Wally Uihlein, President and Chief Executive Officer, of Titleist saw an article in The Wall Street Journal about my discovery of a new type of golf swing. The article mentioned that it was similar to Moe Norman's and that Moe was under contract with my company "Natural Golf".
I had promised Moe that if he signed an exclusive with me, that I would see that he would never have to worry about his finances again. Mr. Uihlein had one of his vice-presidents do some checking on Moe's financial status and found that he was just barely making ends meet with his clinics and a small contract from Natural Golf. As Moe was under an exclusive contract with Natural Golf at the time, Mr. Uihlein contacted me about meeting at the 1995 PGA show for discussion about Moe Norman.
When we met, I talked to Mr. Uihlein first. One of Mr. Uihlein's concerns was what financial gain Natural Golf might want. I informed Mr. Uihlein that Natural Golf wanted no financial gain from anything that would help Moe. Mr. Uihlein expressed his opinion that Moe was one of the four great ball strikers of all times and did not want his swing lost to future generations. How would the golfing world like to have current video quality images of Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan. They just don't exist.
Mr. Uihlein wanted to take video of Moe and have several tour players talk about his swing. I agreed on the condition that I could be the last person on the video and explain what Moe really does during his swing. No one had ever gotten it right. Mr. Uihlein agreed.
I then ask Mr. Uihlein, "I also understand that you want to do something financial for Moe." Mr. Uihlein said, "That is correct, but I don't want to make you look bad." I responded, "That's OK. make me look bad." "What did you have in mind?"
Mr. Uihlein said, "How does $5,000 a month for the rest of his life sound?" My response was, "Moe will love that."
We called Moe and several of his friends over (Gus Maue being one of them) and I explained to Moe about the video. Moe's response was, "Can I be on this big bank of TV's at the show next year?" Mr. Uihlein said, "Yes, Moe, you can be up there next year." I then told Moe that Mr. Uihlein want to do something financially to help him as well. Mr. Uihlein then told Moe that Titleist was going to give him $5,000 a month for the rest of his life. Moe took one step backward, turned his head a little and looked at Mr. Uihlein with those piercing eyes and said, "I've played your balls all my life, I wear your shoe." He repeated the same thing a second time, "I've played your balls all my life, I wear your shoe. What do I have to do for that?" Mr. Uihlein responded with, "You have already done your part Moe. Titleist is just saying thank you for what you have already done." Moe took one more step back and repeated. "I've played your ball's all my life, I wear your shoe. What do I have to do for that." Mr. Uihlein assured Moe that he did not have do anything. It was a thank you gift from Titleist. Moe said, "Your not going to hurt my friend Jack, are you?" I told Moe that I had approved the deal and no one was being hurt. Moe said, "OK, I'll accept it."
Hairs were standing up on my arm and I was holding back tears. Handkerchiefs were coming out of the pockets of all of Moe's friends who were not as controlled. When Moe said it was OK, he almost fainted. A few of his friends held him up until he regained his composure.
We had a clinic to do in less than 30 minutes on the range. As we were walking out the door, Moe said, "I don't know if I can hit ball or not Jack." I assured Moe that if he missed every shot, it would be OK. He, obviously, did not and performed one of his best clinics ever.
No company that I know of has ever done an act of appreciation that can parallel what Mr. Uihlein and Titleist did for Moe Norman.
