This is the home site of the StanU Learning Center. If you want to learn how to chip, hit sand saves and putt, this is the place for you. Stan will occasionally post updated tips, and where appropriate, he’ll include rich media resources to enhance his words.  Stan is a renowned teacher of professional tour players, aspiring juniors and corporate clients alike.

Can You Feel It?

June 2009

How to find your touch on three short-game shots

In the lessons I give to tour players, I talk a lot about the importance of reconnecting to the natural, athletic feel those guys certainly have. But what if you’re a 15- or 20-handicapper, and you don’t have a firm grasp of what “feel” really means? Don’t worry. You’re not going to be left in the short-game wilderness forever. You just need to equate the feel in those short-game shots to moves you already know from everyday life. Here’s how to use them. Watch a video of this tip here.

1. Putting Feel -Push A Broom

Good fundamentals are important to putting, but a basic understanding of how the arms and body should move is even more important. Many players get stiff, freezing… 

2. Pitching Feel – Skip a Rock

On a high pitch shot, the goal is to keep the bounce on the bottom of the club exposed to the ground throughout the swing. Players get into trouble when they turn the right arm over in an aggressive release. The feel you want…

3. Chipping Feel – Hit a Backhand

It’s hard for the average player to resist the urge to try to lift the ball on a chip, or to hold the face open to create loft. Imagine a Ping-Pong paddle in your left hand. The face of the paddle represents…

Watch video of tip

Stan Utley on Putting

July 2007