MOE NORMAN & GOLFOX

Moe Norman Interview Text

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.

Q: One of the last times we talked you spoke about four or five things you felt you needed and knowledge was the top one. What are the other things on your list you think people need to understand?

Moe: Sure. How to get along with yourself. Stop being afraid of yourself. Don’t say I’ve got to do anything in life. There’s nothing in this world you’ve got to do. You don’t have to go to bed at night. You don’t have to go out that door tonight. But, I want to.

Moe: Tomorrow I want to shoot 65. I don’t have to. Tomorrow I want to hit the ball good. I don’t have to. I’ll play the next day if I don’t. But, I want to do things.

Moe: Everybody whose got a hundred dollars in their pocket, what are they thinking? Hope it don’t go to 99. What’s a smart person thinking? 102, 104, 106, how to make it more. Winners look up, losers look down.

Q: What went through your mind when you shot a 59?

Moe: Everything felt easy. Everything was jelly. I could see from the tee to the green. I could see my ball in the hole before I even got there. I could see my birdie or my eagle before I even played the hole.

Moe: I just flowed with nature. I went and did it.

Moe: There’re no secrets. Only hard work. But get that mind right. Even in life. Get that mind right.

Moe: If you got leadership. If you got poise. If you got mentality, oh man, what strong things instead of hope and fear. People are afraid of themselves. They’re afraid of success. What a sad world when people are afraid of success and afraid to win.

Q: You weren’t afraid to win. Didn’t you say you liked to ‘clean their clocks...go out and shoot 61 and go home’?

Moe: And I did. Fifty five times in my life I did it in tournaments over two days or more. Every time I teed up I wanted to shoot another course record. I shot 41 of them.


Moe: I gave myself a chance. I gave myself a chance. I was the happiest winner in Canada. I got along with myself real good. I believed in Moe Norman.

Moe: I didn’t listen to every Tom, Dick and Harry. And I still don’t today.

Moe: Vanity is the luxury of fools. How true. It’s the best statement I’ve heard in my life. How true.

Moe: If people only knew what happiness is. What is happiness? Happiness is achievement. What’s the father of achievement? Motivation. What’s the mother? Encouragement. A fine golf swing is truly achievement.

Moe: Man may lie, steal and cheat for gain, but that will never gain a golf swing. To gain a golf swing you must work. It is work without toil. It’s intoxication without the hangover. It’s stimulation without the pills. It is humbling. It enriches the spirit. It is dignity. It rejects heroics. Its price is high. Its rewards are richer. It’s a buffer for the stresses of today’s living. It cleanses the mind and rejuvenates the body.

Moe: It is these things and more. For those of us who learn to love it, golf is truly happiness.

Moe: And golf is sure better than being in jail, but some of us put ourselves in jail by throwing clubs and calling ourselves dumb. When we miss a putt and call ourselves dumb, instead of patting ourself on the back we kick ourself in the ass.


Q: What happens when you make a good shot? What do you say?

Moe: I did it before. I did it again. And better.

Q: Once you told me you feel like you have a claw in your hand? What’s that?

Moe: Left hand is a rod. Right hand is a claw. At impact.
Moe: Every time I hit the shot, I feel like I’m shaking hands with the flag stick. Whether it’s 500 yards away or 5 feet, I feel like I’m going to grab it and the ball goes there every time.

Moe: Now here’s a nice poem:

I have a little robot that goes around with me.
I tell it what I’m thinking; I tell it what I’ve seen.

It listens and remembers everything it hears.

At first my little robot followed my commands,
But after years of dreams, it has gotten out of hand.

It doesn’t care what’s right or wrong or what is false or true
But no matter what I try now, it tells me what to do.


Q: It would be hard for you to hit a bad shot. Your little robot only knows how to hit it where you’re looking?

Moe: I know how to hit my positions, the same every time.

Q: What are some of the sayings you say when you swing?

Moe: Buckle, sit, slide, bump. Stabilize, energize, contain, release. Force, form, fold, release.

Moe: What does everyone else do? Strike, steer, stare, and stall. That’s bogey golf.

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.




Moe: Here’s another one.

Under lost and found, lost, one 24 hour, 24 carat day.
Each hour studded with 60 diamond minutes
Each minute studded with 60 ruby seconds.

But, don’t bother to look for it. It’s gone forever.
That wonderful golden day. It’s all gone.

Q: You’ve spent a lot of time studying the psychology of the golf game. How do you make it work?

Moe: The main thing is knowledge. The rest is insight. To me a good golfer is one who can hit the ball to a defined target area with the least amount of effort, but with an alert attitude of indifference.

A person must first change his mental attitude. Then and only then will his ability produce positive results. This game of golf either requires an art or a knack for flinging a golf ball toward a defined target area.

The fascinating thing about this game is that it takes a keen, sharp mind as well as good physical make up to excel. Knowledge of the game is the equalizer that will lose those who strive for excellence. Not talent..knowledge.

It doesn’t make any difference if you’re writing, typing, playing the piano. Or playing a game such as golf. The computer of our brain sends out messages through the nerves to our golf muscles that help produce the shot.

Also needed are your heart and soul and your personal character. It’s part of everything you do. Of every shot you take.

People in this game need an inner awakening. They need more understanding of their own self and their own game.

Moe: Now, to the changing world of golf.

For openers, are you frustrated? Are you confused? Do you have a feeling that you should be better than you are? Are you finding serenity and peace of mind playing this game?

Moe: Give this some thought. Is there more to golf than mechanics? Is there more to this game that you haven’t yet discovered?

If there isn’t, then how come nearly 90% of golfers are in the same boat? They can’t even bust and egg, let alone play a respectable game of golf.

But, why? It is their anguish over poor shots and high scores. It infuriates them.

Freddy tells them this. Johnny tells them that. Jack tells them and Henry tells them. Part of their mind is going east, another going west. The other’s going north and another south.

