Breakthrough to the Utley Side

[Babydaddy]

WOW! That was cheeessyy!

Guys, I hope my findings help people experience the wonder of Stan Utley's teachings; especially if you are stuck or doubting what you are doing.
On putting, you should get fitted somewhere near the specs he recommends in his book (5 degrees loft, 69 degree lie angle, and 34-36 inch shaft length).
With the set up, getting the thumbs down the shaft is KEY for being able to release the putter freely. If you are like me, you will struggle with really releasing the putter because you are so used to holding the blade off through the line. The thumbs and the alignment of the forearms are connected and should be perfected. One way to check this is with a putting arc, learning curve or other arc reference. Your grip and thumb poistion will cause the same things to happen over and over again and you can see this when checking the putter's squareness to the arc while putting. For me, my right hand was strong (as he talks about in his book, being a tendency :weak left hand and strong right hand).
You need that right hand (Right handers) on the putter more on top with the thumb down the shaft in the center) to let the forearms release the putter. If you don't, your right hand grip will naturally hold the putter open to the arc (maybe somewhat straight to the target). You can see this best with an arc reference that has lines that are perpendicular to the arc through out.
You can override this type of error with your stroke, but adds an unwanted compensation to the stroke. Utley is big on set up, and the more you delve into it, you see why. The forearms are the key and you want them to work in unison, which means you need the grip and forearm alignment to be spot on.

A tip on the chip and pitch shot pivot motion. If you are having trouble with the pivot, in other words you feel like you are laboring to make enough of a lower-body turn to really generate enough juice to get through the ball and stay balanced at the same time, try widening your stance a little with idea of trying to get your weight more left, but stay balanced. You should find that you can really feel the left-leg pivot more intuitively. When I say a little, I mean a little. You definitely want a narrow stance compared to your full swing, but I "took the whole bottle of aspirin" and was too narrow for my height. This is really key on pitches because you need to really pivot, almost like a protractor from geometry class.

Lastly, I had really struggled with learning the standard green side bunker shot. I have found that once you get the set up basically correct, that usually there is one, maybe two things that don't click at first. Once you get those things, it all starts to fall into place. I started a post about Utley bunker shots and this is my last post from it. I hope somehow, maybe this helps someone out there!

I hope this helps any of you with the Utley bunker method. I had to dig this out of the dirt myself, and I am glad that I did. If you are struggling with understanding, let alone executing the standard bunker shot as outlined in Utley's book, the Art of the Short Game, I hope these couple of tips help.
1) Every part of the set up is important. You must stand WIDE, and you must flare your feet out a little. You MUST flex your knees a little more than usual. I could not understand why before, but I know now that you want to stay in place but turn at the same time. This set up helps that happen.
2) You have to get the lands low, and behind the ball. What really helps solidify this is once you feel the hands pass the clubhead on the downswing once or twice, you feel how having your hands "pre-set" this way really helps the swing itself. You want the bounce exposed this way.
3) THE MOST IMPORTANT DISTINCTION of the SWING ITSELF: do not make the mistake of trying to more or less hold your hands in place and then turn. I did this at first. He wants you to swing narrow and turn. Tilting and leaning "left" was what I tried to do, and you end up hitting horrible thin and chunked shots this way. After re-reading the sand play section ten times I found my Rosetta Stone: THE SWING IS BASICALLY LIFTING THE CLUB IN FRONT OF YOU WHILE PIVOTING WITH THE WEIGHT LEFT. THE THOUGHT IS "PICKING UP THE CLUB IN FRONT OF YOU WHILE PIVOTING". You want to feel like you are lifting the club vertically while turning your body. If you can do that, the down swing sort of seems to fall in place.
As a newly converted one=planer, I was trying to put my arms behind me and "narrrow" as he describes. But you can't do that without moving the grip end a lot. If you pick the club up in front of you like you are going to hammer a tent peg in the ground in front of you, and then add turn, your arms will automatically slide to either side on the back and through swing. It's really pretty amazing how it works! I was starting to doubt Utley on this, but I am glad that stayed with it!
Noelsy

[Babydaddy]

I should add that when I say pick the club up in front of you, I mean with your wrists, not with your arms. The grip stays pretty still. It would be like you are hammering a tent peg in front of you

[Redhaze737]

I should add that when I say pick the club up in front of you, I mean with your wrists, not with your arms. The grip stays pretty still. It would be like you are hammering a tent peg in front of you

 

That sounds about right. When I tried the shot after he demo'd it I pulled the club too far back with straight arms. He put my arms right next to my ribs. I could never get it myself. I do like his buried lie technique with the wide open club face. It makes the ball come out soft instead of running. You can use that technique with a 'normal' bunker swing.

