Golf great Greg Norman is recovering in a US hospital after almost cutting off his hand with a chainsaw.

Australia’s former world No.1 posted a photo to Instagram on Sunday in which he was lying in a hospital bed with his left arm heavily bandaged.

Norman, 59, issued a warning alongside the photo and suggested he had gone close to severing one of his hands.

“Working with a chainsaw ALWAYS be respectful of the unexpected. I was one lucky man today. Damaged, but not down & out. Still have left hand,” he wrote.

Norman last week posted a photo of himself working with a chainsaw to cut back a small tree at what appears to be one of his seaside properties.