Moe to Canadian Norman than meets the eye

A LOT of people who are housebound under the present isolation situation have taken to reading again (myself included) to relieve the boredom, and following a recommendation from a friend, I recently purchased an electronic golf book from Amazon for my Kindle.

Entitled ‘The Feeling of Greatness’ the book tells the life story of Canadian golfer Moe Norman who is rated by many, including Lee Trevino and Tiger Woods, as the greatest and purest striker of a golf ball in history.

The record books will show that although he was a fabulous player, his haul of titles never matched his playing ability for several reasons that you will read in the book.

After a successful amateur career, which included winning the Canadian Amateur Championship, Norman turned professional and racked up 55 wins in the paid ranks, mainly on the Canadian PGA Tour, although he did occasionally venture on to the PGA Tour in the USA.

However, despite his uncanny ability to hit shot after shot with great accuracy, Moe battled with several internal demons and other problems, including his poor ability on the greens.

One example of his poor putting was at the Canadian Open where he held the lead by two shots playing the final hole, and upon reaching the green in two at the par four eighteenth, he proceeded to four putt from ten feet and lost the title.

Norman was described as socially disabled and a complete loner who never once attended a prize giving ceremony. Moe never owned a car, but hitch-hiked from one event to the next in his amateur days, falling foul of the Canadian Golf Association on more than one occasion for selling off his prizes (which he got others to collect) for cash.

I won’t tell you anymore about him but the book is a great read and well worth the €8.99 that it cost to download.

The story in last week’s The Kerryman, which broke the news that Castleisland Golf Club is set to close The swweping and majestic Castleisland Golf Club that has announced it will close this week