Manuel de la Torre (6 October 1921 – 24 April 2016) was recognized as being one of
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
's top teachers. His career includes playing competitively on tour, head golf professional at
Milwaukee Country Club The Milwaukee Country Club is a golf club located in River Hills, Wisconsin. It is the home club of the late renowned teaching pro Manuel de la Torre
The golf course features a 6,875 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72. The course r ...
one of America's most esteemed golf clubs, and a career of teaching both tour professional and amateur golfers. Among the tour professionals he has taught are
Masters champion
Tommy Aaron
Thomas Dean Aaron (born February 22, 1937) is an American former professional golfer who was a member of the PGA Tour during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Aaron is best known for winning the 1973 Masters Tournament. He is also known for an erro ...
,
U.S. Women's Open
The U.S. Women's Open, one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, W ...
champion
Carol Mann
Carol Mann (February 3, 1941 – May 20, 2018) was an American professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1961 and won two major championships and 38 LPGA Tour events in all. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Am ...
,
du Maurier Classic
The CP Women's Open (french: Open féminin du Canada) is a women's professional golf tournament managed by Golf Canada. It has been Canada's national championship tournament since its founding in 1973 LPGA Tour, 1973, and is an official event on ...
champion
Martha Nause
Martha Nause (born September 10, 1954) is an American professional golfer. She is a three-time winner on the LPGA tour, including one major championship, the 1994 du Maurier Classic.
Nause was born in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. She attended St. Olaf ...
and
Women's British Open
The Women's Open (originally known as the Women's British Open, and still widely referred to by that name outside the UK) is a women's major golf championships, major championship in Professional golf tours#Women's tours, women's professional go ...
champion
Sherri Steinhauer
Sherri Steinhauer (born December 27, 1962) is an American professional golfer who plays on the Legends Tour. She retired from the LPGA Tour in 2012 after a 26-year career. She was born in Madison, Wisconsin and attended The University of Texas at ...
. He was the first member of the PGA to be awarded their Teacher of the Year Award in 1986. He is one of only several golf instructors to be inducted into both the World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame as well as the PGA Hall of Fame.
At Northwestern University, he was captain of the golf team and runner-up in the 1942 NCAA Championship. De la Torre won numerous golf tournaments, including the
Wisconsin State Open
The Wisconsin State Open is the Wisconsin state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Wisconsin section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1919 at courses in the state. It ...
five times and the Wisconsin PGA Professional Championship five times. He was elected to the Wisconsin Golf Hall of Fame in 1975. In 1999 he was inducted into the Northwestern University Athletic Hall of Fame.
Teaching origins
De la Torre was born in his parents' apartment above the golf shop at the
Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro
Real Club de la Puerta de Hierro (), commonly known as Puerta de Hierro, is a private country club based in Madrid, Spain. It owes its name to the nearby iron memorial arch. Notorious for being associated with the royal families of Europe and t ...
in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, where his father
Ángel de la Torre was the head golf professional. Angel was five-time Spanish National Golf Champion. Manuel's father's instruction and that of his father's friend and colleague
Ernest Jones
Alfred Ernest Jones (1 January 1879 – 11 February 1958) was a Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst. A lifelong friend and colleague of Sigmund Freud from their first meeting in 1908, he became his official biographer. Jones was the first En ...
, served as the basis for de la Torre's instruction. His concepts for golf instruction have stood the test of time over 60 years he taught and continued to be employed by golf instructors. He retired as head golf professional at Milwaukee Country Club at which he continued to teach amateurs and tour professionals.
Alternative approach
Golf instruction can be divided into two approaches. That which constitutes more than 90% of today's golf instruction is body-focused. The central premise of this type of golf instruction is built around the idea that if the golfer learns to correctly move various body parts (hips, legs, shoulders, etc.) the result will be a movement of the golf club that will produce effective golf shots. That which constitutes the other 10% of golf instruction is club-focused. Its central premise is that the golfer should instead focus on learning how the golf club should move during an effective swing. De la Torre has devoted his career to refining and teaching this club-focused approach to both golfers and instructors.
The difference between these two approaches may seem minor at first consideration. However, any student (or instructor) who has experienced both will immediately appreciate the simplicity of de la Torre's golf instruction which is unique among the leading golf instructors. De la Torre brings to light the absurdity of thinking that the cause of a poor shot is related to what your body is doing (e.g. Hips are too fast, arms are too slow, shoulder turn is off plane, etc.) He correctly observes that if the club is moving correctly, there is nothing you can do with your body that produce a poor shot. Conversely, if the club is moving incorrectly, there is nothing you can do with your body that will correct the problem and avoid the poor shot. By way of analogy, regardless of what he does with his body, if the marksman does the right thing with the rifle, the bullet must hit the target. If the golfer does the right thing with the golf club, the ball must go to the target.
