Stan Utley’s Unique and Simplified Chipping and Putting Methods

 By Jack Moorehouse

Stan Utley wants to transform your short game. Who’s Stan Utley? He’s not a local pro who gives golf lessons or writes golf tips. He’s a former PGA Player and a short game guru with unique ideas on putting and chipping. He’s worked with several PGA golfers and helped enhance their short games—and their purses— noticeably, making you wonder if he hasn’t caught on to something that could really cut a player’s golf handicap. 

Utley’s main point, as I explain in my golf lessons, is that a chip shot—or a putt—isn’t fundamentally different from a full shot, and the changes he recommends are not without foundation. They’re effective golf principals applied to the short game in a new way. Put another way, his adjustments are simple, proven fundamentals that have withstood the test of time. He just applies them to the short game. Let’s examine his approach.

Chip It Closer

The key to chipping, Utley teaches, is letting the clubhead do the work, not your arms. On a chip shot, most golfers take a pitching wedge and line up open with the ball way back in their stance. They bring the club back straight along the target line with an all arms move and make a steep chopping swing designed to leave the ball within a foot or two of the hole—the classic text book golf lesson on chipping. 

Utley, however, encourages a different approach. He teaches players to set up square to the target line and take a narrower stance than normal, with the ball forward under the left eye and more weight on the front foot. He teaches players to rotate their forearms, fold their right elbow back (right-handers), and make a very small pivot, which he says, places the clubhead on a natural plane. And he teaches players to let the club’s shaft hang down on a shallow angle while using the same overlapping grip employed on full shots.   

Draining More Putts

Utley’s putting approach is also unique. He makes changes not only to the grip and stroke, but also to ball position and forearm alignment—all of which sounds strange but seem to be effective. 

Utley teaches players to place the hands in a natural position, relative to the way their arms hang down, and to grip the putter almost exclusively with their fingertips, generating better feel and control. If they putt right-handed, this means their left hand will be in a weak position, rather than a strong one and their right hand will be in a strong position, rather than a weak one. 

Utley also teaches players to re-align their forearms. If they’re right handed and they line up with their shoulders, hips, and feet square to the target, their forearms are actually pointing left of target. Eventually, they’ll do something consciously or unconsciously to compensate for the misalignment. With Utley’s system, they take a normal putting stance but they line up their forearms square to the hole, eliminating the need to compensate for the misalignment, position the ball under their front eye, and narrow their stance.

In addition, he teaches a putting stroke that replicates a full swing. His in-to-out-to-in approach—instead of back and forth stroke—provides solid contact at impact and requires less effort to make a 20-foot putt, he says. While this stroke seems to open up the putterhead just before impact, that’s just an illusion. The putterhead is actually staying on the curved path.  

Since putting requires stability and control, Utley favors a reverse overlapping grip, with the putter’s shaft running up the hands’ lifelines, making it easier to keep the putter on plane, according to Utley. And since he believes that the putting shaft should be leaning forward at impact, he also favors more loft on the putter than the standard 3 or 4 degrees.  

Utley’s approach to chipping and putting is unique. And it’s not something you’ll hear in a typical golf instruction session, but it’s worked for several PGA pros. After working with Utley, Jay Haas won $2.6 million in prize money, Craig Stadler coasted to victory at the 2004 B.C Open, and Peter Jacobsen took the Greater Hartford Open. While their short games weren’t the only factors in their victories, their successes make you wonder if Utley hasn’t caught on to something good.

Jack Moorehouse is the author of the best-selling book “How To Break 80 And Shoot Like The Pros.” He is NOT a golf pro, rather a working man that has helped thousands of golfers from all seven continents lower their handicap immediately. He has a free weekly newsletter with the latest golf tips, golf lessons and golf instruction.