Most Underrated golfer ever

In my case I think it was Moe Norman..... Amazing golfer he was a member at North Halton for a Number of years which is cool because it is my home course


[attachmentid=52344] See the North Halton Logo on his shirt

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Might going to be an outlier, but I'm going to pick John Daly.

Who else has 2 majors in this time, and is still playing? Him, Vijay, Retief, Tiger, Phil, if I forgot anyone, let me know.

But most people don't think of him in that company. He was also one of the 6 players to win 2 majors before he turned 30.

He just doesn't get the credit for his golf that he deserves.

I'll take Billy Casper. 51 PGA Tour wins, good for 6th all-time with 3 majors (2 US Opens, 1 Masters). He's left entirely out of the discussion of top 10 players ever, perhaps b/c he was something of a jack*ss. No shame in being behind the fellas ahead of him (Snead, Nicklaus, Hogan, Palmer, Nelson).

Ernie Els, Lee Janzen (i think he is still playing. )

I don't think Moe Norman gets the recognition he could/should get because he failed to win on the PGA TOUR.

Did you Know Jack and Arnie got Moe kicked off the tour because of two reasons the way he dressed and how fast he played.

Let me tell you a story about the late Moe Norman. Moe was on the tenth tee at North Halton...... There was a guy with a baseball glove down in the fairway.... moe got the yardage and he hit three shots and got them all in the baseball glove.

Heres the tenth hole

[attachmentid=52526]

wow! even if that isnt true its a great story!

GARY PLAYER!

Just A Few of his Wins:
9 Majors (3 Opens, 3 Masters, 2 PGA's, 1 U.S. Open)
24 PGA Tour events
74 South Africa/Sunshine Tour events including 13 South African Opens
18 Australasian Tour events including 7 Australian Opens
9 Senior Majors
19 Champions Tour events
5 European Senior Tour events including 3 Senior British Opens and the Wentworth Senior Masters
4 Senior skins games

IN TOTAL: OVER 160 PROFESSIONAL EVENTS

Not to mention, the best bunker player of ALL TIME

And all the talk about who was the best golfer of all time focuses on TW vs. Jack-@ss vs. Hogan. I don't know exactly how many foreign tournaments Jack-@ss won, but I'm sure it's nowhere close to the Black Knight!

Andy North
Two time US Open Champion.

Somehow Gary Player always seems to be overshadowed by Palmer, although as you point out Player had a much better career.

I too feel that Moe Norman never really got the recognition he deserved. He's also my nomination for Most Underrated.

Exactly who I was going to mention..

I always thought that Moe Norman decided not to play the PGA Tour because he had a speech impediment and the other players made fun of him.

Nope he was to fast and dressed not the the regular tour player

Moe's swing was the most sound and technically accurate of all time. He took that 100 part swing and made it simple and deadly straight.

50 plus tour wins Billy Casper
your do not even here much about him

Billy Casper had 51 Tour Wins and barely is a blip on the golf history radar screen.

I have to agree with Billy Casper, I am not trieing to be disrespectful towards Moe Norman but was he that great at the rest of his game? I realize his ball striking was legendary but what about the rest of his game and on top of that how many wins did he pick up in Canada? As for the Lee Janzen and Andy North picks I think that they might be the two most overrated players to win 2 majors, again not shots at them but by no means guys you think about when you say multiple major champions.

Dr. Cary Middlecoff won 40 times on the PGA tour including two U.S. Opens, and a Masters.

That's a good one!

How can you say Player was "underrated". Maybe he was overshadowed, but never underrated. After all, he is in the golf hall of fame, and no one discounts he was one of the greats during one of the greatest eras in golf. He was in no way underrated like some others mentioned on this thread. But my vote goes to Moe Norman too. This is a guy you hardly hear about because he was edged off the tour.

Lloyd Mangrum

Yeah Moe iwas great.

Of course you copuld not have someone looking him on the top, would be bad for golf. /sarc

Imagine if he was winning all the tournaments.....

Mark McNulty.

60 wins in a 30 year professional career and one of the finest short games ever.

Most people wouldn't know him if they bumped into him.

Moe Norman can also stake a claim to most over-rated, or at least most over-hyped. If he was all that great a striker (which must include some power over the wind as well as the vagaries of the manufacturing of golf balls), then he would have won something in the US. Isn't that the test applied to Monty?

For most underrated, I would offer Tony Jacklin. First UK winner of the US Open, despite the resentment of some lesser players there, and a winner of the Open, not to mention other Euro and US events and Ryder Cup as a player and captain. I'll take him over Andy North any day.

For a local Irish contender, Christy O'Connor (Snr, uncle of the guy who beat Couples at the Ryder Cup). 10 times Ryder Cup player and a number of top-10 finishes in the Open. Won a bunch of events in Europe and won the Order of Merit twice. He was from the era when Euro players did not get invites to US majors. Played great into his 60s with a lovely syrupy swing.

Jose Maria Olazabal

Professional wins 29 (PGA Tour: 6, European Tour: 22, Majors: 2)

If this guy could have hit his driver better during his prime, he would have been one of the all time greats. Nobody could wedge it better than Jose!

Another reason why I like him, he won me a huge Masters pool back in 1999.

Why are you disrespecting Nicklaus? The point of this thread is to give mention to the most underrated, not bag on the person who many beleive is the greatest ever.

I personally dont think Player is that underrated, he would make most people's top 10 all time which I think is about right. Palmer just gets a lot of love in the USA because of his personality and becasue he is an American. He was also th best player in the world for several years, and brought golf to the masses with the advent of TV. I think Palmers place in history is where it should be as well.