Now, they’re all mixed up. Now, they’re going, ‘what should I try? Should I try it Jack’s way? Or Jim’s?’

No wonder they’re basket cases. They never try it with me. That’s what they should do. Not just in golf, in life, even. Even in life, people don’t go out with a program. They go out with hope and fear. They go out with a defensive attitude.

I still see it today. I still see the same things today as I saw 40 years ago.

Q: What do you think can change it?

Moe: Have more schools like Sweden does. They got academies, where the kids can stay there for golf. That’s what Sweden has got. Look at the good players they’ve got for a little place like that.

Sweden’s got junior programs for their kids. We’ve never been like that. We don’t have a junior program in Canada since I’ve been playing. Clubs up there don’t want juniors ‘cause the got no money and they’re ‘in the way.’

Older members don’t want to see a little 14 year old beating his clock. The kid shoots 79. The old man never shot 79 in his life. Boy, that just eats him up. They don’t want to see that. What a shame. For them its screw thy neighbor, not love thy neighbor.

Don’t tell me, I went through it. I slept on park benches. I slept in bunkers. Hitchhiked to tournaments. Shot 61 and went home. Don’t tell me, I went through it.

Q: What about that time you were afraid to go home?

Moe: When I broke two windows in the same day?

Q: How old were you?

Moe: Eleven. I got it across my ass. My father said, ‘don’t ever bring another golf stick in this house.’

To this day--there are six kids in the house--mother and dad have never seen me hit a golf ball in real life. Mother and dad are dead now, but in my whole life they were never there, right beside me when I was hitting a golf ball. They only saw me sitting down, watching TV. They never once saw me in real life.

Q: Two windows in one day?

Moe: Two different houses. They knew it was me. I couldn’t hide because I was the only one in the neighborhood at that time hitting golf balls.

Q: So what did you do then?

Moe: Hid.

I’m probably the only golfer who got hell for playing, and I got hell. Couldn’t bring my clubs in the house when I was 15, 16 years old.

My dad was fat. I was skinny. So I had to dig a hole under the front porch and stick them there so he couldn’t reach them.

But as soon as I started winning, now, bring them in the parlor. When I started to win TV sets, fridges and power lawn mowers—two a week I was winning—then that was when I found out about people.

Q: How old were you when you left home?

Moe: Seventeen. Haven’t been back since.

Q: Did you have a job when you left?

Moe: Oh, yeah. In a factory. Rubber factory.

But, I got fired at every job I had. ‘Cause I had tournaments during the week. No such saying I was sick because I shoot 65 and win, so I couldn’t lie.

They’d say in the morning, ‘you won again, you won again’ and I’d lose the job.

Q: Didn’t you set up pins in a bowling alley?

Moe: That’s a winter job where I saved like a son-of-a-gun and the first of May there were no more bowling leagues and I could play May, June, July and August. Hit 800 balls and play 54 holes.

Q: What’s the most fun you’ve had playing golf. Is there such a thing as a round you’ve enjoyed more than others?

Moe: Well, the first win of your life, the first time I won The Canadian National. That was really nice. Took me 39 holes to win it. In the finals. I birdied the third hole at The Calgary Country Club, the toughest on the course, to win it. So I won it in style. The next year I walked away with it. It wasn’t even close.

Moe: I’m the only guy they ever kicked out of amateurs. That was back in 1957. I was supposed to play as an amateur in The Americas Cup matches.

I got a letter at home saying how glad they were to have me represent Canada in The Americas Cup matches. They sent me my airplane ticket. They sent me my jacket. I went and got my small pox shot and then, 4 days before they said ‘we had a general meeting and feel you’re not an amateur anymore. Please send back your plane ticket. Please send back your jacket. They didn’t call me in or nothing.

The public knew before I did, cause when I woke up that morning my mother said ‘there are 20 reporters on the front lawn, what have you done?’

Then someone said, ‘they just kicked you out of amateur.’ I just about fell over.

I’ve gone through it. Who has done more for golf in Canada than this guy? Who’s got the most color?

Who put the most laughs in the game, winning tournaments? This guy. Playing holes backwards, stuff like that. Hitting balls in buckets?

Q: How do you handle being more famous now?

Moe: I don’t know, at my age it’s pretty tough.

Q: You’ll find a way to handle it.

Moe: I hope you’re right. It’s like eating an apple. What do you do? Eat the whole apple or just piece by piece.

Q: Well, you may have a bunch of good looking women chasing you, Moe.

Moe: That’s what I’m afraid of. Everything is happening now. Why didn’t it happen when I was forty five. What a nice feeling to walk up to the first tee and hear: ‘Here comes the Hall of Famer.’

I would want to show you why I was put in the Hall of Fame. Shoot a 62 shoot a 31, 31. They recognize me now, when I don’t play anymore. I just do clinics, like you saw today.

Q: You enjoy doing those clinics, don’t you?

Moe: Oh, yes. Yes. ‘Cause this needs to be passed on to future generations. I’m realizing that now. The world is finally realizing I’ve got the best move by far, ever in golf.

I’m the only person with a 365 days a year swing. Everybody else is 300. The other 65 days its’ the army song: left, right, left right. Mine is straight down the middle.

Moe: When is the world finally going to change for the good? That’s what I can’t understand. When are we going to understand why water is wet. Why are there branches on a tree. Why have we got two eyes, two ears and only one mouth?

When is the world going to wake up and understand what holds the clouds up? Why can a bird sing?

It’s not what the world can give to you. It’s what can you give it. That’s the way you get ahead in the world. What can you give the world?

I’m lucky, I can give the world talent. I can explain it. I can tell it. I can show it to people, which is what I love doing. I just love it.

Tomorrow I’ve got another clinic. A place I have never been to in my life. I can’t wait to get there, so 120 kids might hit the ball like me, someday. I hope one of them does. I’d like to go up to him, when I’m 90 years old, and say, ‘hey, I talked to you in 1995 and now you’re doing what I taught you. What a great thing.’

