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to hers. As a
team they had become a sensation on the NCGA women's golf circuit,
each flamboyant in their own way and each doing what they did best.
Melanie played golf courses and Rebecca played the crowds and the
press. By the time that they had won the state women’s NCGA
championship and were off to the NCGA national championships they
both had national reputations. Rebecca was in her final year at
Clapshorn and had already been admitted to grad school at Harvard.
Melanie was much less an academic but after her third year she knew
she would have her pick of Ivy League schools to continue her
collegiate golf. A golf club manufacturer had approached her for
sponsorship to turn professional, but even she knew she was not
ready for that step.
    Their infamy had had other side effects.
    Bumstead, Saskatchewan was now known as the
home of Melanie McDougal and there was a sign on the county road
into town that said so. The Folly was suddenly getting golf
visitors from all across North America as all tried their hand at
the golf course that was intended to piss them off. Melanie’s Dad
quit farming and leased his land out to neighbours in order to
devote his full attention to the course. He was even planning to
build an even tougher second nine holes.
    One golf magazine interviewed both Hale
Irwin and Andy Bean about the “instruction” that they had given
Melanie. Irwin was flattered that an eight year old Melanie had
been “in love” with him, but neither ever remembered any
circumstance where they would have influenced her golf. Once they
saw videos of her swing they quickly distanced themselves from any
responsibility, or credit, for her success.
    No one in the U.S. ever asked who “Moe” was
since most assumed it was just some local guy who played at the
Folly. Some conscientious reporter actually looked up the 1963
Saskatchewan open where Melanie said her father met this guy named
Moe, and discovered, for most Americans anyhow, Moe Norman, the
winner of the 1963 Saskatchewan Open and the winner of the Canadian
Amateur in 1955 and 1956, the Canadian PGA in 1966 and again just a
few years ago in 1974, and many other tournaments. He was well
known in Canada, but except for a few pros in the U.S., he was not
known well to the American golfing public. The reporter could never
get confirmation from Norman or anyone else that he actually
visited the Folly after his Canadian PGA win in 1966, but one look
at Melanie’s swing showed some similarity to his unusual swing, so
it could have been true. And he had as prodigious a talent as
Melanie was showing. By the time of his death in 2004 he would have
achieved fifty-five Canadian tour victories, thirty-three course
records and seventeen holes in one. He would be called by one
famous golfer as “the most pure ball striker alive today” and his
ability to hit shot after shot perfectly straight earned him the
nickname “pipeline Moe.” Melanie could have had a lot worse
instructors.
    Much to Melanie’s chagrin, Rebecca played
loud and loose with the “great women's hope” card and told anyone
who wanted to hear that Melanie would be a champion on the men’s
tour one day, not the women's. This blatant bragging ticked off
both the men and women, but Rebecca did not care and Melanie left
that stuff to her.
    But by the time Melanie had beaten Mary for
the state NCGA women's championship and they had jumped in
Rebecca’s 1977 BMW convertible and headed to California, there was
no doubt they were something of a spectacle. So in truth, Coach was
just as happy that they were making their way to California on
their own and incognito. He was getting a little tired of the
constant media attention on Melanie and Rebecca when he actually
had a winning men’s team, which he thought was far more important
than the women’s side. Two of his players were seniors and had
already secretly signed endorsements for when they turned pro.
Their victories and standing…Chad had won the State