[mchepp]

I have been using the Utley Chipping method for a few months now. Chipping has been more consistent but I notice that I can't get the spin on the ball that I used too. Does anybody else notice that? I find that I make GREAT contact and rarely hit it thin or fat, but the ball just doesn't bite like before. I am thinking it is maybe the bounce on the wedge, I never used to have that much bounce on my wedges, but I am not sure.

[Redhaze737]

I have been using the Utley Chipping method for a few months now. Chipping has been more consistent but I notice that I can't get the spin on the ball that I used too. Does anybody else notice that? I find that I make GREAT contact and rarely hit it thin or fat, but the ball just doesn't bite like before. I am thinking it is maybe the bounce on the wedge, I never used to have that much bounce on my wedges, but I am not sure.

 

I don't have an issue with spin. It depends on how I hit it and how much spin I want. You might want to look for another reason for the lack of spin. I don't think it's the Utley method that is causing you lack of spin. How about the wedge grooves?

[mantan]

I have been using the Utley Chipping method for a few months now. Chipping has been more consistent but I notice that I can't get the spin on the ball that I used too. Does anybody else notice that? I find that I make GREAT contact and rarely hit it thin or fat, but the ball just doesn't bite like before. I am thinking it is maybe the bounce on the wedge, I never used to have that much bounce on my wedges, but I am not sure.

 

I noticed that too - though chipping is the one area of Utley I am still struglling with. With my traditional chipping method, crisply hit chips would tap the brakes when they landed which would reduce rollout. With Utley's method I really have to plan for the entire rollout. I'm still struggling with distance control because I'm moving my aiming point further away from the hole. (Though I only got the book Saturday and have had three sessions to work on it.)

 

On the flipside, the pitching stroke has signficantly improved my ability to hit a high soft landing shot effectively from any lie. That may become more of my go to shot when I don't have a lot to work with.

[atlanta golfer]

Utley's chipping and pitching methods are working great for me, but his bunker method is only helping me on medium to longer bunker shots, say when the pin is 15-20 yards away. I can't make the ball go high enough and short enough for the near side pins. What am I doing wrong?

[hayam]

Still could not get the bunker as close as I want it to be .. What you guys mean by narrow?

[Deadpool_25]

I've been working with the Utley chipping/pitching for the last couple of weeks. So far I really like the consistency, but also notice a reduction in spin. I found the way to counter that while pitching is to get the hands a hair more forward than his normal suggestion and hit the ball first or at the same time as the ground. It feels like a cross between his pitching and chipping styles.

 

For chipping, if I think I want more spin, I just move the ball back a little more in my stance. Just a little though...maybe an inch.

 

The bunker method seems pretty easy, but as mentioned as above, it's important to get the setup correct then use the hinging of the wrists correctly. I believe Utley talks about it feeling like you're hammering a nail.

 

So far, I really like the method. Like anything else in golf though, it takes a bit of practice. I find it helps to reread some sections of the book to reinforce and remind.

[Babydaddy]

Deadpool. You are right on about the spin and how you can mix things up by how changing the effective shaft angle at address; whether you do it by putting the ball back or pressing the shaft forward at address. When I first started chipping and pitching using the Utley method, I had my hands forward a lot, like I used to in the "conventional" chipping set up. I was checking every chip and I got so frustrated that I nearly abandoned the whole thing. I went back and re-read the basics and chipping chapters and figure out that he doesn't want to see as much forward lean at address as a conventional chip or pitch. I had initially thought that Utley's methods were sort of a one trick pony thing, but in actual fact, using the bounce on the club in different ways gives you many different types of shots. Plus, it allows you to hit most of them with one club AND, without trying to do all of that with just the hands.

 

Hayam: Narrow means close to the body, Think of it this way. I can just stand still hit down in back of the ball and chop a ball out of a bunker by just almost vertically chopping and flinging the golf club through the sand. If I needed height, spin and speed, I would feel like I needed to turn, more like a normal swing. But when I do that, I start move the exact place where the club enters the sand just enough that from one shot to another that I can get very different shot results with each shot. I would get the "steep" needed to lift the ball, but that method would not be very forgiving as a rule. So along comes the sand wedge with more bounce which increases the margin for error when the club enters the sand. The way the "conventional" bunker shot deals with getting power and forgiveness is by opening the face a good bit to expose the bounce. This means you have to aim left and most of the time, allow for left to right side spin. For many people this works well. Utley's contention is that while that is a safe way to extract a ball from the bunker, it may not be the most precise.