Q: What ever made you hold the golf club in the palm of your hand?

Moe: I went to this carpenter. ‘First of all’, I said, ‘don’t think I am trying to get your job, because I’m not.’

I was only 18.

Then I said to him, ‘what’s your hammer, heavy or light?’

He said heavy, because it won’t waver as much, won’t bend as many nails.

Moe: The palm stays dead still. Look how fast you move your fingers. Look, look, look. They move around like a jumping bean.

The ball goes where your hand goes. If you’ve got it in those fingers and those fingers are going everywhere, that’s where the ball is going to go.

Never in the fingers. In the palm. Fingers are live. Palms are dead.







How True!

GOLF IS A BALL!

GOLF IS A BALL!

That’s a greeting familiar to members of the golfing community. It’s a greeting filled with subtle romance and good will.

Golf is a society built on friendships, integrity, and sport in places where the nature of its players and its venues are on vibrant display.

Golf is fun. It’s a game. It is enjoyable, at any level of play. Golf is for everyone.

Golfers are passionate. It won’t take you long to understand why.

There is a fifth dimensional thrill that all golfers enjoy when the middle of the golfing bat squarely meets the middle of the golf ball.

The ensuing airborne parabola is a poem in flight. Every golfer authors many. Those golf pleasures are narcotic in a way.

How else can you explain a game that actually has a literature of its own?

Between George Carnegie’s 1833 edition of Gofiana and Tiger Woods’ 21st Century How I Play Golf, more than 5,000 works and millions of pages of songs, musings and tributes to golf oozed from pens of golf smitten wordsmiths.

Romance and passion? In a game?

How can you not fall in love with freshly mown grass in your nostrils?

Or private hours with your best friends?

How can your heart not fill with joy while golf empties your head of life’s daily rigors?

Golfers share a special love for each other though they enjoy the game for different reasons.

Gamers love to compete. Thinkers love the process. Athletes love the power and the grace. Socials love the friendships.

There’s no right or wrong way to measure how you can love golf.

There are rules. There are customs. There are boundries. There is etiquette.

They’re sort of like traffic signals, they help the flow of the game and whether you’re in a truck, a sedan or on a bike they all pretty much apply to make every experience better.

They serve the order of them game, and it is golfs’s orderly, and pastoral unfolding that seduces.

That’s just the nature of golf. How you nurture your game is up to you.

Above all, it is our hope that you come to think of yourself as a golfer.

There are many ways, many philosophies, many methods and nuances to golf.

People new to golf run the risk of dousing the golf spark by suffocating it with a glut of unaligned information.

We don’t want that to happen to you. We want you to love golf the way we do.

We want you to have quick and early success.

And after all this time, we only know one way to do that.

Learn the fundamentals.

This learning is about loving the golf process, so let’s get on with playing golf.

By now you pretty much get the picture that golf is a game that is more than whack the ball and chase it.

Now, this is an exercise I suggest to every new player in golf.

Find a golfer who’d be willing to walk around the golfing grounds with you. Not to play, just looking, and learning.

Just you, your eager mind, and your golfing mentor.

For example, lets pretend to watch a pair, heading toward the 18th hole because its right near the clubhouse where the sometimes notorious 19th hole is euphemistically located..

The 19th hole is a nickname for the after-golf watering hole—pub, bar, eatery, etc. where golfers gather and act like fishermen, telling tales on themselves. It’s all very convivial.

Here they are at the 18th hole. Most golf courses are 9 or 18 holes and that golf tradition seems older than dirt itself.

By the way, dawn or dusk is a good time to take this walk along the golfing grounds.

Nature’s portrait is at its best then.

It will usually be populated sparsely then, if at all. Depending on the venue the wildlife that invariably peep at golfers from protected lairs may accompany you.

So what have we here?

Well, its the green—that place where the grass is mown smooth like a pool table and the pocket where the ball goes is a hole in the ground made with a special tool.

Then the greenkeeper, inserts a liner called a cup into the hole that holds a stick onto which a flag is attached.

Golf is a target game and that’s the target. The stick and the flag help you see where the target is from far away.

Usually the hole is moved each day because the grass around it is so sensitive that it can only endure a day or so of foot traffic that collects inevitably around the target hole.

When players balls come to rest on the closely mown green area, they usually remove the stick and flag because they are close enough to see it and because if they are playing the game under the auspices of the rules of golf it is a requirement.

By the time you venture onto the golf course many or your questions about the rules of play will be answered by your golfing mentors.

Your responsibility is to ask what to do when you identify a situation that represents an unknown to you.

The mentors want to answer, but often they have played golf so long that the answers are buried deep in their subconscious, because they’ve become a habit and they don’t actively think about them any longer.

So, anyway, then the players putt, usually the farthest away from the target putting first. The player has the option of continuing to putt until the ball falls into the cup or yielding play to a subsequent player whose ball now rests farthest from the target.

Choosing to continue or yield is often influenced by situation or location.

For instance, if the putt went dramatically astray, but not farthest away, the putting player may want to re-calculate the topography or spend a moment rehearsing a putting image. So in that circumstance yielding might be in order.

Another time you might choose not to putt even though your have the option to continue is when your feet might stand on the likely path of a playing companion’s upcoming putt.

That delicate grass and ground will indent under your weight and might cause a rolling ball to bounce awry. So, it is good golf manners to walk around that path and put a coin or otherwise flat object immediately behind your ball

Then you can pick up your ball and let the putting continue. When its your time again, just put your ball in immediately in front of the marker and putt……and listen to the golf music…..

At some levels its ecstacy!

Before we leave the green let’s talk about some more golf manners.

Easy stuff that makes the experience more enjoyable.

For instance:

“ First in gets the pin.” The pin is another word for the stick and flag. So, if your putt goes in first, it’s your job, to pick it up and put it back in the hole before your group leaves the green.

