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  THE ART OF PUTTING

  THE ART OF PUTTING

  The Revolutionary Feel-Based System for Improving Your Score

  Stan Utley

  with Matthew Rudy

  GOTHAM BOOKS

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  Published by Gotham Books, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  Copyright © 2006 by Stan Utley

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  LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Utley, Stan.

  The art of putting: the revolutionary feel-based system for improving your score / Stan Utley with

  Matt Rudy.

  p. cm.

  ISBN: 978-1-101-21821-1

  1. Putting (Golf) I. Rudy, Matthew. II. Title.

  GV979.P8U87 2006

  796.352'35—dc22 2005035695

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  CONTENTS

  Foreword by Jay Haas

  Introduction

  Chapter 1 WHAT DO I KNOW?

  Chapter 2 THE BASICS

  Chapter 3 FINDING THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT

  Chapter 4 THE ART OF PUTTING

  Chapter 5 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUTTING

  Chapter 6 ADVANCED TECHNIQUES

  Chapter 7 FAULTS AND FIXES

  Chapter 8 PUTTING DRILLS

  Chapter 9 QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE

  Acknowledgments

  FOREWORD by Jay Haas

  Nine-time winner on the PGA Tour and three-time Ryder Cup team member

  You might be wondering if Stan Utley can really help you fix the problems you’re having with your

  putter. I can tell you first hand that it’s true.

  Stan and I were casual acquaintances from the years we were both playing on the tour in the

  1980s and 1990s, and I certainly knew about Stan’s wonderful touch with his own putter. I had even

  heard through the grapevine that he was really helping some other guys on tour with their putting and

  chipping. But I didn’t really get to know Stan until April 2001, just after I had gone through an

  absolutely miserable season with my putter. At forty-eight years old, I was at the point where I was

  trying to figure out how to hang on out on tour at least until I could play the Champions Tour starting in

  2004.

  Stan happened to be having dinner at my brother-in-law Dillard Pruitt’s house in Greenville,

  South Carolina, my hometown, when I came by. We started talking about putting and I told him my

  story. I was expecting to set up a lesson or something on the practice green later that week, but Stan

  took me outside that night to look at my stroke under the porch light. I made a change to my grip after

  hearing what he had to say, and started to practice the stroke he teaches. Every two weeks or so, we’d

  talk on the phone about my putting stroke. The week we finally got together and had an “official

  lesson,” in Milwaukee, I made nine birdies the next day. Then I finished second the following week.

  I know it sounds like a cliché to say that some kind of light clicked on in my head after talking to

  Stan, but it really did. I felt so much better over my putts, and I immediately began to see positive

  things start to happen during tournament rounds. In my second event of the 2003 season, I shot 61 on

  Friday at the Bob Hope and went on to finish second. I don’t care what tour you’re playing on—when

  you go 11-under for the day and 28-under for the week, it makes you feel pretty good about how

  you’re rolling the ball.

  We’ve got all kinds of statistics measuring what we do week in and week out here on the PGA

  Tour. Heck, you can even find out what percentage of six-footers you’re making for the season with

  the click of a mouse. But for me, there’s an easy way to confirm just how much Stan has helped me

  over the last few years. I’m swinging as well—or even better—than I did when I was twenty-five or

  thirty-five. I’m hitting the ball longer than ever, too. But in 1992, I was ninety-eighth on the money

  list, and the year before I was ninety-second, hitting the ball just like I am now. After working with

  Stan on my putting, I had eight top-ten finishes in 2003 and earned $2.6 million. Now, at age fifty-two,

  I’m lucky enough to be able to pick and choose what senior events I play because I’m still

  competitive on the PGA Tour. Stan’s been a big part of that success.

  The first thing Stan will tell anybody—from a tour player like me to the average amateur—is

  that he isn’t a miracle worker. But that’s the beauty of what he teaches. There aren’t any gimmicks or

  complicated techniques that you have to worry about holding up under pressure. He’s teaching solid,

  basic fundamentals in the putting game that match up with the basic fundamentals of a good full swing.

  Anybody can learn them, and anybody can putt better using them—whether that means shooting a 61,

  like I did, or feeling more confident over that ten-footer you’ve got to break ninety for the first time.

  Jay Haas

  Greenville, SC

  December 1, 2005

  INTRODUCTION

  Let me tell you about a typical putting lesson I give here at Gray-hawk Golf Club in Scottsdale,

  Arizona, where I teach when I am home. First, I always clarify two things: One, because I am a

  player, I emphasize that shooting low is the No. 1 goal, even ahead of great fundamentals; two, if
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  you’re looking to get better, I’ll always do my best to help you improve with the fundamentals I

  believe and trust.

  Now we are ready to get to work. I always ask a number of questions to learn a player’s

  thoughts about putting, and then have him or her hit a few putts. When I’m teaching somebody for the

  first time, I can often literally see the tension radiating from the player’s body—from the anxious

  expression on the person’s face to the fact that you can see the neck start to disappear as the shoulders

  pull in and get tight.

  But putting doesn’t have to stress you out that way. Trust me. I know it’s hard to believe,

  especially after another three-putt, or when you miss the hole on a five-footer that would have won

  you ten bucks from your buddies.

  What if I told you that learning a few simple fundamentals about the putting stroke and grip could

  loosen those shoulders and take away most of that anxiety? My goal with this book is to help you

  make your putting skill more accurately reflect your talent level. And the good news is, haven’t seen a

  single person who didn’t have enough natural feel and athletic ability to be at least a decent putter.

  Not one.