In order to change the ball behavior on that type of bunker shot, you have to change a few things and for example, if you want to spin a shot and make it sit or come back, you have to really swing fast and hit pretty close to the ball. The pros need that shot in the arsenal because of the course set ups and green speeds. Non pros can benefit from being able to alter the shots and have a margin for error too. Hitting those types of shots (using conventional method) requires a really consistent swing and a lot of nerve. So somebody said to themselves "How can I get the speed, height and spin in a shot that allows for a large margin of error?" The answer is that you would have to find a method where you could essentially stand still enough, with minimum weight shift to make the club's entry point very exact and consistent, be able to swing with enough speed to get lift and spin on the ball, and at the same time be exposing the bounce at impact as much as possible to increase margin for error.

That is exactly what the Utley method does. So where the narrow comes in is that you want your arms to not have to move much BUT be able to generate a good bit of clubhead speed. The wrists generate the speed like a whip. You want to turn on your left side to make the contact consistent. So, if you **** the club in front of you with your wrists, leaving the grip basically in place, enough to hit the brim of your cap you will have cocked the club head but not pulled the grip much. I'll call that entity the "cocked-club complex" You now want to turn the cocked club complex effectively leaving it place where it started (relative to your body.) So you turn pivot your body leaving the complex in place. Then magically, the club head just flings through the sand on the downswing. You will feel like your arms really didn't do much. Your last swing sensation will be of the wrists flinging the club through the sand.

What you don't want to do is try to pull the club towards you to make the swing feel narrow. That involves moving grip around a bunch, which is a NO-NO.

Just **** the wrists up, pivot on the left leg, and fling the club through the sand with the hands and wrists. The entry point in the sand will just magically be there and you should hit with a loud thump and get more spin than you may be used to.

I too have been working on the shorter shots because I found them to be a little trickier. If anyone has cracked that code please chime in. It may be that you just pivot a little less.

[Ken_In_CA]

Well this helped clarify some things, but I'm still at a loss. I was able to get to a practice area yesterday and re-try this method and really didn't find what I thought I was going to find. The trouble I have right now is defining how to hit the shot "high". The ball would come out maybe 10 feet in height (I'm terrible in judging distance :D ).

 

For example: I have a bunker with a lip height of 4 feet, and the pin would be 20 feet. I would hit the ball about 6 feet higher than the lip to about 15 feet and it would roll out another 10 - 15 feet.

 

I would try to have a wider stance, squat like I'm about to sit in a chair, keep the hands low and have a narrow swinging area. I've tried with a 60* & 56* wedge with the face being square, slightly open and laid wide open with about the same results.

 

I know I'm not doing it right, but I'm still lost on how to hit the ball high.... HELP!!!

[sheldonjhacker]

I tried Utley and it ruined my short game-he is about the only teacher who advocates using 1 club around the green...even Tiger uses many clubs for many different shots around the green...I'm sure Utley's methods are great-I just can't get it right by reading the books alone...I think I gotta go see him personally and get a lesson to make it really work. Same for putting.

 

:D

[hayam]

I think his method is great. its all about managing misses. IMHO...

 

he doesnt want compression rather encourage the use of loft and a winie bit of run for more consistency and Misses would not turn out disastrous .

 

Great management of low point.. since it works on the flattest plane , which misses would not be bad.And using more pivot will elongate the low point ... everything he does is to eliminate poor misses, result would still be decent even for a fat or thin shot... which is good for my case.... I agree with point that people like ernie and tiger have incredible hand speed, their way is impressive... but not necessary suites most people..

 

sure we can have high handspeed, tilty swing.. but misses would be terrible as well.

 

For my case, the chip have slightly higher spin than my old method, and the pitch have less spin but higher shot .. about 5 feet of runs around the firm green. Not great.. but better results most of the time.. still learning it..need more practice as well ...

 

Oh btw.. Mike Mcnary is a student of Stan utley .. maybe he would love to chime in.

[atlanta golfer]

I tried Utley and it ruined my short game-he is about the only teacher who advocates using 1 club around the green...even Tiger uses many clubs for many different shots around the green...I'm sure Utley's methods are great-I just can't get it right by reading the books alone...I think I gotta go see him personally and get a lesson to make it really work. Same for putting.

