Norman, Sorenstam Will Headline KPMG's Golf Show

Greg Norman is a former professional golfer who's built notable complementary careers in golf course architecture, winemaking, and clothing design.

Annika Sorenstam is a professional golfer who's built notable complementary careers in golf course architecture, winemaking, and clothing design.

Yes, the arcs of their biographies are remarkably similar. And they've both agreed to lend star power to KPMG's seventh Golf Business Forum.

The forum -- the best-attended and most serious event of its kind -- will be held at the Gloria resort in Belek, Turkey on May 12-14, 2010. In years past, it's attracted a diverse, high-level collection of developers, designers, builders, and other golf professionals. It's a good place to rub elbows.

This year, Norman will get a lifetime achievement award and Sorenstam will be honored as the golf entrepreneur of the year.

Who else will be on hand?

Well, there's Tenniel Chu, the executive director of the 12-course Mission Hills Golf Club in Shenzhen, China. If you ask real nice, maybe he'll tell you about his company's new golf resort on Hainan Island, which will reportedly make the original Mission Hills look pint-size.

Peter Harradine, the Swiss architect, will also be on hand, presumably to talk about the course he designing for Rakeen Developments in Georgia. (The nation, not the state.)

Also making an appearance will be Achilles Constantakopoulos, the managing director of TEMES, which is developing the Costa Navarino resort in Messinia, Greece. The resort's first golf course, designed by Bernhard Langer, is scheduled to open this spring. Six more courses are expected to follow.

And then there's Chris White of Aldar Golf, which has built a soon-to-open, Kyle Phillips-designed golf complex for the Yas Island master-planned community in Abu Dhabi. Aldar plans to build a second course at Yas Island when the Middle East's economy perks up.

The forum is being hosted by KPMG's Golf Advisory Practice, which has produced a series of useful studies about the golf business in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. If you snoop around enough at the forum's website -- golfbusinessforum.com -- you should be able to find them.