JUNIOR GOLF ACADEMY: A solid start

Camp uses pro methods to help beginners

Advertisement

By KEVIN STOTT

VIEW STAFF WRITER

If you want to try to get your child a good start in the game of golf, Tom Carlson is the guy to see.

Employing the same methods used to train professional golfers, Carlson, the director and founder of the Summerlin Junior Golf Academy at Angel Park Golf Course, 100 S. Rampart Blvd., holds a variety of camps each summer that cater to the beginner all the way up to the serious student of the game.

Having instructed an estimated 50,000 juniors in his 25 years teaching golf, Carlson, 54, said the program appeals to different participants.

"We get all types of kids. We get some where the parents have to find something for their child to do because they've got to go to work," he said. "Others, you'd be surprised how many junior golfers on their own want to get exposed to golf if it's readily available to them. I think the success of Tiger Woods at an early age, watching Michelle Wie on TV and seeing her at 16 competing against players like Tiger Woods or Annika Sorenstam ... I think that motivates all sorts of juniors into the game."

Carlson and his staff -- his wife Jane, his daughter Amanda, and Chloe Nelson -- offer classes for juniors from ages 9 to 17 during the summer that teach the basics like teeing off, pitching and putting as well as some important information about etiquette associated with the game.

Besides the weeklong summer camps held from June through August, Carlson and his staff also offer a First Swing program for the player with little or no experience, advanced junior lessons, players' group instruction which combines practicing on the range with playing, and private instruction for the elite junior golfer who is really serious about taking his or her game to the next level.

"Golfers in general assume things that aren't correct," Carlson said. "They assume to get the ball in the air they have to get underneath it and that's not the way that the golf club works. Some golfers have been given some knowledge that's not correct -- it's what we call the myths of the golf swing. So sometimes a person has the wrong ideas and sometimes they have no idea. If somebody hasn't played golf at all, they come to us like a blank slate and we're sort of programming the knowledge into them."

Carlson and his SJGA staff use technology to help analyze students' swings.

"If somebody has played a little bit of golf, then we have to show them what they have done well but what they have to improve upon," Carlson said. "And we do that by videotaping them and showing them their swing and comparing it to some of the great players in the game of golf like Annika Sorenstam or Tiger Woods, and make sure the way they think about their golf swing is correct."

One young golfer attending the SJGA camp, Alexandra Hall, 11, said she learned something about her swing.

"It doesn't matter how hard your swing is, it matters how good the stroke is if you hold the finish," said Alexandra, who could be seen working with Carlson with a medicine ball to improve the mechanics of her motion.

Another camper, 11-year-old Lauren Swain, said the camp had improved her game on the greens.

"I've learned to line up better," Swain said. "Chloe has helped me with my putting a lot."

Ten-year-old Cesar Landrove explained why he signed up for the camp while trying out some new skills on Angel Park's renowned Seventh Heaven putting course.

"I liked golf (a lot) and I wanted to see if I could get better like my dad," said Cesar. "(Carlson) helps you out a lot with the little things."

One camper, Dylan Trujillo, 12, sounded pretty astute when asked what was the biggest thing about the game he learned during the week.

"I learned that it doesn't come easy," Dylan said. "You have to keep on working on it. It's not going to come fast."

Carlson's daughter Amanda, 19, who played for Palo Verde High School's team and is headed to the University of Montana in the fall where she intends to play golf for the Grizzlies, explained the finer points of working with new golfers.

"Safety is the first thing I teach," she said. "And then a good set-up and a good finish (golf stroke) is the next thing."

Tom Carlson, a member of the PGA who won the Junior Golf Leader Award in 2003, 2004 and 2005, said the swing is the first element addressed -- just like the professionals.

"The first day we film and analyze every swing," he said. "And I give about an hour classroom and it's basically the same classroom I would give to a professional. I teach them the same exact way.

"We actually have a very sophisticated system where when we film a person and it goes right into the computer ... It's a system that I've seen a lot of people use with adults. I don't see them use it with children unless you're in a private format. We get pretty involved in the golf swing."

Carlson said besides the swing, putting and etiquette are also part of the lesson plan.

"Now as far as the putting, we're trying to get them into position when they're putting and that's one of the reasons why we use the putting course here at Angel Park, because once they've done their fundamentals on the putting range, now we're actually putting them into golf course situations," he said. "And at the same time we're using the putting course, we're teaching them how to stand and some golf course etiquette so that when we go out on the Cloud 9 (par-3 course) we're going to have them in the right areas when somebody else is starting to play or hit their golf ball."

After giving his campers a little work on the course, Carlson teaches them a bit about the game's etiquette in a classroom format, letting the future linksters know about not standing in someone's putting line, having a proper pace to your game, not treating a golf cart like a toy and how to repair ball marks on the course.

Carlson also occasionally throws in a bit of wisdom acquired in his 40 plus years in the sport.

"Guys like Tiger Woods don't use carts because you play better when you walk," he told the group.

Carlson, originally from West Hartford, Conn., said golf is his entire life.

"I've never done anything else," he said. "I started playing golf when I was 13, I started working for a golf professional when I was 14 and I started teaching when I was 20."

When Carlson decided to teach full-time in 1985, he was put in touch with Las Vegas pro Jim Colbert's teacher Jimmy Ballard, a man whose theories he spent years studying.

"A lot of people aren't aware of this but Jimmy Ballard's students have won more major championships as far as I'm aware of than any other teacher," Carlson said. "Jimmy had stars like Curtis Strange, Hal Sutton, Jim Colbert, Seve Ballesteros -- he's probably worked with 2,000 touring professionals.

"And what Jimmy did, he was one of the pioneers in video. He showed the world what the great old ball strikers did, the (Ben) Hogans and the (Jack) Nicklauses and the (Sam) Sneeds. And that's what he taught me, the similarities between every great player and what he calls 'The Seven Common Denominators.' And that's what we pass on to the juniors."

One player who learned a lot from Carlson is Scott Piercy, a Bonanza High School graduate still trying to earn his PGA card.

"Scott was the first junior I ever taught at the Las Vegas Golf Club," said Carlson. "I've worked with him for 19 years now. We use a lot of Scott's pictures, where he was at 8 years old, where he was at 15 years old. I tell them (the campers) this is where he started guys, right where you are right now."

Carlson said his camp does a lot for young players, extolling the game's social virtues.

"I feel like we get them started right into the game. And because I didn't get started right, that's important to me. But I like the values that the games instills," he said. "It gives a young person the opportunities to socialize with somebody older, interact with an older person whether it be his grandfather, his dad, his dad's friend.

"I think the social benefits are huge. It's a nice, clean game. When you get involved in golf, there's not a whole lot of trouble. And the whole fact that it's just a nice environment. As much as I like to try to get them to play their best, I think there's a lot more to it than trying to develop tour players. If they choose to stay in the game, that's great. I think the game would be better with them, but I think they're better because they've been exposed to it."

For more information on the SJGA, call 300-4673 or visit www.sjga.net.