Golf Sports :Reconnecting with Carl Welty by Larry Baush

Today we have an article from Gotham Golf Blog contributing writer Larry Baush, the article entails Larry’s experiences when he returns to see Carl for some lessons after all these years.Reconnecting With Carl WeltyBy Larry BaushIf you read my first blog entry for GothamGolf, you

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Today we have an article from Gotham Golf Blog contributing writer Larry Baush, the article entails Larry’s experiences when he returns to see Carl for some lessons after all these years.Reconnecting With Carl WeltyBy Larry BaushIf you read my first blog entry for GothamGolf, you will recall my fortunate experience of learning about the golf swing from Carl Welty. Writing the article was a fun trip down memory lane for me and a previously planned annual trip to Palm Springs to celebrate my wife’s birthday got me thinking that it would be fun to reconnect with Carl and take a lesson. I emailed him and set up a lesson for early Saturday morning at the Jim McLean Golf School at PGA West in La Quinta.The day dawned beautiful with warm bright sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. It had been a magical trip, so far, with upgrades on the rental car and the hotel suite to a casita with a full kitchen. We even sat two tables away from Arnold Palmer, his wife Kathleen and a few friends celebrating an anniversary at his restaurant in La Quinta. The magic continued at PGA West.Carl arrived at about the same time that I did and after introducing him to my wife who graciously then went to spend the first half of her birthday alone, Carl and I sat down to formulate a game plan for my lesson. He asked me a few questions including when I took my last lesson.“Well Carl, I took a lesson from JD Cline about 15 years ago and the last one before that was with you,” I answered.As I explained in my last article, one of the greatest benefits I felt from learning about the golf swing from Carl was that he gave me the tools to analyze my own swing, using video. I also never felt I could trust another instructor the same way that I did Carl. Still, he chuckled at my answer. We started talking about old times and figured my last lesson from him was back in the early 1970s.Carl mentioned that Jim McLean had been in town during the Humana Challenge the week before but he thought that he had left town. Shortly after he said this, Jim walked into the school’s office. Carl asked him if he remembered hitting balls from my backyard towards the pond on the 14th hole at Meridian Valley. I could tell that Jim didn’t really remember that, but then I mentioned that we shared a candy bar in the locker room at Seattle Golf Club before his playoff with Steve Cole for the one spot available that year in the U.S. Amateur qualifier. This he recalled with startling detail.“Oh yeah,” he said. “I played well in the morning round, but coming down the 18th they told me that I would need a birdie to tie Cole. I made a 20-footer for the birdie and the USGA wanted me to go straight to the first tee to begin the playoff. I told them I needed to use the facilities in the locker room.”I remember that he waved for me and Carl to follow him into the locker room. I also remember that he was very calm and deliberate as he sat down and split a Mounds bar with me. At this point in the story, he chuckled.“I iced Steve with that candy bar we had. I kept him waiting on the 1st tee for 15 minutes. We both made pars on the first two holes and then I won it on the third playoff hole. I did well enough at the Amateur that I qualified for the Masters, so that candy bar got me to Augusta.” I had purchased Jim’s new book, The Complete Hogan, for reading material on the trip and was almost finished reading it. I asked Jim if he would sign my book and he replied that he would be happy to.To Larry,Thanks for that candy bar at Seattle GC. It got me to the Masters. Hope you find a few useful ideas inside this book.All the best,Jim McLeanAfter saying our goodbyes, Carl and I went out to the practice range and I began hitting balls while Carl videotaped me. We went inside and downloaded the video into the software he uses to teach and compared my swing, side-by-side, with Gary Player’s (a very similar body type as far as height and build are concerned— although I would never suggest I’m in as great a shape as Player).My swing flaw, one that I am always fighting, is that in the transition from the backswing to the downswing, my hands cross over the top of the plane resulting in a steep, outside-in swing that produces a left to right ball flight. Carl selected a down the line clip of Player hitting a draw. We compared my setup to Player’s, and where the clubhead was located on the downswing and follow-through. Player’s clubhead was much more inside the target line before impact and much more right of the target line after impact (the perfect inside-out swing) than mine. We then headed back to the range.The wind on this beautiful morning was blowing pretty hard from left to right, obviously the most challenging type of wind for me and my swing flaw. I noticed while watching Player’s clip that his setup was very similar to what I try to do when I want to hit a draw. This made it very easy to make some of the adjustments that Carl was suggesting. He then set up a training aid that he had built from pipe that would force me to come into the ball on a shallower plane and inside the target line (picture a taller version of the Inside Out Swing Trainer with another pipe added down the target line). Before long I was hitting a nice solid draw, even into the tough left to right wind.I would hit a few balls and then we would retreat to the school office and take a look at the tape. Carl made a few more suggestions and back to the tee we would go. It took me right back to our sessions when I was a junior golfer. All through the lesson Carl would emphasize his points with stories from working with Pat Perez, Gene Littler, Greg Norman and other players he has worked with. I was in heaven.All too soon, even though Carl worked with me for much longer than the scheduled hour, his next student, a player for The College of the Redwoods, arrived. Carl introduced us and then said, “Larry last took a lesson from me in 1971. I guess he thinks he needs a lesson every forty years or so.”We laughed as I replied, “That’s because you taught me so well I can do it myself.”Carl does not ever try to suggest that you try to feel this or that in your swing. He shows you where you are out of position and then asks you what you are going to try to fix it. He will give you an image that will help you visualize what he is trying to get you to accomplish. He kept telling me to draw the ball was just like putting hook spin on a ping pong shot. He explained that a draw was not the result of any manipulation by the hands or wrists, but rather by striking the ball from the inside. He encourages you when you make improvements but never in a patronizing way. He is quick to point out where you are going off-track using the video clips of you and the player he is trying to get you to duplicate.“Watch Player’s glove as he transitions and then compare it to yours,” he may say. Or, “What’s more important, the space between your arms or where the clubhead is located?”It really drives home the important aspects of the swing and what you need to work on. It is a very effective way to teach the golf swing. I left my lesson with some concrete ideas on what to work on and I will definitely take up Carl’s offer to email him video clips for follow-up work.It truly was a magical trip and my time with Carl was the cherry on top.Larry Baush has written Uncorked, The Life and Times of Champagne Tony Lema and is currently looking for an agent and/or publisher. Larry has been playing golf since 1964 and currently plays out of Rainier Golf and Country Club in Seattle, Washington. Larry can be contacted at lbaush@clearwire.net.

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