 

:D

 

You're correct that Utley advocates using 1 club around the green and not only that but he advocates a 58 degree wedge with medium to high bounce and possibly some custom grinds. But ...... he doesn't really strongly recommend against multiple wedges or different lofted wedges. I think the key parts of his teachings are in his actual swing methods, not his recommendations about which equipment to use.

 

Personally, I use a gap wedge for chipping off short grass, a sand wedge for heavier grass and sand, and a lob wedge when I have a good lie and must play it high and short. But I still am using Utley's methods and am having good experiences with most of what he recommends.

[mantan]

I've been working with the Utley chipping/pitching for the last couple of weeks. So far I really like the consistency, but also notice a reduction in spin. I found the way to counter that while pitching is to get the hands a hair more forward than his normal suggestion and hit the ball first or at the same time as the ground. It feels like a cross between his pitching and chipping styles.

 

For chipping, if I think I want more spin, I just move the ball back a little more in my stance. Just a little though...maybe an inch.

 

The bunker method seems pretty easy, but as mentioned as above, it's important to get the setup correct then use the hinging of the wrists correctly. I believe Utley talks about it feeling like you're hammering a nail.

 

So far, I really like the method. Like anything else in golf though, it takes a bit of practice. I find it helps to reread some sections of the book to reinforce and remind.

 

Deadpool,

 

Thanks so much for this tidbit. That was a missing link to really make this Utley method work. I've hit the short game area every day since reading it Saturday. While the strokes were all there - I wanted just a touch more spin to help with distance control. Your advice worked like a charm!!!

[mchepp]

Well this helped clarify some things, but I'm still at a loss. I was able to get to a practice area yesterday and re-try this method and really didn't find what I thought I was going to find. The trouble I have right now is defining how to hit the shot "high". The ball would come out maybe 10 feet in height (I'm terrible in judging distance :D ).

 

For example: I have a bunker with a lip height of 4 feet, and the pin would be 20 feet. I would hit the ball about 6 feet higher than the lip to about 15 feet and it would roll out another 10 - 15 feet.

 

I would try to have a wider stance, squat like I'm about to sit in a chair, keep the hands low and have a narrow swinging area. I've tried with a 60* & 56* wedge with the face being square, slightly open and laid wide open with about the same results.

 

I know I'm not doing it right, but I'm still lost on how to hit the ball high.... HELP!!!

 

I have this problem as well. If I have short sided myself I find it very difficult to pop the ball in the air and keep it close to the hole. My solution has been to pick a spot in the sand a little further behind the ball. If I want to hit a soft one I will aim 2.5" inches behind the ball instead of my standard 1.5". I have found that this works for me.

[URStillAway]

Before reading and practicing Utley's short game book I was a good "pitcher" but a mediocre "chipper".

 

Great easy to read book.

 

I have read the book several times and been able to practice about 4 times and played twice (it is still very early for golf in Canada).

 

My chipping has improved by a large margin. I was able to catch on to his method fairly quickly.

 

Much more confident. In fact I have been chipping more in situations where I previously would have made a pitch. I think the improved chipping will help lower my scores as I should be able to get up-and-down more often.

 

The pitching part of my game has suffered a bit though. I need more time to practice his method as it has not sunk in yet.

 

I used to use my lob wedge much more than the SW but have found that now I use the SW more around the greens. I could see myself leaving the Lob at home some days and putting a hybird or 7 wood in the bag instead.

[bassman1308]

Doesn't Utley state in his book that he believes a high, lofted shot which lands soft and rolls out is more consistent and easier to get close to the hole than a shot played to spin and check up quickly. Since i've been using Utleys method ( less than 2 weeks ), I do not chunk as many chips but I still thin about as many. They say 'thin wins' but not when you have out of bounds or water behind the green. : - ) I really feel this will improve as I get more confidence and am not afraid to hit this shot. I hope, I hope, I hope.

[Ken_In_CA]

Ok, sorry for constantly being dense, but when you all are swing in the bunker, trying to hit a hit shot that lands soft... do you feel like you are digging pretty deep or going for the fairly shallow (allowing the bounce to work) divot?

 

I've been practicing the bunker shot (fairly heavy dense wet sand) and I can not get a high lofted shot, but I'm ok with that... so far. Also for the short sided bunker shot that I was hoping for (high lob) I've tried what the other poster stated and hit the sand a little further behind the ball, taking more sand. Doesn't go very high/far, but it gets the job done. Averaged distance from the pin was about 8 feet, which is good for me.