And speaking of leaving the green, it is always a good idea to leave your golf bag or trolley or extra clubs between the back of the green and route to the next teeing ground.

We’ll get to the goings on at and about the teeing ground when our golf course walk gets there.

Right now there’s a couple more green courtesy items you should know about.

That delicate putting surface usually gets dented when a high flying ball from a distance away lands on it.

Those dents will kill the grass unless they are repaired, promptly and the hollow will bump putts off their intended path.

If you really want to impress your more experienced golfing companions when you are on the putting surface, fix a ball mark that isn’t yours.

Other courtesies golfers extend to each other by being aware of the sensitivity of the putting grasses include:

Wearing golf shoes without metal spikes. They make for smoother surfaces, overall, but even the spikeless shoes will scuff the grass when players walk or cavort carelessly.

Now, before we go walking down the fairway, let’s take a look at a greenside accessory.

Most but not every golf green will be accessorized by one or more nearby sand bunkers.

Some people call them sand traps; golfers call them bunkers.

They are architectural devices, a part of the designers license to intrigue you.

Sometimes they are good--put there to keep your ball from bouncing into something more golf hazardous—like a pond or a brook.

Sometimes they’re a pain--put there to keep you from rolling the ball onto the green.

There’s protocol for playing golf from sand bunkers as you would expect. Like the rest of the game its comprised of a combination of rules, custom and courtesy.

Some people think the rule that says golfers are not supposed to touch the sand with their golf club before they hit the shot is silly.

Others contend that touching the sand with the club allows the golfer to test the sand’s texture and diminishes one of golf’s entertaining tests.

It’s that sand texture that changes from day to day, region to region, course to course, and even bunker to bunker that makes sand bunker golf, fun to figure out.

It’s also that changing sand texture which will cause surprising shot results occasionally, and commands, as a safety courtesy, that golfers make sure their playing companions are aware they are about to swing.

Then of course, the footprint trail you make walking in the sand bunker and the marks from your swing need to be neatly raked so the next person whose ball finds its way there is not impeded by your little mess.

Usually the golf course will place one or more rakes in or near the bunker. Take note of which—in or near, because that golfing community has decided that is where they want you to return the rake when you are finished using it.

One final sand bunker hint that will save you an embarrassing moment.

Walk into the bunker from the lowest, closest entry point near where your ball is.

Almost every greenside sand bunker has a high point and a low point. The sand around the high point is usually very soft and deep.

The first time you forget, you’ll sink in the sand over your ankles and are apt to stumble. So be careful. Enter from the low point.

Oh, yes, there are other sand bunkers out there alongside the fairway. Handle them the same way and you’ll be just fine.

You might find that most of them are a not as deep as the greenside sand bunkers.

They, too, are designer directional tools, and sometimes optical trickery—all part of the fun.
Just when you think you can stick your tongue out at one, the wind will change and suck your shot right into a bunker.

Let’s get rolling. Here we go, away from the putting area toward the teeing ground into the big wide expanse the golf purists call “through the green”.

“Through the green” is actually any part of the golf course that is not a putting green, teeing ground, or a bunker or water hazard.

So that area can include the bushes, wooded areas, longer grasses known poplularly as “the rough,” and the closely mown field area that is the object of every golfer’s lust---the fairway.

Precise, scalpel like approach shots from the fairway toward the green and long high flying tee shots onto the fairway are on every golfer’s dream list.

Those dreams come true for every golfer. Golf’s engagement is to have them come true frequently and consistently.

It’s out here in the fairway where golf’s variables accumulate.

Fairways are as unique as fingerprints.

Length, width, uphill, downhill, sidehill, soft, firm, sandy, muddy, thinly or thickly grassed, forests as boundries, lakes as boundries, buildings and homes as boundries, windswept, wind-sheltered, rock freckled and wall enclosed, railroad divided, oceanside, cliffside. If mother nature made it, golfers likely play on, over or by it.

The minutia that captivates golfers and influences their play in never as obvious as it is in the fairways.

Golfing shots may have similarities, but few are copies.

Out here—through the green—like on the putting surface, the player furthest from the objective plays first.

Out here—like on the putting surface—some turf repair is your responsibility.

Divots, those chunks of dirt and grass you golf club dislodges should be retrieved and replaced. This is how.

In some regions, fairway turf is not as tightly knit as others divots will shatter into small pieces.

In those areas the course will make available, sand mixed with seed and fertilizer for you to fix the divot spot.

Golf has become very popular and that means more players on the golf course.

Just like the turnpike is filled with more cars, that means the time it takes for point- to-point progress is an issue.

If you want to get under an experienced golfer’s skin, dilly dally needlessly on his golfing path.

You will find as you begin to become successful that judging distances is one of the fine arts of golf.

It used to be a highly honed skill. Today, because of the traffic, most golf course operators will give you yardage information.

It’s a compromise, aimed at helping all golfers progress smoothly along their route.

On many courses, stakes are placed to represent 150 yards to the center of the green.

Even more precise information is marked on these watering system metal plates.

Sometimes even before you begin to play, the course management will have a scheme that will allow you to know in advance where on the putting green the flagstick is located.

Often different colored flags will be location indicators. Sometimes, there’s an actual map that’s available before you begin.

That, too, is information that hopefully will reduce delays when the course is crowded.

You will find out that golf is a game of rhythm, ebbs, flows, and tempo and is wonderful when it progresses smoothly.

As a beginner your pace of play will surely be affected by your skills.

This subject alone is where many new to our game have difficulty in being on the golf course—in the flow of play.

There are a few solutions.

Begin with this knowledge. Golfers love golfers. All golfers had to learn like you. Without new players like you, some courses would have to close or costs to play them would skyrocket.

So, first and foremost. Welcome to the golf course.

Now that you are here and while you are learning, do these few things and playing in the traffic will be okay.

First, forget the scorecard and enjoy the process.

Play with golf balls you can afford to lose.

