By Kelly Murray, NGCI

I'm visiting my mentor, patriarch of Natural Golf, good ole "Murray" Moe Norman. It's in the winter of the early '90s. We're on the range when we turned around and noticed a young lady hitting bunker shots. He said to me, "I want you to see this gal hit shots. She's the Canadian Junior Champion, 18 years old from French Canada." As we walked towards the sand trap I noticed she was wearing headphones and toiling away not noticing us. We got up behind the sand trap and looked down at her as she was hitting many bunker shots. Moe said, "Look! Look! What do you see? What do you see?" I described the obvious. Good posture, great execution and that her shots were piling up around the flag. Moe said, "That's not what I see. Not what I see. I see the elbow leads the wrist, the wrist leads the hand, the hand leads the club head and the heel leads the toe."  

Thinking the heel leads the toe through impact will lead to the proper sequence of motion. This has been my main thought for all shots particularly the sand play and most certainly with my driver.

In the year 1980, Moe told me that if only I knew how easy golf was I would laugh all the way to the bank. He said, "Golf is the easiest game in the world when you go about the right procedures." We spent a few thousand hours together over the next 10 years on the Canadian Tour when I learned something else. I learned that Moe had a sense of humor but it was only after I had told him a new joke every day. I used to joke with him and say, "hey the friends of yours in Canada had a baby boy" to which Moe said, "Who? Who?" to which I said, "You know, you know, your friends up there in Toronto" Moe would ask again, "Who? Who?" I would finally say, "The Tells and they named their boy after you. Mo-Tel"  Moe would laugh like a little boy. Every day I would come up with a new joke and I would catch him every time. I kept learning how easy the game was particularly when Moe was explaining and helping me with my game both by demonstrating his skills and pointing out others who were either good or bad examples of the proper sequence of motion. "P.S.M." Moe said, "Not to be confused with PMS" Moe had made a joke, the first I had ever heard from him and he laughed like a little boy.

I miss old Moe. It's been 2 years now and it's been 2 years since I made a pilgrimage to his funeral up in Ontario Canada. Reality struck me when I saw him in the viewing room at a small funeral parlor in Guelph, Ontario. I lost it for 5 minutes and I kept thinking that I would never see a man with so much knowledge on how to keep it simple. The simplest move in golf. A man that would never allow the toe of the club to lead the heel. Poetry in motion. The most direct strike in golf. I was proud to have known him. I knew him better than my own family and he taught me everything he knew and never charged me a dime.

Kelly

 Kelly   became a Certified Natural Golf Instructor in February of 2002. He has been a Canadian PGA member for 18 years. Kelly is currently teaching Natural Golf at Virginia Golf Center, VA..  He became a Natural Golfer after his tutorship under one of the greatest ball strikers ever, and perhaps Canada's most decorated golfer, Moe Norman. A couple of his most memorable moments were 8 birdies in 9 holes on an Australian Tour in New Zealand and his listing in the Guinness Book of World Records for hitting the worlds longest drive, 684.8 yards. Of the 129 Long Drive contests he has entered, he has won 103 of them.

Kelly's personal motto is: "If I can't make birdie from there, I might as well go home". This is what he says to his playing partners/gallery, etc. after a poorly struck shot. Kelly may be contacted via email at power_driving@hotmail.com