THE EPITOME OF A PGA PROFESSIONAL
Butch Liebler liked to refer to his students as“ my children.” Carl Paulson was a favored son. Paulson was 13 when he began working with Liebler after his
Marine Corps family moved from California to Virginia Beach. Carl paid Liebler for a couple of lessons with a check from his mom. The third lesson, Liebler handed the check back, said I don’ t need money for this anymore, and coached Paulson for free until he turned pro in 1994.
While working with Liebler, Paulson was an all-American at the University of South Carolina( where Butch’ s brother, Steve, was head coach); 1993 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year; medalist at the 1995 PGA Tour Qualifying School; won back-to-back tournaments on the then Nike Tour( 1999); and led the Nike Tour money list.
“ Other than the guy I took lessons from in California for a year who taught me fundamentals, Butch’ s coaching and teaching was everything to my career,” Paulson said.“ I guess I was considered one of the better ball strikers on Tour and most of that, if not all of that, is due to Butch.” There is no doubt Butch considered Carl his son.“ When I messed up, I got chewed out. That was from Butch. If I wasn’ t working as hard as he thought I needed to be working, I got a cussing. For sure, it was way more than an instructor-student relationship— way more family oriented,” Paulson said.“ It was a good run we had. It was a great relationship. We continue that relationship.”
“ I think probably his best attribute was the relationships he built and kept.”
— Carl Paulson is co-host of“ Inside the Ropes” on SiriusXM radio and authored a book,“ Rookie on Tour,” with Virginia psychologist Louis Janda.
MAKING A POSITIVE IMPACT Relationships are central to Butch’ s teaching philosophy. The Xs and Os are one thing, but Matt said,“[ What ] I learned most from him was the most important thing you can do is make somebody feel good about themselves … he always taught with such positivity, such encouragement, and he kept it light and kept it fun. He’ s one of a kind and that would always show in his lessons.”
Matt’ s brother, Brian, is a golf professional, but he works on a different side of the business as southeast regional sales manager for Mid-Atlantic Golf Cars of Virginia.
“ I always felt like I would be part of golf in some way. I pretty much always thought that was the only thing I knew. I loved trying something different. I know how to talk to golf professionals because I am a golf professional. That comes from my dad,” Brian said.“ How to deal with people, how not to deal with people, having that overall sense when you walk into a room in Virginia because of your family and who you’ ve known— it helps to have that confidence to get people to open up to you. All that comes from my dad because we all know how to talk.” Brian is glad to see his dad has a place in the MAPGA Hall of Fame.“ Butch did so much for golf professionals and the MAPGA, just anything having to do with golf for so long,” he said.“ He was so well known. I’ m super excited for him. He needs this. I think it’ s a good thing for him.”
28 V IRGINIA G OLFER | J ULY / A UGUST 2026 vsga. org