Move along briskly. If you strike the ball poorly, pick it up and move it to the place where you wished it had gone.

There will be plenty of time to play by the rules when you begin to call yourself a golfer

There’s nothing embarrassing about training wheels or safety nets. Long before the concerto, there was plenty of chopsticks being played.

Here’s another way to deal with new golfer jitters when there are a lot of experienced golfers around.

Go on the golf course when it is not as crowded. Often that is late in the day. Often it’s too late for the “regulars” to play 9 or 18 holes.

It’s a perfect time to solo.

Those short private hours, with or without your mentor will be invaluable. It’s a time to experiment. Take chances. Learn your limits.

It’s a time you’ll remember like your first enfatuation.

It’s a retreat that accomplished players will revisit. If one happens along, and is playing at a faster pace than you, invite them to “play through” or pass you.

Some will, some won’t, but inviting faster players or groups to pass you is your “ I’m a real golfer” badge.

A beginner will do the same for you someday

The retreat hours. A perfect time to fall in love with golf.

But, now let’s go to the tee box. Right or wrong, it’s where many golfers say they get their biggest thrills.

It’s also where some of the funniest sites in the game can be seen as even the most experience golfers succumb to the urge to propel the ball as far as their strength will allow.

There is something addictive about tee shots flying high, long and straight that is golf’s version of heaven.

Making that occur is someone else’s subject. This one is when and why.

When golfer’s are scoring the order of play is determined by “the honor” system.

Newbies mistakenly call it “honors”, but having the honor to play first from the tee accrues to the player or team who had the lowest score on the previous hole.

On the first hole “the honor” is chosen by a flip of a coin or another randomly fair way.

In casual play, a process called “ready golf” is usually if effect. That is, the first player deemed ready to play can do just that, in the spirit of continuing a smooth pace of play.

Ready golf on the tee is easy. On the fairway, safety issues come into play and good judgements should be exercised.


Virtually every golf course is designed with several teeing areas.

Essentially, they are built for players of varying skill and strength, and are an attempt to equalize the distance factor in the tee shot.

Often this is how they might be selected.

Expert or professional players might choose the tees farthest from the green.

Average golfers play from the center tees and less accomplished or golfers with less strength should elect to play from the forward tees, closest to the green.

Honest self appraisal in tee selection will make your golf more enjoyable.

Tee markers—usually color coded—show the player the specific area on the teeing ground that golf administrators have chosen.

Like the flagstick is moved on the green to allow the grass to heal from traffic, the tees get moved daily too for pretty much the same reason.

Tee movements are also part of how the character of the course changes daily and is one of the golf’s interesting variables.

The “approved” ground for teeing the golf ball is an imaginary box, the leading edge of which is a line between the markers. The box extends backwards and is two club lengths long.

Your can stand outside the box, but keep the ball in it.

Before we move along we should talk about the last big golf custom that new golfers need explained.

It has to do with noise on the golf course. To outsiders it might look silly.

In other sports, fans are screaming and cowbells clanging and feet are stomping while the athletes are performing perfectly and it doesn’t bother them.

In many cases the noise actually motivates them to better performance. The foul shot in basketball is a perfect example of what we mean.

But in golf, noise distracts and destroys…and a lot of folks don’t understand why.

It the predictability factor.

That foul shooting basketball player fully expects pom poms to be waving and feet to be stomping while he strokes the ball toward the hoop.

That foul shooting player would be just as equally distracted, if the crowd was quiet and just at the instant of release, an unexpected air horn blasted.

A pop bottle accidentally smashing in the bowling alley might cause this gutteral response.

And so, on the golf course, where nature’s tranquil ways are a big part of the culture, unexpected sound is a big distraction.


Birds chirp. Wind whistle. Brooks babble. That’s expected and isn’t a bother.

When people babble—unexpectedly—that is a bother to many golfers and its why the etiquette of the game is stringent about unpredictable noise.

If you can avoid making it while others are attending to their golf shot, you will make many friends.

What kinds of noise?

That’s a good one!

Clinking clubs together. Beepers. Cell phones. Squeeky golf cart brakes. The ripping sound of golf glove Velcro. Chit chat. Bouncing balls. Squirting aerosols. Footsteps.

The key is awareness. Noise travels—especially over water-- and players on other holes can be distracted, too.

Your sounds might be inevitable.. You gotta sneeze you gotta sneeze!

Making an effort to manage the timing of the sounds builds sure golfing respect.

The distraction factor is all about when and whether or not the sound was expected.

The same can apply for sudden movements, so try and stand where you are out of other player’s fringe vision while they are making their shot.

We knew one scurrilous gambler who used the sun as a co-conspirator.

He’d use his shadow to distract and even went so far as to polish his putter to a mirror like sheen and would flash it in his opponents face at critical times.

Needless to say, his tactics hastened his shunning.

The golf experience is special. It has its own culture and superstitions and peculiar ways.

Just like hop scotch, flag football, and dancing there are certain behaviors unique to each culture that may not make sense to a casual observer, but are honored by those who choose to entertain themselves that way.

People who want to play golf figure out early on that the customs, manners and rules are part of its charm.

One of the charms is golf’s constant evolution. Rules changes. Customs change. Once you’re a golfer being aware of change is part of the attraction.

Today the wind may be your partner. Tomorrow it could be your opponent.

We’re on a par three hole now. Isn’t it beautiful. It’s shorter than most which is why “par” is three strokes.

The concept of par is often mistaken.

Par on a golf hole is the number of strokes an “expert” player would usually score on it.

Beginners aren’t experts, so their concept of PAR can be creative.

We know one who has not begun to count strokes, yet, but keeps track of minutes. Eight minutes is her par goal.

Set your own par.

Though many golfers enjoy walking, the motorized golf car has become part of the culture.

It’s benefits, economic, and otherwise have changed golf.

Some courses even require that they are used. Again, it is usually speed of play and revenue that influence those requirements.

