August 25, 2009
How to Recognize the Perfect Golf Swing
Of the millions of people who have played the game, a staggeringly small number could wilfully hit the ball where they aimed. Only two!. Who were they?
The one most would immediately recognize is Ben Hogan. Students of the game will recognize the other golfer’s name as Moe Norman. Moe is a legend among three generations of tour players. A reclusive Canadian Tour pro, Moe Norman rarely left his home country because of acute feeling of insecurity, but nevertheless made a name for himself among the golfing fraternity.
Like many of you, I have only seen Ben Hogan on video and in the slo-mo footage I have acquired over the years. Moe, on the other hand, I saw in person several times both during tournament play and at clinics he gave later in his career.
For two days I was in Moe’s group during a tournament in Ontario because I was looping for Alvie Thompson, an accomplished Canadian Tour player in the 1960’s and 70’s.
What was their unique gift? Why is it that they were so different?
Firstly let’s recognize how rare their skills were. Countless men and women have toiled at this game,but only these two could literally hit the ball and, without looking, head straight down the middle of the fairway to play their next shot.
Moe was certainly a challenge to understand because of his personality and he was awkward in most social situations.
His frequent feuding with the RCGA, the ruling body of golf in Canada, did not enhance his image or endear him to the public.
Because of his behavioural issues, Moe struggled to explain the intracacies of his swing. Often accused of uttering idiotic drivel, few serious teachers or writers gave any credence to whatever insights the man attemted to share. Despite his prodigous talent as a player, it was exceedingly rare that anyone would take the time with Moe to unlock the secrets of his incredible swing.The best you could get were bits and pieces of insight but nothing comprehensive bordering on a methodology.
In the past decade or so, a whole new group of teachers and players have discovered Moe and have set about to piece and parse together exactly what the man meant.
This has led to the emergence of a number of competing “swing theories”, each purporting to have uncovered the Da Vinci Code that is Moe’s swing . Unfortunately, these theories are often the product of well paid copywriting which promises much but delivers little.
Make no mistake, Moe’s move was both powerful and explosive through the ball. No one seems to be able to consistently duplicate the action which allowed Moe to compress the ball time after time .
Ever the tinkerer, I have explored these methods and like many of my fellow golfers I experienced a significant loss of distance in all clubs throughout the bag.
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When I was younger and more robust, I caddied on one of the satellite pro tours. You will remember that I once was a caddy in Moe’s group at a pro tournament.
Beyond being a reclusive individual, Moe exhibited the patience of a toddler when it came to the ponderous pace of tournament golf. Often during these long waits Moe would mutter on and repeatedly bounce a ball off his driver or wedge. To compensate for the slow play, Moe often flung balls into a sandtrap and spun them to within two feet of the hole. Where other players might pace about, Moe was more unusual in the manner in which he expressed his nervous tension.
It is now difficult to know what is true and what is not when the subject of Moe’s on course and off course behaviour is discussed. You have to be more than suspicious if the stories come from former tour caddies! Though it might be difficult to sort fact and fiction,no one disputes Moe’s ball striking. And he continued to amaze and mesmerise galleries and onlookers alike with his unerring prowess well into his senior years.
Unless you saw Moe hit balls live, you really cannot appreciate how special he was . In the days when exhibitions were up close and personal, I had the chance to shag balls for Moe.So oblivious was the golfing public to the genius of the man, he only drew a handful of people to the clinic. With monotonous regularity, each ball he hit about one bounce away from us.He simply motioned to back us up to a new position when he changed clubs and the balls would begin to rain down with predictable monotony. There is no way you could exaggerate the enormity of this man’s skill.
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The diversity in personality between Ben Hogan and Moe Norman could not be greater. Where one struggled to communicate, the other failed to communicate. Though Moe struggled to explain the elements of his great ball striking, Ben Hogan, by contrast, made no concerted attempt to share his secrets with the rest of the golfing fraternity.The Hogan move has bewidered and befuddled a generation of golfers devoted to unravelling its mystery. Unless something akin to the Dead Sea Scrolls is unearthed, it is unlikely that we will ever truly know what made Hogan great.
Despite the efforts of the golfing community to reverse engineer the Hogan swing, the mystery prevails. Hogan has many imitators but few would claim that they are true exhibitors of the method. Mr. Hogan would likely have wanted it this way . Like an Eastern mystic, he advised those who sought his knowledge to find it themselves by digging it out of the dirt. This qualifies as the kind of advice a crusty Calvinist gives to his children.
Hogan was not filled with bon homie and a gentle nature. To be fair, Hogan did not search out these qualities in others.Hogan preserved a studied distance between himself and his world.Hogan did not bridge the gap between himself and the fans of the game
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