Most Underrated is Billy Casper, to me Casper is similar to Mickelson today, if not even more overshadowed by the "Big Three" of Nicklaus, Palmer and Player. Phil just has Tiger to deal with. I would also throw Peter Thompson and Bobby Locke on the list, two great international players whom could play with anyone an whom both won multiple British Opens. Thompson never really played much in the US so he did not get much recognition here, but he did win 5 British Opens. Lock won 4 Opens and played in the US for a short period of time, he won a ton of tournaments over about a 2 year period and decided he didnt like the US tour, apparenatly a lot of the US pros did not treat him well. If either one of these guys could have won a US major there recognition would have jumped considerably.

Good pick, the Doc could really play.

Yeah, 36 tour wins and one US Open, not a bad career, he also served in combat during WWII and received two purple hearts, including one at the Battle of the Buldge. I don't think he was underrated during his era, but I think history has forgotten him. Very interesting character, they don't make them like him any more.

Billy Casper.

I've heard Gary Player called lots of things but never underrated. I'm sure Gary himself would give you a story about him being the most underrated because things were different back in his day. He had to cycle 100,000 miles to each tournament whilst carrying 16 children on his back and his wife under his arm and all for prize money of $4 blah blah blah.

As for Moe Norman, I understand that he was one off the best ballstrikers of his time but his short game left a lot to be desired.

Peter Thomson and Bobby Locke don't get the recognition they deserve. They're often overshadowed by some of the U.S players of the same era even though their records are equal to if not greater than the majority of those players.

I'm a Brit so I should be going for a Brit or at least a European but my vote goes to Buffalo Bill (Billy Casper). One of the greatest records on the PGA Tour yet he's rarely mentioned in the same breath as Nicklaus, Palmer etc.

Me too .

I was going to say Billy Casper too, but if he's getting all these votes as underrated, then does that mean he's not really underrated?

Lol, interesting point.

Does that mean whoever wins this vote, loses? My brain hurts.

Therefore I'm going to change my vote to me!

I'm voting for Villa too!

Oops, now you are over rated!!!

Kevin

Damn it!

Throwing my boy Pavin into the mix.

What he's done with what he's got is really amazing.

The lengthening of courses left the Pavin-types extinct....so the fact that every now and then you see his name creep up the leader board is a testament to how good he really is.

I would drop the name Gene Sarazen. We did a top ten player of all time list topic here a few weeks ago, and the man was completely ignored.

7 majors, 39 wins, and invented the sand wedge. Still gets left off a lot of lists....

Casper
Middelcoff
Locke
Peter Thompson
Mangrum
Demaret
Runyan

In that order

My vote goes to Jack Hamm.......POWWWWWWW

Nick faldo, never got the recoingtion he deserved

Casper just does not get the respect he should great player

When I read the title I said to myself "Moe Norman" We're seeing some of the concepts he found in the swing starting to show in the in the swings of the best athletes on the planet.
True genius.

Please could you enlighten us with whom these athletes are?

I'll go with Billy Casper as well. I think Larry Nelson deserves a mention as well.

My vote is for Moe.

I've heard of some amazing stories and also some amazing footage of Moe hitting golf balls. There is a reason he is a ledgend among legends of the tour. Believe it or not Moe is the greatest ball striker you never heard of

some good videos I found of Moe
http://archives.cbc.ca/sports/golf/topics/1705-11754/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8bphcoEGc4

Moe Norman had a fourth place finish to call his best on the PGA tour in two seasons. Based on the standards we use that would make him over rated not under rated.

As far as Arnie and Jack running him off the tour in 59 I see no mention of Arnies name and Jack did not even join the tour until 61.

Arnie doing something like this would be out of character.

"After competing on the Canadian tour and playing in two Masters tournaments as an amateur, Norman played briefly on the PGA Tour, with fourth place at the '59 Greater New Orleans Open being his best finish. Confronted by peers who strongly encouraged him to "shape up," he walked off the tour after earning less than $2,900. While Moe wanted people to like him and appreciate his talent, he often acted like an ill-tempered child, drawing attention by misbehaving, then getting offended when chastised"

He was believed to be autistic and it is believed it may have come from being hit by a car at age five.

Its very interesting to read about him but I doubt its fair to call him under rated . Then again its only my opinion

has got to be Ian Poulter the "World's number 2"......haha just kidding.

I would have to say Steve Stricker. Hes a great accomplished player who does not get enough credit for his hard work. Not to mention he was the only one to give Tiger a run in the playoffs last year.

I agree Faldo was a great player, maybe the best of his era, but I would hardly call him underrated, without a doubt the best player in the world between the Seve era and the Tiger era. True Greg Norman got more attention even though he could never beat Faldo when it counted but I think he gets the credit that is due to him.

I am with Ken on this one, the title of this thread is Most Underrated GOLFER, not ballstriker. Moe isn't even the 100th best golfer ever, hell maybe even 1000th, but maybe one of the top 3 best ball strikers ever, big difference. 1/2 of the game of golf is the short game, including putting, and a huge part of the big picture is mental toughness and the ability to get it done in the clutch, on the big stage, Moe never exhibited any of these qualities. Plus no successful player as ever really utilized his technique. Let's be honest the Canadien tour was the Nationwide tour of today, at best. Today it would be on par with the Hooters tour, at best. Just shows you what an infomercial and a Golf Digest article will do for your reputation. So IMO Moe is the most overrated golfer ever.