Malcolm Turnbull’s first phone call to United States President-elect Donald Trump was facilitated by legendary Australian golfer Greg Norman.

Mr Turnbull congratulated Mr Trump on his historic US election win last Thursday morning (AEDT) and News Corp has reported Norman was key in the chat taking place.

Australia’s ambassador to the US, Joe Hockey, contacted Norman after the shock election result and obtained Mr Trump’s phone number from the ex-golfer and now real-estate developer, then passing it on to Mr Turnbull.

Usually, such a call would be facilitated through the respective nations’ foreign departments or staffers but with Mr Trump – a man with few links to traditional political structures – contacting his high-flying friends seemed the best route to getting in touch.

The News Corp report wrote that Mr Trump and Norman had been friends for the best part of a decade, and that the pair had played golf together on numerous occasions.

Norman wrote in Newsweek on Wednesday (AEDT): “I will say that I have spoken to the Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, and he is on-board with wanting to see President-elect Trump succeed.”

The 1986 British Open winner said he had spoken to Mr Trump a few times since he became President-elect.

After the story broke on Thursday morning (AEDT) a statement from Norman read: “It was a pleasure and an honour to facilitate the connection between PN Turnbull and President-elect Trump.”

Norman lives in the United States, in Florida.

Norman and Mr Turnbull met in September when the pair dined with Mr Hockey at his official residence in Washington.

Greg ‘The Shark’ Norman has friends in the highest of places. Photo: Getty

It was there that Mr Turnbull became aware that Norman and Mr Trump were friends.

As other world leaders congratulated Mr Trump while simultaneously and respectfully condemning his controversial traits, Mr Turnbull and the Coalition had remained extremely even-handed in their public messages to the president-elect since his win.

“One of the great things Joe (Hockey) has done, and indeed our government has done, is made sure that we stayed in touch with both sides in the election campaign, so that we — you know, whatever the ­result, whatever choice the American people made — we were able to get off to a good start with the new administration,” Mr Turnbull told Triple M on Wednesday.

“And as you know, I’ve ­already had a good chat with the President-elect and I’m sure the very strong relationship between Australia and America will continue.”