Not only does this approach identify and deal with the single factor that determines the outcome of each shot (i.e. the movement of the golf club), it enables the golf instruction to be highly simplified. For beginners, this means golf is far more comprehendible and achievable. For experienced golfers, his instruction has been a relief from their frustrating efforts to manage the many parts of the body and therefore a lifting of the unnecessary burden carried by too many golfers. For tour professionals, this simplicity enables a more manageable swing that better withstands the pressures of competition. He therefore has made a life's career and many satisfied clients by diagnosing and then fixing the motion of the club.
![Golf club is a tool](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Golf_club_is_a_tool.jpg)
Body-focused instruction is problematic because:
*no two golfers' bodies are exactly alike,
*it asks golfers to consciously control body motions that are by their nature unconsciously controlled,
*it asks the golfer to address too many things during the 2.5 seconds required for a golf swing, and
*demands that all body motions be correct in order to achieve the desired result.
By contrast, club-focused instruction teaches:
*how the club moves for an effective swing,
*the club's movement is universal for every player and every club, and
*a lesson simple enough to accomplish during those same 2.5 seconds.
The club-focused instruction long advocated by de la Torre and
Ernest Jones
Alfred Ernest Jones (1 January 1879 – 11 February 1958) was a Welsh neurologist and psychoanalyst. A lifelong friend and colleague of Sigmund Freud from their first meeting in 1908, he became his official biographer. Jones was the first En ...
prior to him has now been validated by new research performed by Dr. Gabriele Wulf at the University of Las Vegas and by Dr. Bob Christina at the University of North Carolina. In their studies players of all skill levels improved faster when given club-focused instruction."It has been recognized that the golf club is a tool and humans are remarkable in their use of tools (hammer, scissors, scalpel, knife, tooth brush, etc.). With none of these, or any other tools, does a person attend to how the body is used. The body action is a subconscious physical response to the user's conscious mental intention."
Death
De la Torre died on 24 April 2016 at his home in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
from complications of a
stroke
A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
, age 94.
Publication
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*
Tournament wins
![Manuel-NCAA'47Runnerup (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/Manuel-NCAA%2747Runnerup_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Prior to his victories as a professional, he played for Highland Park High School in 1940 and was individual state golf champion. He led the Giants to the school’s first state team title. Playing for Northwestern University in 1942 he was runner-up in the NCAA Championship.
![Senior Open Championship](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Senior_Open_Championship.jpg)
To put the following professional victories in context, these wins were accomplished while working full-time (50+ hours weekly) as a club professional. While de la Torre competed in and placed in the top ten in various tour events, he was only able to play in those that were scheduled during the off-season of the country club at which he was engaged. This meant that the only tournaments available to him were those scheduled between October and April. De la Torre competed both in the U.S. tour and in the Caribbean tour (Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean Islands).
*1952
Wisconsin State Open
The Wisconsin State Open is the Wisconsin state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Wisconsin section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1919 at courses in the state. It ...
*1953
Wisconsin State Open
The Wisconsin State Open is the Wisconsin state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Wisconsin section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1919 at courses in the state. It ...
,
Wisconsin PGA Championship
*1954 Capital Times Invitational
*1955
Wisconsin State Open
The Wisconsin State Open is the Wisconsin state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Wisconsin section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1919 at courses in the state. It ...
,
Wisconsin PGA Championship
*1957
Wisconsin PGA Championship
*1959
Wisconsin PGA Championship
*1961
Wisconsin State Open
The Wisconsin State Open is the Wisconsin state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Wisconsin section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1919 at courses in the state. It ...
*1963 Cherryland Open Championship
*1964 Cherryland Open Championship
*1965 Hope of Tomorrow Championship
*1968
Wisconsin State Open
The Wisconsin State Open is the Wisconsin state open golf tournament, open to both amateur and professional golfers. It is organized by the Wisconsin section of the PGA of America. It has been played annually since 1919 at courses in the state. It ...
*1970
Wisconsin PGA Championship
*1972 Westview Invitational
*1973 National Open Seniors Classic
*1976 Wisconsin PGA Match Play Championship
*1987 Wisconsin PGA Senior Championship
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:De la Torre, Manuel
Spanish male golfers
American male golfers
American golf instructors
Golfers from Wisconsin
Northwestern Wildcats men's golfers
Golfers from Madrid
Sportspeople from Milwaukee
Spanish emigrants to the United States
People of Andalusian descent
1921 births
2016 deaths