In any event they are here to stay and have their own courtesies.

It’s a good general rule to drive them on ground that is not the fairway.

Entering the fairway, when it is allowed, at point near where the first ball to be played lies, is generally correct.

Drivers and passengers in golf cars can switch roles for effective use.

When you exit the golf car to play a shot, make a quick “guesstimate of what club you might want to use and pull that club and two others from your bag.

One extra would be a longer club and the other a shorter club than your likely choice.

Then send your car partner off to his or her ball location.

Now, if the wind or your mind changes, its very likely you are properly equipped.

This golf car club selection technique is called “bracketing” and is sure to identify you as a respected golfer.

When you’re done with your shot, move unubtusively toward the car while your car mate plays.

If your’re infirmed or risk distracting someone, stay still and your car mate will return for you.

Good golf car etiquette, again is all about anticipation and awareness of other players.

When it is time to putt, park the golf car between the green and the next tee, usually on a designated or signed area.

It is a pretty good bet that all courses ask you not to drive or park golf cars within 50 yards of the green.

There are exceptions, but few.

Golf cars have nearly made the caddie, extinct. There are some fine golfing venues who continue the tradition.

If you really want to appreciate the glory of golf, treat yourself to a round with a skilled caddie.

It’s golf at its best.

Here’s another good one… It goes along with “ be aware of everything” that is happening around you…but its more specific.

When golfers play together, they watch the flight of each other’s shots.

Sometimes the sun or topography will hide eventual desination from the player, and a good companion with a look from another angle will easily see it land.

When a shot is errant, say into woodlands or water, try and recall as specific landmark where it was last visible.

That narrows the search for it and save time to boot.

When you do it for your companions, they’ll do it for you.

Learning about stuff like equipment and fashion and country clubs versus muni courses and tee times and tournaments and handicaps and scorekeeping are the rules of golf are all part the enjoyable process.

Our friends here, need to know that those parts of golf change often change depending on society, culture, country, climate, and community.

Its the ready exchange of that information is the basis for developing friendships in golf.

So, if what we shared here serves relax and help someone new to golf, we have committed a fine act. Have fun like a kid again. Hit a ball on the ground with a stick. Play a great game on great playgrounds.

Who Needs Pars?

WHO NEEDS PAR?

 
            While Liz Taylor was cavorting with Richard Burton between takes of the Cleopatra, hubby Eddie Fisher was crooning his medley of hit Oh, My Pa Pa.  But these ears, congenitally tuned to golf, heard, Oh, My Par, Par.

           So rack that up as another obtuse and ancient way to lead into a golf subject. 

           This one is par.

            Par is a golf concept that harms.  It intimidates, inhibits, and indelibly inflicts images of failure and below average performance.

           There it is, staring you in the face.  On the scorecard.  On the tee signage.  On the placemats in the grill room.   There’s par, measuring you ubiquitously.

            “Hey jerk, you were supposed to make four there.  How could you make seven?”

            Ever judgmental, par needs to be relegated to the confinement closet for ideas that flop. 

            Golf is a game of fewer.  The golfer who takes fewer strokes to play the course is the winner.  In the case of match play, the golfer who has the fewer strokes on each hole wins that hole or mini-game.  Eighteen mini-games comprise a match.

           Fresh off the website of The United States Golf Association is this definition of par: 

 “Par is the score that an expert golfer would be expected to make for a given hole. Par means errorless play without flukes under ordinary weather conditions, allowing two strokes on the putting green.”

          The operative word is expert.  Who’s that?   It’s not me.  I can’t relate.  In fact, my favorite part about playing is trying to better my personal bests, not somebody else’s.

          So here my favorite par truism from a former student: 

         When, after a time,  I asked the lady how she was progressing, she replied rather proudly that she was now shooting for par eights.    “Eight?” 

      “Yes, eight,” she said  “if I spend more than eight minutes playing a hole, I just pick up my ball and go to the next one.”

A Lifetime of Better Golf Speech

 A Lifetime of Better Golf


 
The following is the text of an address made by Peter Fox before members of the Massachusetts Section of the PGA of America at historic Myopia Hunt Club, site of five U.S. Open Golf Championships.
 

 

 
            Good morning.  You are about to hear from one grateful golfer, a born again media maven and pumped up author of Natural Golf’s books and videos.

            Please allow me to explain:

            A grateful Natural Golfer because for more than forty years I struggled for consistency and today 12 or 13 greens in regulation is my norm.  It used to be 8 or 9 greens.  A grateful Natural Golfer because large doses of skilled instruction, diligent practice combined with a ferocious will to succeed seemed unrewarded and I was preparing to hang up my spikes and look for another hobby until Natural Golf came into my life. I am a grateful Natural Golfer because with Natural Golf I now have something to give back to the game.  Golf gave me friends, family, freedoms and fun.  More fun than this old reprobate deserves.

            I’m a born again media man because Natural Golf’s opportunity mirrors the thrill, struggle and challenge I experienced during the founding years of ESPN.  As the network's executive producer, I am most proud of introducing weekday televised golf to American audiences.

            Yes, born again, maybe even rescued from the sunset of hit and giggle golf that loomed in my life.  It is my mission to use all of my God given media gifts to expose the golfing public to the incredible golf experience of a deftly and simply struck Natural Golf shot.

            And pumped up?

            Wouldn’t you be pumped up if fate tapped you on the shoulder and asked you to be a mouthpiece for a golf method that inspires us to assert on paper and on video and to you today that you will surely enjoy A Lifetime of Better Golf with Natural Golf.  

Yes, it is a brash statement.  It’s brash because we need you to pay attention to this:  When a player uses The Natural Palm Grip, the physics of the golf stroke change so dramatically that comparisons with any finger grip method are just not valid.  We will show you that.  The comparisons are not valid because the very foundations differ.

