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CHAPTER GOLF’S GREATEST MOMENTS Even the most devoted supporters will admit that golf can be a maddening, frustrating game. For most of us, it takes hours of practice and years of repetition to begin to get a handle on getting that little white ball to travel in a straight line with any consistency. Keep your left arm straight. Keep your head still. Don’t overswing. Swing with your shoulders, not your hands. These are just some of the tips both new and seasoned golfers try to implement in search of that most elusive element—the consistent golf swing. The swing is just half of the battle. Once you get that ball near the hole, the other of golf’s twin beasts rears its head—putting. Stand with your feet hip-distance apart. Play the ball forward in your stance. Grip the club lightly but firmly. Accelerate the club head through your point of balance. Variations on these tips have consumed countless hours on practice greens around the world for centuries. Discerning which advice or combination of tips will produce a desirable result has caused many an average golfer to destroy a hostile driver or a defiant putter. As U.S. President Woodrow Wilson once famously said, “Golf is a game in which one endeavors to control a ball with implements ill adapted for the purpose.” But then, every 18 to 36 holes or so, it happens. That one swing produces a majestic drive that splits the fairway up the middle. That one putt from the fringe meanders its way to the bottom of the cup from a most unlikely distance. That one shot keeps us coming back. It is the knowledge of just how difficult mastery of the game truly is that heightens the appreciation for those that make it look so effortless in the most challenging conditions. This is especially so when the stakes are at their highest, and the greatest golfers in the game execute plays that are so unlikely, so unimaginable, and so thrilling that they represent the greatest moments in the sport.

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