[mchepp]

Ken_In_CA,

 

I find that in wet sand the ball doesn't fly quite as high as in dry sand. Just my observation.

[Babydaddy]

Ken- Utley likes a more square set up for standard bunker shots, with the face barely open, if it all. He wants you to use your hand position and shaft angle at address to expose the bounce and add loft. I experimented with this, because like some who have posted on this thread, I could hit great medium to long bunker shots, bit not great short ones.

I have found on short bunker shots that if I open the face a little more than usual, lower my hands a lot, and make sure that the shaft is leaning away from the target and my hands are behind the ball, I can hit high and short bunker shots using the Utley method. I open the face about 20 degrees or so, as opposed to 40-50 for a more conventional bunker shot. What I think about for a swing thought is just a little shorter pivot. One cool but ironic thing about Utley's teachings is that because they are very much based on feel, it becomes hard to describe. I had to commit and re-commit to the philosophy and re-read both books several times and then go out and try to prove to myself that what he is saying works. I had to really press through on the bunker method because I could not understand how the set up and the swing worked together. I had to see it and feel it in practice to get it. Once I got it, I became really good at it really quickly. Wet sand surely does affect the ball flight in the sense that to get height you need speed and the consistency of the sand can affect that.

The greatest testimony that I have found about his teachings is that I tend to execute the shots better in a round, when the heat is on, then I do in practice. That tells me that his teachings really have helped me access by natural athleticism. It has been my experience that usually there is one, maybe two things that once you get the concept you can pretty quickly prove it to yourself in practice. Then, you pretty much own it to a large degree. In other words, with Utley it's kind of you look like you have never picked up a golf club for a minute, and then you are doing great and have a ton of confidence.

[Ken_In_CA]

Ok, I think I've got it! Yes I know that wet/dense sand will not allow the ball to fly as high, but this is what I've discovered.

 

The reason I was hitting it low was because I allowed my hands to rotate over... I thought it was pointing to the sky but in reality it was rolled over :wacko:

 

My swing thought for today was thinking that I was pushing the ball with my right hand, so if I turned it over, the ball would go left (right handed player) and therefore go lower.

 

Now the ball is coming out much higher and rolling out less, so much easier (but still hard for me) to judge distance, cuz it ain't rolling out a ton like before.

 

Thanks for putting up with my stupid questions and all! :shok:

[Babydaddy]

Hi Ken- I understand about the conventional method. I went down to Florida in played in what is to me, my Masters tournament. I put the Utley bunker method to the fire and it held up GREAT. I am really encouraged by that. I had started to tinker a bit (going back to conventional) before I left and I decided that I needed to go ahead and trust the Utley method.

There are a couple things to make sure you have right. One is that the wedge that you are using has enough bounce. I would say at least 8 degrees, but Utley prefers more like 10-12. Having worked with different wedge configurations, I see now why Utley likes a lot of bounce. But in the sand, more bounce means that you are able to aim more squarely and still skim the club through the sand. So make sure you have at least 10 degrees of bounce if you can. It should really help because what throws the ball more forward is when the leading edge digs in more than you want it to in a good bunker shot. So my diagnosis is that you either don't have enough club head speed, which is the other ingredient of height, and or, the leading edge is too exposed at impact.

Secondly, along those same lines, you must make sure that you **** the club upward a LOT. Exaggerate it to get the feel of it. You are trying to hit the brim of your hat with the club. You want to use your wrists to **** the club in place, not lift your arms like using an ax. This is a vertical cocking of the wrists in front of you, not a bending of the wrists to the side. Once the set up is right the UBM can be summed up this way:

Lean left, lift the club with the wrists only, while pivoting on your left side, be amazed at the thumping sound. My little swing thought is **** and turn.

The tendency with the Utley method is add your old swing into the Utley. That means swinging the grip end as a means to gain what feels like control. I love Jim Hardy because he says that there are only three reasons why you are not getting better when you use someone's golf information: You either don't understand something that you are being told, or you understand it, think you are doing it, but you are not doing what you think you are, or you understand it, are doing it, but the information is wrong to begin with.

