Free The Sand Trap by Dave Marshall Page A

State actually found Moe Norman in Kitchener, Canada and
tried to talk to him about Melanie. Norman had never heard of her
and hung up on him, but as the reporter pointed out in his article,
there was no mistaking the similarity between their swings.
Melanie’s was more graceful and arcing, with a wider and more
fulsome backswing. Nights in bed reading the golf magazines from
the seventies, and staring at the Hale Irwin swing broken down in
sequential photos had some influence for sure. Years of well
meaning people trying to correct what they thought was wrong – only
her grip was safe from attack – had changed some aspects of what
her swing looked like as a kid who had watched Moe Norman hit a
hundred “pipeline” irons. Being half a foot taller required swing
adjustments. But she still had the one plane swing that started
with a straight stiff armed address with the club starting a foot
behind the ball, teed up or not. If she stayed in golfing very
long, and continued the success that she had started in college,
someone somewhere would analyze her swing for the things she was
doing right rather than what she was doing wrong. There was
certainly no question that whatever she was doing, the club head
met the ball with incredible force and controlled consistency.
    That’s not what Rebecca meant. They had been
all over that many times and Rebecca had just accepted that
whatever Melanie was doing it worked for her. She often argued that
some of the legendary golfers like Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino or
Chi Chi Rodriguez, had swings that would hardly make them
centrefold for Golf World magazine today. What she meant was that
she saw many other instances where Melanie reacted in a way she
could not. That day on the soccer pitch and the night that Melanie
caught the beer bottle were just two examples. Driving was another
one of them. More than once Melanie had seemed to anticipate an
action by another driver that avoided an accident.
    “I guess I see things differently,” Melanie
offered.
    “What? Like superman? Do you jump tall
buildings, run faster than a locomotive as well?”
    Melanie responded quickly and as angrily as
Rebecca had ever seen. “Shut up. I’m not a comic book freak.”
    “OK. OK. I’m sorry. What do you mean that
you see things differently?”
    “Well there are several ways. Driving for
example, I can see that car coming at us will turn in front of us
and I’ll have to be careful.”
    They both paused and waited as the oncoming
farm truck turned in front of them. It was not a dangerous move,
but Melanie had to slow down a bit from 80 mph.
    Rebecca was astonished. “My God, you can see
into the future!” She exclaimed.
    Melanie laughed. “No such luck or I’d know
if Chad would marry me when we graduate!” she teased.
    “It has taken me a long time in my life to
figure it out myself Rebecca, but as far as I can figure it I am
simply good at reading the signs and reacting. I think what I see
is there for others to see, it is just that most either don’t see
it or do not process it.”
    “Give me another example.”
    “Ok, the soccer game you mentioned. Each
time someone shot at me they told me with their eyes when they were
going to shoot and where. It was easy to anticipate and get in
front of the shot. It appears to me that the shot comes at me in
slow motion.”
    Rebecca was more than curious now.
    “What about the beer bottle that time Burt
threw it at me?”
    “That was easy. You were such a jerk I would
have thrown a beer bottle at you too. I just intuitively put
together Burt’s personality with the booze and the bottle in his
hand and I knew he would throw it. His aim was better than I
anticipated though so while my hand was already moving to stop the
throw before he did it, I was lucky to catch the bottle.”
    Then Rebecca moved to the question that she
really wanted to ask.
    “Have you thought about how this works with
a golf club?”
    “Partly,” Melanie replied. “I know I