The Secrets of Golf's Best Ever Ball Striker | Film Study | Golf Digest

Tiger Woods says only two players have ever "truly owned their swings", Ben Hogan and Moe Norman. The legend of Moe Norman and his homemade golf swing have fascinated players, coaches and fans since he began breaking records in the 1950s. But what was the secret to his incredible ball striking?

In this Film Study, Luke Kerr-Dineen dives into one of the most unique and successful swings in golf history and explains what amateur golfers can learn it.

Senior Editor: Luke Kerr-Dineen
Director of Content: Jamie Kennedy
Editor: Adam Baranowski
Executive Producer: Christian Iooss
Footage credit: Todd Graves

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[ToddGravesGolf]

Love the video. Playing golf with Moe was special. One particular round he kept missing the fairways on purpose, but hitting perfect approach shots onto the green. After five holes, I asked him, what he was doing. He said "I found shortcuts". I went back to see where Moe was positioning his shots and sure enough, every place Moe drove the ball was at least one club closer to the green.

[Milkywaymike]

I started golfing in March of last year and shot well over 100+. I would slice my driver OB and would regularly miss-hit my long clubs... To help my score a little better I switched to just hitting my 7 iron to get me up the fairway. Then around July or August of 2023 I switched to Moe Norman's swing style taught by Todd Graves. I quickly broke 100 and even broke 90 couple times. I consistently shoot in the low 90s and now I'm practicing my short game to hopefully break 85 or even lower this year. While I can't hit as accurate as Moe every time, I at least keep it in bounds now and stopped losing golf balls. It is such a simple swing, however you still need a lot of practice to make sure your ball striking becomes more consistent.

[billsinclair]

My favorite Moe story, in a tournament his caddy told him this hole will be a drive and a 9 iron today. So Moe drops a ball, hits a 9 iron off the tee down the fairway, then when he gets to his ball, he hits a driver off the deck and lands it on the green. His mind and talent was something else. Too bad some PGA players complained about his on course attire and hygiene and harassed him out of the PGA. They just couldn’t leave him alone, he didn’t fit the Country Club elitists idea of a pro golfer. I always wonder what he would have done and records he would have set on the PGA.

[camlancaster]

Makes me proud to be a Canadian golfer 🇨🇦

[skin]

I am a moe follower. Thanks Grave’s golf school. Moe is my model.

[fleurko]

Please do a video on George Knudson! More Hogan than Hogan. Another Canadian ball-striking legend

[swifty]

Moe Norman understood the golf swing completely, but not many people understood him at all.

[WeGettoGolfToday]

Publishing this video right before the season starts making me think i need to completely rebuild my swing😂

[chrismcmorrow]

Outstanding presentation about the great Mo Norman, a golf swing genius and one of The Men Who Don’t Fit In.

[tomsefton]

Wally Uihlein take a deep bow, you did something wonderful for Moe

[zonashi]

Moe was a savant, golfing was like water to him lol. I cam across his vids a while ago and it inspired me to go to the range. His golfing principals have helped me with my driver immensely🫡.

[FelixAlvo]

That's one of the ugliest professional swings I've seen, and I would give absolutely anything in order to have it. Insane what a great mind he had for golf. True legend

[paranoidwzy]

@GolfDigest will you do a video on Mac O’grady?

[BernieTheBoxer]

An eternal square zone was the obsession of Dalton McRary in the '90s video teachers explosion. Last thing to stop moving at the top (the club face) was the first thing to move on the way down - lag being a myth created by cameras - square-zone being created by stable and very upgright swing plane - clubhead speed being created by loose, free swing with confidence in path not fast-moving lower body - which golf robots don't have and many trick shot artists to this day blow out of the water with 250 yard drives sat on chairs

[zeroherogolf]

No side spin for two back2back shots! The only player ever recorded to do so. A-mazing!

[nath-wpxp]

Would love to see Golf Digest cover the right sided swing technique.

[ForzaOwnz]

You mentioned returning to impact a few times in this video and it's slightly wrong.
One of the brilliant things Moe did was that he never returned to impact there as he was never there in his set up to begin with! Hence the starting point of the club a few feet behind the ball

[klank]

I'm pretty sure the thumbnail is Norman on the 10th hole at Rockway ... yard-for-yard the toughest hole on that track!

[dougm]

I’m pretty sure Moe was autistic, he lived a peculiar lifestyle travelling between golf comps in his car, all of his possessions in the car and usually sleeping in the car. He was painfully shy and often asked someone to collect his trophies for him to avoid the fuss and limelight. Only in later life did he grow more comfortable around people and grew to enjoy putting on clinics. Despite his phenomenal ability he never made much money and died relatively young, his poor diet was probably a major factor. A bitter sweet story….RIP Moe

[djl]

His swing is genius, not extremely difficult but you need to understand it. Most impressive is knowing how to use that brief breaking motion that creates so much power at impact.