The teachings of your talented contemporaries such as Ballard, Wiren, Harmon, MacLean and Leadbetter are passionate.  They are teachings of honest, brilliant and dedicated golf professionals who all begin instruction by placing the handle of the golf club in the fingers of the student.  Somewhere, somehow, they accepted as whole cloth truth, the finger grip and its variations as dogma and a non-negotiable fundamental.

We differ.  There are not any rights or wrongs here.  That’s just the way golf was and is.  And who could have argued with the success of the finger grip’s greatest exponent:  Harry Vardon.   Mountains of golf swing study accept the premise that golfers should hold the club in the fingers.

The mystery to us is:  Why did those analytical minds for nearly a hundred years accept and not challenge the premise of the finger grip before now?

Harry Vardon was a gifted golfer with a grip innovation that he either invented or learned elsewhere—history varies on that.  The Vardon grip proliferated in the manner of The Golden Bear’s flyaway elbow and John Daly’s wrap-around windup.

One this is certain.  The finger grip became sacrosanct and Natural Golf’s challenge to it evokes energetic discussion and we love to have it.

One revered traditional golfer had the wisdom and guts to write:

“The standard grip is the overlapping grip.  Up to now we haven’t found a grip that promotes as effective a union between the body and club.  One of these days one may come along.”

That was 40 years ago and it was Ben Hogan.  The Hawk had vision.

Vision.  Vision and courage is what it took for Natural Golf to get past the antics and seemingly awkward stance and stroke that is the hallmark of Moe Norman whose straight line mechanics inspire the Natural Golf System.

Inspired to greatness, Moe Norman very privately and intuitively golfed until his hands bled, ultimately earning his deserved and lofty place in the annals of golf as “the greatest ball striker in the game.”

Moe shared his greatness.  Few listened.  Fewer understood.

Inspired to innovate, Natural Golf developed its now patented system that redefines golf fundamentals.

Inevitably, Natural Golf and Moe Norman became one, joining in what history will likely say is the union that greatly influenced how the game is played.

Moe’s intuitive genius mirrors Natural Golf’s Square Tracking motion that ignites golf passions in all who experience its logic, simplicity and performance.

As I stand here a niblick away form the green where Willie Anderson completed his incredible U.S. Open hat trick or threepeat, I am respectful of the game’s tradition.

 We are just as respectful of the legacy of service that hard working PGA professionals like Myopia’s Thundering Swede, Johnny Thoren and Bill Sarafin and our own Bart Brown and you bring to your members and patrons.

We are full of respect for those relationships as was PGA Member John Elliott of Golf Digest’s faculty was when he said on the record and for the record:

“Showing people why Natural Golf is a valid way to consider golfing was my duty as a responsible golf professional.”

I similarly submit to you today that in the same way that Bob Cousy went behind his back with the dribble and then Jimmy Walker took it between his legs and the way Babe Zaharias went over the high jump bar head first and then Dick Fosbury flopped back-asswards over it, sport evolves.  It changes, sometimes quite dramatically.

To even consider change takes vision, courage and character and the spirit of an icon like Ben Hogan to prepare you for the moment when you are confronted with the prospect that a concept which you have held as infallible, may, in fact, be less than ideal.

The moment you begin to build a golfer with a finger grip—overlapping, interlocking or 10 finger—you build a golfer with a less than ideal two-axis system.  It is a more complicated machine than the Natural Palm Grip induced straight-line method.

Our Ken Ellsworth who played with the finger grip for years on the PGA Tour has come to believe so strongly in it that he has become our director of instruction and will, later, share the simple fundamentals of the patented Natural Golf System with you.

But, in a verbal thimble let me review how the two-axis finger grip requires five complicated rotary motions to occur during the striking of a golf ball.

1.      The shoulders rotate on one plane.
2.      The arm rotates on another plane.
3.      The hands rotate on a third plane inside the arm plane.
4.      The clubhead rotates on a fourth plane.
5.      The clubface rotates on a fifth plane inside the fourth plane.

All that rotations occurs in the finger grip two axis conventional swing while the body is moving upward and backward, straining to get to a straight line impact position that is Natural Golf’s starting position.

And all those rotations are occurring in an instant when the clubhead is traveling at speeds between 75 and 100 miles an hour.   And it occurs not in laboratories, it occurs where elements further complicate the physics of the situation.

            After ESPN was sold to Getty and Getty sold it to ABC, I left and enrolled in your PGA Apprentice because I could afford to and was mentally exhausted.  Proud, but pooped.

          I don’t have to tell you that as low guy on the totem pole I was required to give a load of lessons and clinics to ladies, kids and beginners.

              In retrospect those eye-rolling travails stood me in good stead.  I know how hard it is to get someone “into” the game.  Get the ball airborne with some velocity.  I know how hard it is to get even a coordinated person to contort themselves in a rotating, spinning, turning, curling motion.  I know how hard it was to explain to them why I wanted them to do it.

            I promise you that those same kinds of players will experience golf rewards quicker and more frequently with less physical and mental stress.  Natural Golf gets new players “into” the game faster and more efficiently.  I know, I have now taught both ways.

            What does that mean?   It means Natural Golf is good for golf.  It will ease recruiting and abate attrition.  Players will play faster, longer and better.  If that’s not A Lifetime of Better Golf, I am going fishing.

            Before I conclude, I want to make you aware that Natural Golf can work with you in a couple of ways.

1.      We would be pleased to welcome, train and work with you or one of your staff who believes in the validity of our method and will play and teach it.
2.      We would be pleased to enroll you in our PGA Colleagues program that allows you to continue to service your traditional golfing memberships and constituencies while acting much like the family physician does in referring patients to doctors who otherwise practice in highly specialized fields.

To be practical about it—with all the publicity and hubbub we are getting, a good percentage of your members are starting to call us anyway.  We’re in Senior Golfer, Golf Digest, The Golf Channel and all over the Internet.

So, since those members and patrons of yours are likely to get in touch with us anyway, why don’t you become a colleague to us and enhance your relationship with those potential Natural Golfers?  You can make money by acting as our intermediary with your members.  Ask us about our PGA Colleagues Program.

