And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10-11, ESV)
Perhaps the best ball-striker of the modern era was Canadian professional Moe Norman. A friend of mine who was a teaching pro at a club in Canada where Moe often practiced, told me a Moe Norman story I’d never heard.
You don’t force the club through, you just give it a tug to get it on the right path.They had an auxiliary range at the club, about 175 yards long, he said. Moe would empty the balls from an old shag bag—the kind that looks like a bowling bag or a large purse—at one end of the range, walk to the other end, and leave the bag there, open.
Then he’d walk back and hit 50 or 60 balls at that target, and at least half a dozen of them would go into the bag! The rest, he said, could be picked up within just a step or two.
Moe would often hit out of his own divots when playing a course on the second or third day. Not that he cared. A Links Player who was a neighbor of Moe told me that he would stand on the range and hit ball after ball out of the same divot, all while saying, “There’s no such thing as a bad lie.”
To achieve that remarkable level of competence, Moe hit hundreds of thousands of golf balls. But he had a secret: “Vertical drop, horizontal tug. Vertical drop, horizontal tug.” (Repetition was simply part of Moe’s life.)
Get the club to the top of the backswing, let it drop (vertical drop), and guide it through the ball (horizontal tug). It’s good advice for a full swing, and even pitch shots. But there is another application.
Thinking about Moe’s secret in the Christmas season, it occurred to me that Jesus came down from heaven. We didn’t pull him down, just as we shouldn’t pull the club down. In the best golf swings, the hands (followed by the club) come down freely. That is what Jesus did, coming to earth freely and willingly.
The horizontal tug, though, is where we get involved. You don’t force the club through, you just give it a tug to get it on the right path. Likewise, you can’t force someone else to follow Jesus. You can’t muscle another person onto the right path, try as you might. What you can do, though, is give them a little tug to guide them in the direction they should go—toward Jesus.
Try the vertical drop, horizontal tug on the golf course, both with your swing and—more importantly—with your golf partners. Jesus has taken care of the hard part. All that remains is a little tug by you.
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Lewis Greer
December 11, 2017
Copyright 2017 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.