Conversations with Paulsy

I would like to welcome an old touring pro friend of mine from my days on the Canadian Tour. When I arrived in Canada in 1987, Paul had already been a seasoned veteran and winner and helped show me around the circuit as a young rookie player.
Paul and a few of the other Canadian pros would always see that Moe would get some respect after a ball striking demonstration and would gather up a few dollars for Moe, because as Paul can attest, things weren’t always a bed of roses for Moe.

Paul is a great guy to ask about Moe, George, or any of the great Canadian Players as he has known and or competed against them all. Paul’s father is a legendary Canadian Tour player who has won just about everything up there, and went head to head against Moe and Knudson and Al Balding often coming out the champion.

Paul,

It was nice talking with you on the phone the other day… and it’s exciting to hear you are going to go back out and play some this year…

It was interesting to hear about the 16 ounce clubs, and how you learned that from Moe… I understand Knudson was doing the same thing also… and Al Barkow told me Snead had really heavy gear also. Was your dad swinging the heavy stuff also?

Welcome to the forum Paul! I can’t wait to read about Moe, Knudson and the other people you played with, as well as your own experiences while playing the Canadian Tour. Great to have you here. :slight_smile:

Welcome Paul,i too am waiting to read about your stories

Thank you for the warm welcome…I’m sure I’ll feel abit more comfortable on here soon. As you well know lag,I have total respect for anyone who shows a passion and you proved that to me many years ago…I guess thats why I’m here now?Life can sure be funny at times for I too had put down my competetive nature in '91 and did not play another tourny until '05…almost exactly the same amount of time as our host! Lag and I had lost contact wih one and other after the 1990 Canadian Tour season and had not spoken to one and other until I saw this golf Video on the Youtube and went… HHHhhheeeeyyyy…I know that guy!! It was very …um I’m not sure of the word I’m looking for?I had often thought of my good friend John over the years. Alrighty then I reckon this veritable can of worms now has a small hole in the top and stuff is starting to to leak out. Because today I had a visit with my father and picked up 5 persimmon woods and 1/2 dz. new/old balata balls and it was off to the course for me.Absolutely fantastic, 66 degrees,not a breathe of wind,partly cloudy and no one on the golf course save for maybe 6 people scattered…perfect for a little testing. Oh and by the way lag,Dad has agreed to your suggestion and is willing to do the telephone interviews from my place.He feels that it has been a privilidge to know these fine strikers and he has a duty to share.For those reading this my father,John, has just turned 80 on March15 and a CPGA member for 60 years. A former World Cupper for Canada and he and lag can fill in some of the other fun stuff…in time. So ya was on the course today for some lagtime fun with the balatas and persimmon. Ok, I hit a Hogan 2 1/2 yes two and a half wood off the first tee…the last time I struck these two materials against one and other was playing the Canadian Open at Glen Abby in 1990,I think Davis Love and I were the only 2 players in the field that week playing wooden drivers.What a great feeling and a surprise to hear no annoying sound. I now believe that the lousy sound off the metal woods interferes with a good players feel of the ball because if you slow it right down that stupid noise is there distracting you when the ball is compressing on the club face and I’m almost certain that this is part of the reason that the metal club is less workable.When you anticipate a loud or weird sound it has to distract from what you are trying to do…its the anticipation of the noise that takes away some of your focus!!Alright this is going to be tough cause I’m crappy at this typing thing…but anyways I had another 2 wood with me and a Hogan 4wood…and 2 drivers one Spalding and one Fletcher Custom built. The results are quite fasinating and not what I had expected. Although my 46" graphite shafted toaster consistantly outdrove the other 2 it was not the margins I had expected…somewhere between 16 and 20 on carry…the northern courses are still quite wet so roll on the drives could not be a factor. However when it came to off the deck the Sir Walter (Haig Ultra) 2 wood kept up nicely with my 15* metal three wood and by far outshone it in the workability catagory.I was laughing my ass off.I have to go now but will come back maybe tomorrow or the next day and finish this report. Somethings up with the screen cause I can’t see what I’m typing. Bye for now, Paulsy

welcome Paulsy—this is awesome!
bent

I grabbed a couple of pics today while with the Pro…a 1963 finish and a commitment to share…now if I can figure out the upload its all good…
John's file 2010 013.jpg
John's file 2010 012.jpg
John's file 2010 006.jpg
John's file 2010 009.jpg

Great pics…

Can you give us a rundown of your dad’s accomplishments or career highlights?
It will help some of the members here get an understanding of how good some of the players were up there in Canada
back in the day… I sure found out when I got my card up there in 1987.

