Rinker’s Golf Tips SiriusXM Sept 7th Guest Stan Utley. Stan Utley started playing the game like a lot of us with his father when he was 12 years old. When he was 13 he played in a tournament with his father and was paired with his soon to be mentor, Mr. Lanning, who was the guy to beat and always had an up and comer with him as a partner. Mr. Lanning lived 100 miles away from Stan, but he would become Stan’s predominate golf figure and teacher through college. I asked Stan how he got into teaching and he said that he’s an encourager, likes helping people, and enjoyed being coached on his own game. There are things we can do as teachers from a skills stand point to help all people with their short games. It starts with knowing where the club face is at impact, then going up the shaft to the connection with the hands. The hands are what we talk to, and the body does what we ask our hands to do. Stan wants his students to understand their hands and how they relate to the shot they are trying to execute.
We had some calls about putting and Stan asked one of our callers, “How long is the follow through of the best putter you know? Probably pretty short.” Stan gave him a little drill where he asked him to play the ball back in his stance, behind his right foot, use his wrists to pick the club up and drop the club on the back of the ball with hardly any follow through. Putt with “Dead strength.” To get more distance take the club further back, so that when the club falls on the back of the ball, the putter has even more energy. As far as the proper set-up, “Forward shaft lean is a great way to jump start your stroke.”
Another caller called in and asked Stan about his bunker technique. Stan said that he likes quite a bit of knee flex, upper body tilted slightly toward the target, with both feet flared out a little bit. Make a narrow swing with quite a bit of wrists and less arms, and finish tall and through on your forward leg. The key element is using the bounce of the club. Having the left wrist cupped on the back swing for a right-handed golfer adds loft and bounce to the club. You want to deliver the club head down the plane by throwing the club head with the hands and wrists. Release early enough so that you square the club face at impact. Have to figure out how to deliver the bounce into the sand so that it skips. Stan Utley can be reached at his web site www.stanutley.com