Interview with Manuel de la Torre - Milwaukee PGA Professional Legend

Manuel de la Torre will celebrate his 87th birthday on October 6, 2009 with every intention to continue teaching each day of his life. It takes only a moment for one to realize that this alert, cheerful man is doing exactly what he wants to be doing. He teaches each day and plays and teaches during his winter hiatus in Florida each year. "I worked 3 years for my father (Angel), as his assistant and I've been here at Milwaukee Country Club for 57 years, so this marks my 60th year of teaching. I have photographs of me, as a child, with a golf club in my hand. I was swinging a golf club that my father made for me before I had hair! I would hit stones and there are photographs of me swinging a club at 14 months old."

Manuel was born in his parents' apartment above the golf shop at the Royal golf course in Madrid. Angel was the first Spanish golf professional and instructor to the king of Spain and the other members of the Royal family so Manuel's entry into the world of the golf professional would have seemed to be a certainty. It was not. "My father didn't want me to be a golf professional. There was too much uncertainty." Angel went to England to play in the British tournaments and it was there that he met Ernest Jones, an accomplished English player who would have a very significant, long-lasting influence on both Angel and Manuel. He was responsible for getting the family to the United States during the tumultuous beginning of the Spanish Civil War and Manuel served as assistant to his father at the Lake Shore CC in Glencoe, Illinois before accepting his position as golf professional at Milwaukee CC in 1948.

Ernest Jones' influence had not ended with the emigration of the de la Torre family. Jones had lost his right leg during WW1 and upon returning home set his mind to playing golf again. Manuel tells the story of Jones' first round after his injury, a round of 78, played on his left leg. "He felt that there had to be a way to move the golf club without his right leg. He had experienced the benefit of using the golf club instead of his body to play nice golf".

Now, Jones had been a fine teacher before the war but the new challenges of his condition provided him with the opportunity to develop the system which was perpetuated by Angel and Manuel over their 107 combined years of teaching. That system involved the philosophy of "swing(ing) the clubhead" and an emphasis on balance. This is an oversimplification of the system but is at the core of what was a radical departure from the prevailing thought about the golf swing. It was, in today's vernacular, a paradigm shift. The PGA teachers at the time were, according to Manuel, "very rigid in their approach to teaching." Instruction was very much related to the physical, ball-oriented approach. Jones and the de la Torres persevered, continued to teach their "system" to the members of their respective clubs and watched as their students succeeded at becoming more skilled golfers. Solid principles and good instruction beget success.

"The presentation of the principles has changed over the years as I've learned so much about how people respond and learn. The principles are the same as always but the aspect that I've addressed is that I'm very interested in what people think about what they are trying to do."

A quote from Manuel's book, "Understanding the Golf Swing", enhances the point. "Observation is knowing what you are doing as you are doing it. As teachers it becomes essential that our students progress from being unconsciously incompetent to being consciously competent. We need to challenge them to be able to say what they are doing and why they are doing it."

The game has come a long way from the philosophy of the purely physical action as the path to success.

Manuel's recent induction into the PGA Hall of Fame was a great honor to him but not as a personal award. "I accepted the award as a recognition of the system that we taught; not as an award for me", he said. "It was a validation of the work done by Ernest Jones and my Dad."

Manuel shares other stories of people with extreme physical challenges. Good friend, Gus Bernardoni was a gifted athlete who was in the Cubs system when he was drafted during WW2. He chose the paratroopers and during one of his jumps, equipment was pushed out of the plane, prematurely, landing on Gus' primary chute 300 feet above the landing zone. He fell to the ground and was picked up and carried to the front, where he passed out. He was loaded onto a truck with dead comrades and one of the soldiers discovered that he was still alive. He survived the fall and was told by one of his physicians that golf would be good therapy for him. He went on to win the Senior Men's Championship in Illinois and wrote a book, "Golf God's Way". His instructor; Manuel de la Torre.

Manuel's awards for playing include many championships which are too numerous to mention but are highlighted by his 17th place finish at the PGA Championship in Dallas in 1963 and was the National Open Seniors Classic Champion in 1973. He has been named to GOLF magazine's Top 50 Teachers in America repeatedly and was the 12th inductee into the World Teachers Hall of Fame.

Inasmuch as awards and trophies have been nice, Manuel's deepest satisfactions seem to have come from seeing his students and co-workers achieve on the golf course and in their professional pursuits. Letters from young people who went through the caddy program at MCC have communicated with him over the years; sharing their thoughts about how what they learned at MCC found useful purpose in other aspects of their lives. Sometimes it's the future rewards that shine brightest.

View Part 2 for Manuel on technology, Tiger, Michelle Wie, Nick Faldo, Suzanne Pettersen, good lessons, statistics that count, big swings and small swings and Cory Pavin's US Bank Championship...... and more.

Fairways and Greens!