Moe Norman
The Canadian Golfing Legend with the Perfect Swing
AUTHOR: Stan Sauerwein
FORMAT: 5.5 x 8.5 pb / 128 pages
ISBN-10: 1-55153-953-5
ISBN-13: 9781551539539
Murray "Moe" Norman has always been a little different. When he took up golf, at the age of 12, he spent hours hitting balls, swinging the club until his hands bled. He soon became a phenomenon on the amateur golfing circuit. Humbly aware of his special gift and justifiably proud, Moe went on to set 33 course records, including three 59s, and has shot 17 hole-in-ones.
Prologue
The shoulder of the sled run at sombre-looking Kitchener Collegiate Institute was a scrambling swarm of freckle-faced youngsters that morning. Soaked to the skin but happy, scores of them had taken to the hill above Glasgow Road to slide. They zipped down the middle and then half-crawled on their knees back to the top of the steep slippery surface, chattering about their spills. It was the kind of winter day the kids, who lived just a few blocks away, dreamed about. Though it was cold, the hill was being dusted by powdery snow. That made for one sure thing. Speed.
The hill tapered into a flat tabletop run of 60 feet or more before it dropped sharply towards a two-lane road at the bottom. No one ever made it that far, so no one worried.
Marie watched her twin five-year-old brother, Murray, stuff his feet into the curved front of the toboggan. Two friends squatted down behind him. With the loop of rope at the front of their wooden chariot gripped tightly in woollen mittens, the boys nudged themselves off the lip of the hill towards their steep ice-covered plunge. The toboggan moved easily, gathering speed as it dropped. In that moment, all Marie could see was a blur of colour and a trailing spume of snow. The toboggan rocketed downwards but instead of digging in at the bottom as usual, it skimmed across the flat landing zone like a rock skipping over water.
Within seconds the toboggan had reached the drop-off where it gathered a new boost of momentum and vanished towards the road.
Marie watched in breathless panic from the top of the hill. The toboggan had slid across the street and into a driveway, coming to a stop behind a car. The driver was backing up, unaware the wooden missile had landed behind him. Horrified, Marie stared as the automobile reversed over the toboggan and then suddenly stopped. After hysterical seconds of stillness - thinking her brother killed - she could see tiny figures crawl out from beneath the car and run for home.
Though her redheaded brother was apparently uninjured, Marie and the rest of the Norman family would eventually come to suspect the crash had somehow changed little Murray forever.
In the least, he certainly grew up to be different.
About the Author
Stan Sauerwein lives and writes in Westbank, British Columbia. A freelance writer for two decades, his articles have appeared in a variety of Canadian and U.S. magazines and newspapers. Specializing in business subjects, he has written for both corporations and governments.
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