Lag, I think it best if we allow “the Old Pro” to fill in the details…after all it was his career.I will do my best to hasten the response but he is 80 and things do seem to move a little slower now. Paulsy

Never thought about it in that way…but has a lot of merit. :slight_smile: RR

There is no doubt that the sound of the strike is a major feedback vehicle for our brain. If we are dialed in to anticipating a specific sound then we are much more
likely to create that sound and result… this is exactly how musicians work also. You hear the note before you play it. That’s how you do it.

If you deprive yourself of the auditory feedback, is is not much different than if you were blindfolded, or when you play with on a really cold day with near frozen hands.

Hmmm - I can hardly make contact with the ball with the noise of a mower closeby or a helicopter overhead. Always thought the saturation of my ear drums affected my balance system, but maybe it has something to do with this anticipation.

I hit some more old Sir Walters in the back yard today…an old friend was watching…his first comment…“theres no load sound”. I thought golf was supposed to be a quite sport yet the other day I saw an ad on the TV and they were talking about how they are working on the pitch and frequency of the sounds the metal woods make?? Sooon we WILL be playing music…

Second thoughts…the open gates, one of the reasons I am hesitant about the forum is that up until about a week or so ago my mind was a relatively peaceful zone. Now,however it is constantly buzzing with ideas and memories…so much so that I have had to resort to keeping a note pad in my car to catch these thoughts as they race through my grey matter. LOL it kinda makes it hard to get around when I’m always pulling over to right things down! Lag, I will try to put some things down today but find it difficult to remain at the key board for any length of time…perhaps some undiagnosed ADD. :smiley: Paulsy

A Piece of a Puzzle…this is a little known fact that I believe will help people to understand Moe’s action better…you see Moe was LEFT HANDED!! Yes indeed,100% a left sided man swinging,for lack of better terminology,right handed.Most people know that Moe was not the most socialable chap and did not feel to comfortable in a crowd. For that reason he would often change into a fresh shirt and his Blazer(suit coat) in the paking lot for Pro Am dinners.On a number of occasions, and I imagine it was because he recognized me, I was able to talk to him while he changed. The most incredible sight, while his upper right side appeared quite normal,Moe’s upper left side,particularly the pec, almost looked deformed,as if there was a airbag inserted under his skin and it had been inflated to the max!! HUGE.If you think about it for a minute…he WAS the Iron Byron,a walking breathing version of that machine.Is it any wonder that Moe could hit shots with no sidespin whatsoever! Alright people, armed with this tid bit go and revisit Moes swing and you will see it in a different light. You can now see that most of the force is coming from his left side pulling and that his right side is very passive. But please draw your own conclusions and let us know if indeed Moe’s swing appears anew. Paulsy

You’re not in the boat all by yourself there Paulsy…been there, done that, still doing it… :laughing: RR

Moe could do an execise that Paul Bertholy prescribed…the “deltoid lift”, by the thousands according to one of Bertholy’s assistants. Did Moe ever menton it to any of you that knew him?

Weren’t Hogan and Johnny Miller also lefties?

…not sure on that…I’ll ask my Dad today…but the current Masters champion is right handed golfing left.there are only 4 types of golfers,…and Watson,NIcklaus and Price are left handed and quite good hitters.If you watch Tom watson carefully you will see that he does many things with the gloved hand…same as Phil…he signs all his autographs with the gloved hand…his right.On a vent… Darn it, I just spent an entire hour here doing a story on Al Balding and lost the thing as I’m not very proficient with the computer…so instead submitting it I went back to the forum and it wasn’t there…then went back to get it and its gone!! I will have to do it all over again :angry: but not now…I’m going to the yard to hit some…

youtube.com/watch?v=H7kEQjFa5kM…. Dad and I were funnin around in the back yard…its 700 yrds deep.

99 red balloons - loved that song, and the singer of course! :laughing:
Loved watching that video Paulsy, and had a look at another one on your channel. Looks like you and your dad were both born with golf clubs in your hands - complete naturals. He has a great action for an 80 year old. What a great way to chill out.

John Henrick at age 80. Nothing short of inspirational.
I can only imagine what that swing looked like 40 or 50 years ago… because it looks pretty textbook right now!

and we know the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!

inspiring stuff.

ps

I had a chance to interview the old pro recently, and I should have it up on the site here sometime this week.