Natural Golf
By NatGolfer as submitted to the OttawaGolf Forums

Natural Golf is a method of swing the golf club virtually identical to the greatest ball striker of all time, Canada's Moe Norman. Many of you by now have seen the Natural Golf infomercial on The Golf Channel, and therefore have some idea of what this method is all about.
After playing golf using the conventional swing for 34 years, I switched to Natural Golf during winter indoor practice in December of 1994 and have now completed five full seasons using it. My current RCGA handicap index is 1.7. I am firmly convinced that Natural Golf will enable every golfer, regardless of their scoring range or handicap, to play better, is much easier to learn, and is less likely to cause back problems, that many golfers presently have using the conventional method.

Normally, after taking a lesson or series of lessons using the conventional method, a golfer regresses before making slow progress. With Natural Golf, improvement begins almost immediately and progresses quickly from there.

The system was "invented," independently of Moe Norman, by Dr. Jack Kuykendall, a physicist, whose goal it was to qualify for the Senior PGA Tour. He practiced for two years using the conventional method, used all the latest equipment and his golf game worsened. He then decided that there must be a better way of swinging a golf club and using his knowledge of physics, anatomy, neuroscience and kinesiology put together the Natural Golf system. He was later introduced to Moe Norman through Mark Evershed, a friend of Moe's and a professional from the Toronto area, and Moe then began working with the Natural Golf Corporation. To quote Moe, "I always knew that I was right, now I understand why."


Natural Golf has four unique fundamentals:
  1. The club is gripped in the palms of the hands and not the fingers,
  2. The stance is very wide stance,
  3. There is a single axis of the dominant arm and the clubshaft,
  4. The body faces the ball at impact.
Questions & Answers
  1. How difficult is it to "unlearn" the conventional swing and have this swing feel "natural" to you?

    Like any athletic motion it takes awhile for the new electrical programming in your brain to take place before it becomes part of your subconscious, so it depends on how much you practice and work on the drills. I believe that a golfer will learn this motion faster if the emphasis is on slow motion swinging and/or slowly moving from one static position to the next in the swing, over hitting thousands of practice balls. When I first changed to Natural Golf I noticed, literally, immediate improvement. It "felt" very awkward, but those feelings dissipated very quickly. It felt "natural," pun intended, within a month of starting indoors, and when I first hit balls outdoors in the spring, the ball striking improvement was confirmed. My handicap, which at the time I changed, was, I believe 2, did not go up as it might have if I would have made a big change using the conventional swing. While I can still address the ball using the conventional Vardon grip and set-up and feel reasonably comfortable, I can no longer swing that way. In fact, I cannot get the ball off the ground, so Natural Golf is in my subconscious. Therefore, I would suggest that it would take 1 to 3 months before it felt natural, with daily practice or swinging. Improvement is almost immediate.

  2. Can you just have your current clubs regripped for "Natural Golf" I know that the grips on "Natural Golf" clubs are much thicker, to fit in the palms, but are there any other modifications to a standard set of clubs?

    I did not buy the clubs that Natural Golf sells. I simply measured how much farther down the shaft my right hand was using the NG palm grip compared to the Vardon grip, and then I made all of my clubs that much longer. For most golfers this is 1 to 2 inches. My reasoning was that if I shove my right hand down the shaft I am effectively playing with shorter clubs. For example, if I hit a 5 iron 170 yards with a normal swing, and then I choke down on the shaft 2 inches and swing normally, I will hit the ball a shorter distance because there is less leverage. So, if I make my Natural Golf clubs a little longer, then that should make up for this loss of leverage. Consequently,the distance I hit each club did not change. Secondly, I built my grips up significantly by wrapping roughly 30 layers of masking tape underneath before installing Golf Pride's Tour Velvet Wrap, .600 grips over top. I made the underwrapping thicker at the bottom of the grip than near the butt and the net result was a thick, non-tapered grip which feels wonderful. One can buy grips from Natural Golf or you can buy Tackimac Equalizer grips from Golfworks(Canada)as well.

  3. Do you hit the ball as far? The hype is mostly about accuracy.

    If you make the adjustments that I mentioned above to the length of the clubs because of the right hand being naturally farther down the shaft, you will not lose any distance and the accuracy is much better. By the way, because of the thicker grips and the build up tape at the butt end, the clubs' swingweights change very little, if at
    all. The technicians at Dynacraft told me that a longer club with the same swingweight will play a little stiffer. As with a conventional set the lie angles need to be checked and altered if necessary. Most Natural Golfers have more upright lies.

  4. Any changes to the putting / chipping game?

    Perhaps the biggest improvement in using Natural Golf occurs in the short game. Because the release through the ball is that of the right arm straightening as opposed to its rotating through the ball, accuracy on chips and pitches increases and the ball rolls straight after landing, seldom jumping sideways as with the conventional stroke. Lastly, putting. I tried the "Thing", Natural Golf's putter, only briefly, before I retired it to the garage. However, I do recommend Dave Pelz's "Putting Bible" as the best book on putting that I have seen and being a mediocre putter at best, I have tried a lot of strokes. This one is the best because like Natural Golf it is based on science(physics) and not on perception and feeling.