The Feeling of Greatness tells Moe Norman Story

The Feeling of Greatness tells Moe Norman Story

Moe Norman died last year just before the Canadian Open took place at Glen Abbey. It was good timing because the occasion gave the assembled pros the opportunity to once again sing the praises of the one-of-a-kind Canadian golfing legend.

Moe was an odd duck in more ways than one. Odd temperment, odd personality, odd golf swing. But over time -- and after countless exhibitions around North America -- he became known as the "world's greatest ball striker". Whether this is accurate or not, Moe's mesmerizing ball striking accuracy became legendary.

This book by Tim O'Conner, was published in 1995 just as the Moe Norman reawakenging was taking place. He had long since stopped playing tournament golf, but had continued giving exhibtions up and down the eastern side of the North American continent. He had been elected in February 1995 to the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. His ,000 /month deal with Titleist to "just be himself" had been signed.

In part this "reawakening" can be attributed to the influence of Jack Kuykendall and Natural Golf. In 1992 Kuykendall met Moe for the first time. He had previously concluded that Moe's swing was the embodiment of the near-mechanically-perfect "single axis" swing. And the subsequent identification of Moe with Natural Golf led to significant and very unique exposure for Moe.

Now he was more than just a good oddball. Kuykendall turned him into a visionary, and, in effect, an explorer and original discoverer of golfing truths that had previously lay hidden under decades of tradition and faulty theorizing and instruction.

This is not really what the book is about. Rather it tends to dwell on the unlikely golfing career of a shy, very private, and in some ways, thoroughly unlikable character. In an important sense, the story of Moe Norman is a refreshing alternative to virtually every other golfing story you've probably heard.

Moe was different, and his path through the world of golf was different. It is probably fair to say that your understanding of that world will be considerably expanded by taking a closer look at Moe Norman.