To conclude my portion of this seminar, I will leave you with a pearl of wisdom that I found years ago out of frustration with gray flannel suits on Madison Avenue who insisted that our all sports television network would never work.

It is a quote attributed to British scientist and philosopher, Herbert Spencer who likely penned it along about the time that a young Harry Vardon was giving us the fingers and beginning this whole complicated mess.  It says:

            “ There is a principle which is a bar against all information which is proof against all arguments and cannot fail to keep a person in everlasting ignorance.  That principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

                        Thank you.

 
############

 

 

 

 

            

 

Golf With Your Heart!

New Research at the Institute of HeartMath Indicates

The Yips Are a Result of Your Heart, Not Your Head.

The black hole of indecision and spasm that Tommy Armour called "The Yips" has been the scourge of the golf language since he coined it. I am twice removed from that source, being the protege of his protege, J. R. Burrill, with whom I conferred before attributing the dreaded phrase to The Silver Scot. 

 

In the annals of golf no single malady has affected the superior performance of the game's geniuses like The Yips has. A collision with a bus nearly ended Ben Hogan's career, but it didn't. The Yips did.

To this day Johnny Miller's face screws up in pain as he describes how The Yips killed the promise of his golfing genius. 

It is a non-discriminatory affliction affecting any and many. The Yips transcend golf. It's just that Armour gave it a name that stuck in the lexicon. Writers yip and call it a cramp. Singers forget lyrics and call it a block.

 

First-time kissers yip and smooch a nose. In the spectrum that is known as golf instruction, The Yips has earned voodoo-like aspersions. Golfers don't talk about it, as though having The Yips is a character failing.

Golf researchers have peered into the brain to find the source of the problem. While they can see some of the effects, they don't know the cause and haven't found much that can help -- that is until recently. New research at the Institute of HeartMath has found that we've been looking in the wrong place. We need to look instead to the heart. Turns out the songsters and poets have been right all along when they said that our heart has a mind of its own.

I learned that and how the heart relates to The Yips when I was introduced to the marvels of HeartMath(r) and the science behind it. As a fellow who has been around sports at high levels, I was invited to consult with Doc Childre, founder and Chairman of HeartMath. Doc and his colleagues expanded on the discovery that the heart does in fact have its own nervous system called the "heart-brain" and participates in an ongoing two-way communication with the brain in our head.

This research stunningly shows that a lot of emotional sequencing actually begins in the heart, not the brain. To me, who has been around the block a few times when it comes to golf instruction, it meant that much of the recent attention being given to the mental part of golf was starting in the wrong place. From my years of golf coaching, I knew that The Yips are all about emotions. Now here was Dr. Rollin McCraty, Institute of HeartMath Director of Research, describing a condition in which one's heart rhythms get out of sync due to fear or anger in the seat of emotions-the heart. Then the heart sends an out-of-sync signal to the brain, which triggers a state called cortical inhibition.

 

When he said the first symptom of cortical inhibition was impaired decision making and the second was impaired coordination, this cross inflicted Yipper yelled: Eureka!

Fortunately, he went on to say, people can learn how to change emotional state and get their heart rhythms back in sync, creating an opposite state called cortical facilitation where brain function improves along with concentration and confidence. We had a lively discussion about how this leads to "athletes in the zone" which was discussed in this space last month by Laird Small. How this works and how The Yips can be helped or even cured is described here, adapted from HeartMath's new work "Managing Emotions: Golf's Next Frontier" with which I am proud to be associated.

Heart-Brain Synchronization

There is a nervous system pathway that carries signals from the heart to the brain, as well as another pathway that carries messages from the brain to the heart. What this means is the heart and brain "talk" to one another-and together they "talk" to the body. Surprisingly, the heart sends more information to the brain than the other way around! The pattern of the heart's rhythm tells the brain what the heart and body are experiencing.

 

When you're feeling tense, nervous, worried, doubtful, or frustrated, the heart sends a stress signal to the brain.

The thalamus, a key brain center, helps synchronize activity within the brain. When your heart sends a stress signal to the thalamus, it interferes with the ability of the thalamus to synchronize brain functions. The result is your reactions are often out of sync and you cannot think as clearly. This is how you can blow a shot or make a poor decision that you wouldn't normally. When that happens time again, your brain reinforces the pattern in your neural circuits and in the emotional memory center of your brain, called the amygdala. As you get older, the pattern gets more engrained.

 

This means, when you take hold of your putter, your heart automatically signals stress and your brain automatically thinks "The Yips," triggering nervous system chaos. However, at any age, you can intervene at the source, your heart, to change the neural response.

The good news is that at any age, you can change your heart's input to your brain to create heart-brain synchronization, emotional stability and harmony. By using Freeze-Framer(r) software with heart rhythm monitor and HeartMath's Quick Coherence(tm) technique provided in the easy-to-get tutorial, you create heart-brain synchronization and retrain your nervous system response. This documented state is characterized by reduced nervous system chaos, reduced muscle tremor (including The "Yips"), improved motor skills and faster reaction times. Concentration and confidence also increase because your reflexes work faster, you think more clearly, and see more options.

 

Using the Quick Coherence technique regularly as you play allows you to maintain fluidity and "touch" throughout your swing, resulting in improved putting, ball striking, accuracy and lower scores.
Well, who wouldn't want that? So I tried HeartMath's Freeze-Framer technology to monitor my emotional state and trained with their Quick Coherence technique to change my heart rhythm pattern. It took me to a smooth emotional state.

Now, I golf with my heart. The Yips are gone when I do.

My advice is to learn and practice the Quick Coherence technique with the Freeze-Framer. You have nothing to lose. When your golf game improves, your game of life will, too.

 

For more information about on the HeartMath? System, visit http://www.quantumintech.com/ or http://www.golf.freezeframer.com/.