Shain: Tim Moss’ golf days measured by the other lives he touched

Golfing attire, the notice said.

There are plenty of times in the golf industry when a jacket and tie serve as the necessary attire, but this was not the occasion. Too stodgy. Tim Moss might have known how to run a golf operation, but he was most comfortable at the back of the range.

And so many of the Lowcountry’s most familiar golf dignitaries – and several who made their name in other fields – turned out Monday afternoon at Pinecrest Golf Club to share a drink and a story with others that Moss touched over 4  1/2 decades after taking his first job on Hilton Head Island.

Harbour Town’s John Farrell. Jim and Karen Ferree, the Lowcountry’s first couple of golf. Long Cove Club’s Bob Patton. Roberts Vaux, the noted attorney. Kevin King, the longstanding top amateur. Drew Butler, who went into real estate after serving a few years under Moss at Moss Creek.

So did Mike Harmon, whose name these days is synonymous with Secession Golf Club.

“I mentored under him for 30 years,” Harmon said. “He did it right, and he taught me how to do it right. ... I never stopped learning from Tim until this past Wednesday. He was far more than a friend.”

Moss died late Wednesday at age 66, one of those jolting sequences in which one afternoon you’re making small talk on the practice tee and that evening someone’s calling to tell you that he’s no longer with us. Moss was laid to rest in a private service earlier Monday.

“He’d just gotten back from a several-weeks trip he and Mary (his wife) had taken to Mexico,” said John Brown, who opened the Pinecrest clubhouse for the reception.

“He was tanned and looked wonderful. When I saw him, he looked great. But that was the last evening (he was alive). We lost an incredible guy.”

If a life ultimately is measured by the number of other lives touched, Moss surely would have enjoyed the lineup that made a point to swing by Pinecrest. It certainly brought a smile to his son, known to everyone as simply “T.”

“You know, I was talking to family and friends today about the importance of having impact,” the son said.

“It makes me beam with pride at how many people he touched. For this many people to take time away from their day and come here, it means a lot.”

At least 50 people filled the small grillroom next to Pinecrest’s pro shop. Even as friends came to offer their condolences to Mary and T, the mood was anything but somber -- nor, it seems, would Moss have wanted it that way.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Skip Malek, chief instructor at Sea Pines Resort’s golf school. “These aren’t casual friends, either. He was invested in people.”

Moss, he added, not only had an eye for the golf swing but an innate skill for “saying the right thing at the right time. He was so good at that.”

It was back in the 1980s that Moss attained the title of PGA Master Professional, which might be considered the PGA of America’s version of a doctorate. At the time, he was only the 36th teaching pro nationwide to earn that designation. Even today, just 352 Master Professional titles have been given.

He applied that teaching all across the Lowcountry, moving from Sea Pines to Shipyard to Moss Creek to Secession to Hilton Head National and Belfair. When Robert Redford came to Bluffton in 1999 to film “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” Moss was the one recommended to serve as swing coach and technical advisor to Matt Damon, Will Smith and others.

Moss stepped away in 2002, retiring to his four acres on the equestrian side of Rose Hill Plantation. A horseriding accident five years later caused a mini-stroke, but he regained use of his right arm and leg through intense rehab.

In 2010, he went back into teaching at Chechessee Creek Club. When Brown purchased Pinecrest not long after, one of his first moves was to offer Moss the back of his range.

“I have rarely met anyone with the knowledge that Tim has,” Brown said, “and the ability to simplify that knowledge and communicate it effectively.”

Vaux tells the story of a Marine he met a few years ago who helped him change a flat tire near Parris Island. The Marine noticed Vaux’s clubs in the trunk, saying he’d recently taken up the game. They soon played 18 at Pinecrest, after which Vaux took the Marine – a left-handed beginner – to the back of the range.

“Tim looked at him and said, ‘Let me give you two things,’ ” Vaux recalled. “The next time we went out and played golf, he shot a 96. Last time I played with him, he shot 87.”

Similar stories were repeated Monday, saying Moss needed five minutes to diagnose a flaw. “Literally five minutes,” Butler said. “He knew my swing so well.”

Malek said: “Once you fix one thing, a lot of good things get pulled right along with that. Tim and I were both big believers in that.”

In the end, though, Moss’s teaching won’t be remembered so much as his personality.

Butler, who was 13 when he first met Moss, recalled the chance to play with Moss, Vaux and Tom Cornelia at last autumn’s benefit tournament for the Lowcountry Golf Hall of Fame. “We played well,” he said, “and laughed better.”

Last spring, Moss became part of the Hall’s inaugural class – a move that almost didn’t happen until someone noticed his name had somehow gone missing from nominations. Committee members put the process on hold until his portfolio could be included.

Upon consideration, Moss was swept in. And considering the past week, with great timing.

“That really meant the world to him,” said Harmon, also a member of that inaugural class. “He started in the early days of Sea Pines and stayed here all his life. (Enshrinement) was big for all of us, but for Tim I know how special it was to him.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 12:18 AM with the headline "Shain: Tim Moss’ golf days measured by the other lives he touched."