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Ben Hogan, the greatest golfer of his era, won the Open at Carnoustie,
Scotland, in 1953, having never played the course before. But this triumph
marked the end of his career—it was cut short by dystonia, a neurological
disorder better known as “the yips”. Both Muhammad Ali’s shaky frailty and
Mozart’s prodigious talent have a neurological component, explains Harold
Klawans in his entertaining book Why Michael Couldn’t Hit: And Other Tales of
the Neurology of Sports (W. H. Freeman, $22.95, ISBN 0 7167 3001 4). A
sports fan and clinician, Klawans concentrates on American athletes, but the
maladies are universal.