This is true in my case. I did not understand how the elements fit together. I had the right equipment, I knew that I was doing something different than I had been doing, but I could see that I was not understanding something. I had to go back and make sure that I fully understood how everything worked together to achieve that proper impact for a bunker shot. Every element of what Utley teaches fits together and is important. If you miss one thing, or try to substitute something, you will not be successful. So, you need more speed and more bounce. That means you need to **** the club up with the grip end while turning your lower body and let the club release hard so that you thump the sand. By the way, you should not feel like you have to do anything on the downswing. One reason why this method works is because the arm swing is really a wrist swing where the wrists are cocked in the backswing. So, if you are feeling like you are having to "do" something on the downswing, you are probably swinging the club rather than cocking the club with the wrists. You have to trust the narrowness of the arm swing.You will feel like you are just lifting the club in front of you and turning your lower body at the same time. If you do this correctly you will feel like "how am I going to be able to make enough swing to get the ball out of the sand?" It just happens like magic on the downswing. You should feel like you have cheated, almost. Your arms should feel cramped and ridiculous on the back swing. Almost like gator arms. You are just trying to hammer a tent peg with the club in front of you and pivoting on that left foot with a wide, flare-toed stance. You have to set up to facilitate the impact using the club the way it needs to be used. That means getting the hands low, the shaft leaning back and your spine tilt left and your weight left. You want the bounce to zip through the sand.

As far as video, while watching golf this weekend, I noticed that the pros mostly all seem to play bunker shots with a really wide stance and not swing the grip end much, and they usually take a good bit of sand, and they make a big thump sound that Utley talks about. You could do a you tube search for one of Utley's guys, like Tom Pernice, and see if you can find a bunker shot.

You won't see anything earth shattering though. You just have to feel the cheating magic work a few times and then you will have it. I know how you feel. Hope this helps!

Noelsy

[simplemind]

Hi Ken- I understand about the conventional method. I went down to Florida in played in what is to me, my Masters tournament. I put the Utley bunker method to the fire and it held up GREAT. I am really encouraged by that. I had started to tinker a bit (going back to conventional) before I left and I decided that I needed to go ahead and trust the Utley method.

There are a couple things to make sure you have right. One is that the wedge that you are using has enough bounce. I would say at least 8 degrees, but Utley prefers more like 10-12. Having worked with different wedge configurations, I see now why Utley likes a lot of bounce. But in the sand, more bounce means that you are able to aim more squarely and still skim the club through the sand. So make sure you have at least 10 degrees of bounce if you can. It should really help because what throws the ball more forward is when the leading edge digs in more than you want it to in a good bunker shot. So my diagnosis is that you either don't have enough club head speed, which is the other ingredient of height, and or, the leading edge is too exposed at impact.

Secondly, along those same lines, you must make sure that you **** the club upward a LOT. Exaggerate it to get the feel of it. You are trying to hit the brim of your hat with the club. You want to use your wrists to **** the club in place, not lift your arms like using an ax. This is a vertical cocking of the wrists in front of you, not a bending of the wrists to the side. Once the set up is right the UBM can be summed up this way:

Lean left, lift the club with the wrists only, while pivoting on your left side, be amazed at the thumping sound. My little swing thought is **** and turn.

The tendency with the Utley method is add your old swing into the Utley. That means swinging the grip end as a means to gain what feels like control. I love Jim Hardy because he says that there are only three reasons why you are not getting better when you use someone's golf information: You either don't understand something that you are being told, or you understand it, think you are doing it, but you are not doing what you think you are, or you understand it, are doing it, but the information is wrong to begin with.

Noelsy

 

Great explanation! Thanks for taking the time with it!

I'ts amazing how one key sentence can make a huge difference. In the book, Utley said to "pivot on the left leg", and that was key for me. That's much different than saying "keep the weight on you left" , at lest for me.

 

I just wish I could find some video footage that would reinforce what you and Stan were saying.

.

.

[playmuch]

Are his books easy to understand.

[10and8]

Check out Stan's profile on GC website. If you learn by visualization this is the next best thing to visiting him.

 

http://www.thegolfchannel.com/core.aspx?pa...amp;select3=223

 

In these video's he shows is putting, chipping/pitching and I think in video 11/01/04 (5 of 7) he shows is bunker method.

[MMB1500]

Rather than start a new topic, I thought I'd add to this older thread. Anyway I managed to get out this weekend and got to practice Utley's bunker method. I have to say it was a total revelation and actually very simple once I'd got used to the set up. What's funny is that I finally now understand how the bounce on my wedges is supposed to work! I need to do a bit more work in terms of learning to control distance out of the bunker, but shot after shot was flying out of the bunker beautifully, landing softly and checking. I was even playing shots from downhill and sloping lies and these were no problem either.

I'm still working on the chipping method, which is coming but I'd say the art of the short game is worth getting for the chapter on bunker play alone.