing dollar signs were identified. Behind-the-scenes information golfers wanted to know.McCormack got his start long before there were all the TV shows, dramas and HBO movies about fictional sports agents. It was exactly what they did, what they knew how to do. They
changed the lives of their customers a few dollars at a time, making IMG literally billions in profit. During his years at IMG, Norton’s professional roster included Curtis Strange, Ben Crenshaw, Tom Watson, Mark O’Meara, Peter Jacobsen, David Graham, Bill Rogers, Nancy Lopez, Bobby… Clampett and Greg Norman were included. Norton earns an incredible amount of money from many of them. Before Woods, there was probably no golfer who won $60 million before hitting a professional tee. However, IMG and Norton likely followed Norman’s lead. Between 1983 and 1993, when Norton gave him a chance, Shark’s on-course earnings totaled just over $10.8 million, but his off-course contract with IMG brought in nearly $50 million.
Norton signed Norman to a tailoring deal with Reebok, and he sought out his graphic designer to create the multi-colored “Shark” logo that became synonymous with the brand. Norton’s idea was to “build a tournament” around Norman, which became the Shark Shootout, but since current players cannot have their names listed in sponsored events or events sponsored by the PGA Tour, The name was later changed to the sponsor name plus Shootout.
On several occasions, Norman asked Norton to leave IMG and work exclusively for him, but Norton refused to accept additional business contracts, an international team of lawyers and accountants, and other services provided by IMG in the form of people such as: It was felt that Norman would get more profit from the property.
