Moe Norman

[is2linda]

The youtube video of moe was epic on second page was epic. Thats the last time i judge anyone by their swing.

[P3R3]

The only person Bill Brasky has ever lost to was Moe Norman.

[shades9323]

Moe's a legend to be sure. Probably some myth worked into the truth. I do know he carried a wooden tee in his pocket and used that same tee for over 10 years and also once exclaimed "I haven't hit a ball out of bounds in 11 years".

At this point I would be happy to say I haven't hit a ball out in 11 holes.

[Three Putt]

He wasn't that short. Maybe in his late years he was shorter but if I remember right he was in the 280 range with his driver on average.

I agree, I have only seen his older footage until I watched that YouTube video, looks like he had some real good clubhead speed when he was younger, I would believe 280 average easy.

I had his Natural Golf video years ago, he simplified it as just hammering a nail, don't think about it just do it....as a former framing carpenter that one tip helped my golf game more than any. Accounts said that he would hit his driver and bounce it across bridges on the course on purpose.....damn! Fairway is just fine with me.

[deafheaven]

I've messed around with his swing some in the past. Only with the driver though. I had some good results. If I had the money I'd go to the school and really give it a fair shake. Don't have the money though :(

[Dartguy]

9 double eagles!!!!!

[clearwaterms]

I found an article that they are making a movie about him, and it appears that some fresh life has recently been breathed into the project.

The name of the movie is Dance the green, and the Director that directed the Mark Whalberg movie "Invinceable" is directing the movie and casting is going on now with the hope of starting to film next spring. The screen play was written by the writer of "Rain Man"

[sean_miller]

At this point I would be happy to say I haven't hit a ball out in 11 holes.

I remember the day Moe Norman came to my town. He came bouncing over the hill in his old pickup truck. He kept driving and bouncing, higher and higher until the wheels popped and the shocks broke. That didn't stop Moe, though. He just kept on bouncing and bouncing clear on out of site. Some people say he kept on bouncing in that old truck all the way to the moon, but whoever says that's a damned liar!! Aah, golf legends.

[TheLauncher]

Check out http://www.moenorman.org for more videos.

I think this guy is great.

[TheLauncher]

I have to say though, the swing looks inelegant. But the results he is getting are amazing.

[Herrick9]

Nice call on the question D/H........
C'mon this guy was great for the game and short side him if you will re: his "challenges" but he had one of the most repeatable golf swings ever filmed... ever....Oh and he lived in Canada where the season is bout fifteen minutes long....
There's a film out there someplace from the early 90's where Moe is giving an exhibition re: pre-Natural Golf days and a bunch of PGA pros are in the audience including Greg Norman, Freddy, and a host of others. Norman is absolutely slack jawed as Moe was calling the shot, distance, trajectory and direction in the middle of the backswing. He's a little difficult to undersatand on the audio side of the piece but most impressive all the same.

[MiniMoe]

There is a book about Moe called The Feeling of Greatness. It gives a lot of the correct history some of his famous shots, and why he never made it on the PGA tour. I'll mention a few.

As an amateur, he would sell a prize before he played a tournament, and finished in the correct place to win the prize he already sold. Sometimes it was first, sometimes it was second, sometimes it was third. The Canadian PGA did not like him selling his prizes, so they convinced him to go pro. Once he did get on the PGA tour, he did ok, but just about when he was getting ready to break through, some of the bigger named pro's sat him in a room and told him he needed to act right.. not goof around, stop hitting balls off of big tees, dress better, and so on. He did not like that they would not let him be himself. He left the tour and never returned.

Some stories are true, He did hit a ball across a bridge. The three other guys Moe was playing with hit short of the water, and Moe pulled out his driver. They said, "Moe, you can't carry the water". Moe replied, "I'm hitting it over the bridge".... and did.

After 4 putting the week before on the final hole to lose a tournament, during a practice round, some guys were giving him some grief asking him if he had any 4 putts. He teed up and hit a ball, looked at it for a second, and said, "not putting today". Of course... hole in one.

And finally, in one tournament, he cut a corner on a dogleg, and a marshal told him he better hit a provisional, because the first was OB. He tees up a ball, aimed way right and hit it way OB, and said, "now that is OB".

I Model my swing after his, and it's not Natural Golf at all. I have seen him hit balls in person. It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen and heard. The balls he hit made a different sound. It was the sound of perfect backspin. And he had plenty of distance. Even if he was hitting a 3 iron and you a 5 iron, he could hit it closer.

Maybe not the best player, but by far the best striker of a golf ball the world has ever seen.

