If golfers can be considered athletes, then Tiger Woods has got to be the greatest athlete ever.

reply to post by Dr Love

I don't know if you can compare the way Tiger dominates golf to how Gretzky dominated hockey or Jordan dominated basketball. Perhaps we can, but it is difficult as the 'sports' differ greatly.
No argument that Tiger is the premier golfer of his generation. But I don't consider him the best of all time. Around here we had a gentleman who is a local legend; Moe Norman. Moe never had a golf lesson, and many pros consider him the greatest golfer of all time. You probably never heard of him. He played only briefly on the PGA, due to the fact that he suffered from chronic shyness. He supposedly was so shy that one time he quit in the middle of a tournament he was winning. He preferred to stay in Canada.

www.moenorman.com...
en.wikipedia.org...

Hear what Tiger Woods has to say about Moe Norman:

Tiger Woods in a recent interview stated "Only two players have ever truly owned their swings Moe Norman and Ben Hogan," Woods said. "I want to own mine. That's where the satisfaction comes from."

VJ Singh:

In a 2004 USA Today Q&A interview, VJ Singh was asked this question: Who's the best golfer you've ever seen?" Singh's answer: "Moe Norman. I've hit balls with him lots of times. He was incredible. Whatever he said he could do, he could do. If you talk to Lee Trevino and the other greats of the game, they'll tell you how good he was. He could talk it, and he could do it. God gives people little gifts, and Moe had a gift for golf."

One of my favorites is of the time when Norman and Sam Snead were playing an exhibition. Both players needed about 250 yards to clear a stream. Snead laid up, then watched Norman prepare to go for it.

"You need to lay up, Moe," Snead told Norman, "you can't carry that creek." Norman replied, "I'm aiming for the bridge."

And after his laser-straight shot rolled right across the bridge, over the hazard, Snead didn't try telling Norman again how to play a shot.

"Hogan had always asserted that there was no such thing as an intentionally straight golf shot. After watching Norman hammer one perfectly straight shot after another, Hogan just scratched his head and walked away, suggesting that Norman "keep hitting those accidents."

golf.about.com...

Unfortunately, Moe died in 2004.

[edit on 25-2-2008 by TheComte]

[edit on 25-2-2008 by TheComte]

[edit on 25-2-2008 by TheComte]

reply to post by TheComte


Wow, I've been playing golf for 28 years now and I've never even heard of Moe Norman. Thanks for the history lesson. I'm going to start reading up on him.

Edit: Here's an ESPN tribute to Moe Norman.



Also, there was a craze not too long ago called "The Natural Golf Swing". A friend of mine tried this and it destroyed his game. He used to shoot in the low 90s, now he's at about 110 on average and he's a complete mess. It looks as if it was derived from Moe Norman's swing. Norman must have truly owned his swing because nobody else can. The fundamentally most correct swing for me has always been Bobby Jones. It was as close to perfect as one could get IMO.

Peace

[edit on 26-2-2008 by Dr Love]

Actually, the Natural Swing was created independently and Moe was brought on board when it was discovered that his swing was almost identical.

My old supervisor used to golf with Moe so I've heard a lot of stories about him. I couldn't believe the praise he was getting either. Imagine if he could have overcome his shyness. He probably would have won many tournaments.