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WSJ: Moe Norman: Golf's Greatest Ball Striker?


nevets88
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If this doesn't open, Google "WSJ: Moe Norman: Golf's Greatest Ball Striker?" and get to the article from the search hit.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/moe-norman-golfs-greatest-ball-striker-1406338027

Quote:
He won the 1955 Canadian Amateur championship, and earned an invitation to the Masters the following spring. Norman upset some club members there by hitting iron shots off the practice green. After the second round—there was no 36-hole cut yet—Moe was hitting balls on the range when Sam Snead offered some swing advice. Moe spent hours trying to incorporate Snead's suggestions, a marathon practice session that left his hands bloody and so raw that he could only complete nine holes the next day before withdrawing from the tournament. He got a second chance at Augusta the following year after winning another Canadian Amateur (he won 17 of 21 amateur tournaments that summer), but missed the newly installed cut by a stroke.

That's Crenshaw, Couples, Nick Price and Faldo looking on:

Steve

Kill slow play. Allow walking. Reduce ineffective golf instruction. Use environmentally friendly course maintenance.

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Awards, Achievements, and Accolades

  • 10 months later...

My swing is similar to Mo Norman's, and he inspired me to change everything. Before I had a very "wrist-rotaty" swing, and I felt like I was trying to flip the clubhead through the ball and time it perfectly.

About 2 months ago I switched to the "Mo Norman grip" with your back hand under the club holding it in the lifeline. I like it for a few reasons. 1For one, I am able to eliminate all the wrist rotation movement. That was really causing me to spray the ball all over, and even my good shots were a few feet left or right at best. With this grip it's much easier to have the clubface square at impact, hence straight shots for me - not just straighter in general, but way fewer "really bad misses".

Another reason I like it is because of how it affects the way your wrists bend. Many vardon grip players have a real scoopy motion at the bottom of the swing. Among other things, this can really increase the chance of hitting thin.With the Mo grip I find it really hard to "over release" the hinge on the downswing so my hand never fall into the bad behind-the-ball position.

Another thing that has helped me is swinging "at the target". In Mo's videos he makes fun of other golfers, "When they are swinging where to their clubs end up? Around their backs. I want the ball to go to the target,I swing at the target. They swing around the golf course. Their club swing points right into the trees. So where does their ball go? Rightinto the trees!" When my follow through is finished I try to have my chest hands and clubhead all in a line pointing at the target, and well, a whole lot of the time it goes to the target!

I do feel like sometimes on my driver I come through on an out-to-in path that puts sort of an unwanted fade on the ball, but it's nowhere near as bad as when I wasn't using this grip.

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Jack says he was the best. That's good enough for me.

Driver.......Ping K15 9.5* stiff 3 wood.....Ping K15 16* stiff 5 wood.....Ping K15 19* stiff 4 Hybrid...Cleveland Gliderail 23* stiff 5 - PW......Pinhawk SL GW...........Tommy Armour 52* SW...........Tommy Armour 56* LW...........Tommy Armour 60* FW...........Diamond Tour 68* Putter.......Golfsmith Dyna Mite Ball..........Volvik Vista iV Green Bag..........Bennington Quiet Organizer Shoes.... ..Crocs

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  • 3 years later...

Lee Trevino, Ken Venturi, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus...ect..they all mention Moe when asked about the best ball strikers.  There are other people that come up in conversations, but the name that is repeated the most is Moe Norman.

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Nah. I don’t really buy into the Moe Norman being the greatest ball striker and here’s why;

Moe was great on the range. He was primarily a range rat. You take any pro golfer and have him spend hours and hours all day every day just hitting balls, often the same club for hundreds of balls he’d be amazing to watch. Even I can take a 7i and after warming up and hitting about 15 balls can start hitting consistently good 7i’s to with a small dispersion. Pros don’t do that. They are focusing on a specific item with their swing. They’re changing it up, practicing short game plays and putting. Moe would go out and hit his 9i over and over for hours. Take Moe away from the range and put him on a golf course then he’s just a good golfer but nothing amazing. He’s been deemed the greatest ball striker by some yes. But it’s not really an equal comparison in that no pro is going to just range rat themselves as he did. If Henrik Stenson stopped playing and decided to just hit balls all day he’d be just as amazing to watch except he’d also be hitting it a lot farther than Moe ever did. I’m not trying to bash Moe I’m just saying he was in his own ‘sport’. IMO when ‘great ball striker’ is used, I’m referring to a golfer being able to hit different shots, different clubs and totally random. Not hitting a 3W 200 times on a range.

:ping: G25 Driver Stiff :ping: G20 3W, 5W :ping: S55 4-W (aerotech steel fiber 110g shafts) :ping: Tour Wedges 50*, 54*, 58* :nike: Method Putter Floating clubs: :edel: 54* trapper wedge

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Note: This thread is 1840 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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