The Legend of Moe Norman: The Man With the Perfect Swing
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Revered by the greatest golfers in the game for his flawless swing, Canada's Moe Norman was a genius on the golf course and an enigma off it.World famous, he hated the limelight. A perfect striker of the ball, he hated putting. He slept in his car instead of hotels, buried money in secret locations on golf courses, used a six-inch tee in
tournaments just for fun.
The Legend of Moe Norman offers a glimpse into his idiosyncratic world through dozens of stories both funny and insightful.
"Only two players have ever truly owned their swings-
Moe Norman and Ben Hogan."
TIGER WOODS
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The Legend of Moe Norman - Andrew Podnieks
This edition published in 2015 by Arcturus Publishing Limited
26/27 Bickels Yard, 151–153 Bermondsey Street,
London SE1 3HA
Copyright © 2015 Arcturus Holdings Limited
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended). Any person or persons who do any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
ISBN: 9781784281069
DA004720US
Contents
Introduction
The Swing
The Stories
Career Highlights
Acknowledgements
Introduction
There are two absolutes about golfer Moe Norman. One, he was a bit of an oddball character; two, he was the greatest ball-striker to pass through our universe.
To the former, most people refer to an incident that occurred when Norman was five years old. He and a friend miraculously escaped injury and possible death,
according to a local newspaper report, when they were tobogganing on a small street in Kitchener. They landed underneath a car, and it appeared Murray suffered only a slight bruise to his cheek when they hit it. His mother later admitted, though, that she should have taken him to the hospital for possible head trauma. This is the usual explanation given for Norman’s quick speech and repetitive patterns which marked his style of conversation.
But he was peculiar in other ways as well. He was shy to the point of being reclusive, never lived in a formal apartment he could call home, never drank alcohol, never married, maintained a poor diet, and spent just about every minute of every day consumed by golf.
As to his swing, Norman came by that honestly, boasting that any-one could hit the ball as well as he—all they had to do was hit 600 balls a day every day for five or six years. Although Norman’s swing was, in fact, awkward looking if not downright ugly, the flight of his ball was a majestic work of art, a thing of gravitational beauty that no golfer could match. Not Nicklaus, not Palmer, not Tiger, not Ernie.
Murray Herbert Norman was born in Kitchener, Ontario, on July 10, 1929, with twin sister, Marie. They were two of six children, but only Murray was inclined to sports as a kid. He didn’t like school and went to the golf course so often he was finally expelled from classes. I was never there,
Norman admitted.
Not surprisingly, the one subject he loved and excelled at was math. He was nothing short of brilliant with numbers and later in life was famous for being able to rhyme off the yardage and scores of every hole on most of the golf courses he played, even decades after his last round.
Norman started as a caddy at Rockway Golf Course in Kitchener and soon after frequented the more prestigious Westmount Golf & Country Club. He used his pay to buy his first set of clubs ten cents at a time. He wasn’t that good, but he was determined, and through trial and error on his own he figured out a style of holding the club and addressing the ball that was unique, eccentric, thoroughly unconventional—and brilliantly effective.
During his teen