[Quinn07]

I haven't had the time to read the entire thread, so pardon me if this has been said already.

1- Moe Norman can swing a golf club...period. I think there are numerous examples out there that you don't necessarily need to hit off the planet to be successful, especially in his day. I heard that when he was on the range he would land balls in some ridiculous radius like five feet or something time after time.

2- Perhaps he couldn't handle the pressure, but I never hear anything about his short game. Maybe he could stripe the ball all day, but if you can't put it in the hole you are still going to have some troubles out on tour.

His swing might be ugly and he might not have hit it too far, but the man could hit a golf ball.

[TheLauncher]

Thanks for the book recommendation MiniMoe, and also for the anecdotes.

Now I understand you screen name.

[MiniMoe]

I don't know where I found this, but it is very interesting to get a glimpse into the mind of Moe. There is a lot more, but I don't want to make this too long.

Moe Norman Interview Text


Q: Moe, you have been known to recite some great golf poems. Do you feel like giving us a couple?

Moe: Well, not at first I don’t. I should talk about the game of golf first of all. How it’s such a mind game. And what a sad thing in the world that we’re not taught the main thing in this game.

Moe: We’re taught too much mechanics and not about motor skills and manual dexterity. And imagination and orientation. Administration. Enthusiasm. Alert attitude of indifference. A strong visual response of progression of power. Expansion of the circle. Deltoid muscle of your left shoulder. The torsion of your leg. The elasticity of your body. The axis of you spine. Your left brain. Your right brain. Your kinesthetic mind. Your body mind. All this has to do with golf.

Moe: I like talking about how we think as winners. We see what we want to happen. Losers see what they don’t want. We know how to dress ourselves up. When we go from the practice tee to the first tee, winners take their swing with them. Losers don’t. They can’t take their practice tee to the first tee.

Moe: What’s the longest walk in golf? It’s from the practice tee to the first tee. I don’t care if it’s only 10 yards. It’s the longest walk in golf.

Q: Everyone gets nervous then?

Moe: Yes, but we ‘can do’ when the bell rings. They can’t produce when the bell rings. At anything.

Q: How did you overcome that?

Moe: By not putting so much value into everything. Every time I teed up the ball I thought, what have I got to lose? A lousy golf ball? What else? If I lose it, I just go get another one and hit it.

Moe: This is what the game lacks today: the inward part. How to win. How to be yourself. How to believe in yourself.

Moe: It’s all this gosh dang hope and hear. Hope and fear. And it just drives me nuts. That’s all people live with.

Moe: What a terrible thing to waste—that 51/2 inches between your ears. That’s what you win with. Your dumb muscles can’t make half a million dollars a year. This can make more than that because your mind is a generator. Your body is a motor. Your golf ball is a bullet. Now aim and fire. Loser’s aim, but don’t fire, they direct.

Moe: Losers direct their emotions. Losers live that way everyday in life. They’re directing themselves down the highway. Wherever they’re going, in stores, in this, in that, they’re directing themselves. They’re stumbling over their own emotions. Their minds are in their way. They don’t know how to get out of their own way because they don’t understand their own self.

Moe: People are a mystery to themselves and always will be. You are what you think you are. If you think you’re beat..you are. I you think you dare not, you don’t. If you want to win but think you can’t, it is almost certain that you won’t. If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost.

Moe: Growth is where you find it. Success begins in a fellows will. It’s all in the state of mind. You’ve got to think high to rise. You’ve got to feel sure of yourself before you win a prize. The man who wins is the man who thinks he can. We’ve all got them in our club. They’ve got no business playing as good as they do. They’ve got no business winning as much as they do. But, they do, because they think they can.

Moe: The only way you’re going to play golf up to your true potential is by playing subconscious golf. I just can’t believe why the mind is not being used more in life.
___________

Moe: Losers live in classic style in that never land called ‘someday, I’ll ..”

They gain bad luck each time they lose,
And hide within those struggling blues.

Winners live each day as if their last,
Not in the future, nor in the past

And someday becomes now.

[VOX]

He had nine double eagles in Canadian tour events. He could not have been that short.

[LBlack14]

If I'm not mistaken, in his later yrs Titleist put him on their payroll for $5000 a month just because of his contributions to the game.

[kafka01]

In this video he hits lots of balls (very pure) and explains some fundamentals of his swing - truly amazing - and funny :) ...

http://www.moenorman.org/video.php?vid=29

Okay, so now the question - if engineers build Iron-Byron on a one plane swing, if its easier to learn and more consistent for the avg. golfer - whats the reason that a swing like Moe Normans isnt taught way more frequently, or do i overlook here something?