Met Observations: Tales from the PGA Show

At the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, people from all around the world of golf gather to talk about business, golf, the golf business, and all aspects of our mutual passion for the game.  I found myself at a table with Sam Young, a golf course owner and teaching professional from Ontario, who has been a CPGA pro since 1961. 

Young told me that he had been friends with the great Canadian golfer Moe Norman.  Norman is considered to be the greatest ball-striker who ever lived.  It’s not that he couldn’t putt, too, but the purity of Moe’s contact in the center of the clubface is what distinguished him from all the others with claims on the ball-striking crown.  Young claimed that he never once saw Moe miss a shot; he might come up short or hit it long, but he never diverted from the line he intended. 

Moe had a quirky personality, to say the least.  His wardrobe was not of the caliber expected of a professional golfer.  He tended to say things twice: Describing his ability to hit a narrow fairway, he would say, “The ball fits the Moe Norman way; the ball fits the Moe Norman way.”  Some of his behaviors may have been a result of early childhood head trauma that went untreated; those who knew him swear he was delightful to be with, but definitely one of a kind.  And as for his prowess, just look at this photograph: Moe is hitting balls on the range, and the watchers are Fred Couples, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Price, and Nick Faldo. 

Moe stories are legion in Canadian golf circles: He could hit two balls in rapid succession, one with a fade and one with a hook, and have them collide in midair.  He’d hit twenty shots in a row without having to replace the tee he was using (“I’m trying to hit the ball, not the tee; I’m trying to hit the ball, not the tee”).  I’d heard many, but Sam Young told me two I’d never heard.

(1) Sam and Moe played something like 200 rounds together over the years, and they didn’t like to waste time.  So when they were on a tee and waiting for a group ahead of them to clear the fairway, they’d keep busy by hitting three wedge shots each out into the fairway, and then they’d hit their drives and pick up the three balls on their way to the ball in play.  Only one day, Moe didn’t bother to hit his drive; he went out to where the three wedge shots had landed, and using his driver he hit each of the three balls off the deck and onto the green.  (“It’s driver and wedge, driver and wedge.”)

(2) Having played 36 holes one day, the two wanted more golf at night, and they went to a lighted par-3 course in Daytona Beach.  On one of the holes, Moe hit a fine tee shot to within two feet of the flagstick.  Sam stepped up and knocked his in for an ace.  For years thereafter, whenever Moe would see Sam, he would greet him with, “I made a 2, teed off second.  Made a 2, teed off second.”

 

-By Jeff Neuman