  Putting well doesn’t have anything to do with how big or small you are, how far you can hit your

  driver, or even what your handicap is. If you can incorporate some of the fundamentals I teach into

  your stroke, you can become a more accurate putter. Does that mean you’re going to go out and one-

  putt eighteen greens during your round tomorrow? Probably not. The best I’ve managed to do myself

  is twenty-one, at the 2002 Bell Canadian Open. But I’m sure you’ll agree that building a more

  consistent, repeatable stroke and developing a better feel for break and distance is going to help you

  make more putts and leave your misses closer to the hole. If you’re three-putting seven or eight times

  in a round right now, I can help you turn your ninety-five round into an eighty-seven or eighty-eight.

  In The Art of Putting, I’m going to share with you the putting fundamentals and secrets I learned

  though years of study on the PGA Tour and refined through hundreds of hours of short-game lessons

  given to players like Jay Haas, Peter Jacobsen and Darren Clarke. In the first chapter, I’ll take you

  back to the beginning of my golf career and describe my introduction to the fundamentals of putting—

  the foundation of the almost thirty years of success I’ve had on the putting green. Chapter 2 covers the

  basics, from the grip to setup and posture. In Chapter 3, I’ll help you pick the right kind of putter for

  your stroke, and show you how important it is to have that putter fit to your body. Chapters 4 and 5 are

  really what I consider to be the heart of this instruction book. In Chapter 4, I’ll give you a step-by-

  step guide to making a good putting stroke—and show you how I do it with a high-speed photo

  sequence. Chapters 5 and 6 cover the psychology of putting and some of the more advance skills and

  strategies you need on the putting green, from green reading to lag putting.

  I’m extremely fortunate to have been able to work with a variety of talented tour players, and

  honored that they would trust me to help them with their games. In Chapter 7, I’ll tell you about some

  of the things that Jay Haas, Craig Stadler, Peter Jacobsen, Rocco Mediate and Darren Clarke have

  worked on in their own putting games, and I’ll show you some of the other common faults that can

  creep into a putting stroke and how to fix them. In Chapter 8, I’ll take you through a series of drills

  that will get your putting stroke in shape and keep it there all season. The last chapter, a quick

  reference guide, is designed to help you quickly diagnose your own putting problems and to use the

  concepts I teach to make instant corrections.

  Good luck, and good putting.

  CHAPTER 1

  WHAT DO I KNOW?

  What do I know, and why should you listen to me about your putting stroke? Good questions. Let me

  try to answer them for you.

  I don’t have the greatest record as a PGA Tour player. I’m proud of the fact that I won out there,

  at the 1989 Chattanooga Classic, but they aren’t clearing out any space for my memorabilia at the

  World Golf Hall of Fame. I’m also not in the same league as guys like David Leadbetter or Butch

  Harmon when it comes to fixing full-swing problems for tour players hoping to win major

  championships.

  But when it comes to the short game—putting, chipping and sand play—I’ve been blessed with a

  special combination of skills and training. I’ve been a good putter since I was a little kid, and I got

  great instruction on how to take advantage of those skills from Ken Lanning, one of the legendary

  teachers in my home state of Missouri. My putting and short game have made it possible for a guy

  who can’t hit it 300 yards and who doesn’t hit more than nine or ten greens per round to make a living

  on the PGA Tour.

  There are certainly other tour players out there who can really roll the ball. But I’m lucky

  enough to be able to roll my ball better than most and explain to you how you can get yours to roll

  better, too. I haven’t seen too many other teachers who can say they’ve done it at the highest level and

  can help other players understand it, too. I’m still playing on the PGA and Nationwide Tours, but

  more and more of my time goes to helping tour players like Jay Haas, Peter Jacobsen, Darren Clarke

  and up and coming pros and juniors—and average amateurs as well—get better on and around the

  green. Believe it or not, the teaching part got started almost by accident.

  When I first turned pro, the prize money wasn’t anywhere near what it is today. That meant lots

  of carpooling, sharing hotel rooms, and cheap takeout food with other guys playing in the same mini-

  tour events. I spent hours talking golf with guys like Brandel Chamblee, and Willie Wood. Brandel

  was always working on his swing—talking about it, reading books, watching videos. I had a knack

  for putting and the short game, so I’d share some of what I learned, and Brandel would give me

  something to use on my full swing. What I was telling Brandel back in 1985 wasn’t much different

  than what I say today—and it’s fundamentally the same thing I first heard from Ken Lanning, back

  when I was in middle school. Without Mr. Lanning, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

  I didn’t really start out as a golfer. My dad was a tremendous athlete who chose to go to work on

  the railroad and start a family instead of going to college and playing sports. So when my brother and

  I came along, he introduced us at an early age to basketball, football and baseball, the sports he

  played in industrial leagues in my hometown of Thayer, Missouri. My dad still tells the story about

  sneaking retired major league pitcher Preacher Roe—who lived down the street from us in West

  Plains—into a rec baseball game to throw a few innings with my dad as his battery mate.

  My dad is a tremendous teacher of kids, and right from the beginning, I had an advantage

  because he taught me what I was supposed to do when I had the ball. I wasn’t the fastest kid or the

  highest jumper, but I was the point guard on the basketball team and the quarterback on the football

  team. Basketball was my life, but a funny thing happened in junior high school. By the time I was

  fourteen years old
, I was pretty much full grown. At that point, I figured out that I wasn’t going to be

  the next Walt Frazier or Dr. J., and golf came around at just the right time in my life.

  I was first introduced to golf when I was ten years old. One of my dad’s friends gave me an old

  black-faced MacGregor 3-iron, and I used to knock balls around the yard on our farm in Thayer.

  Before I started the sixth grade, my parents moved us thirty miles down the road, from Thayer to West

  Plains. West Plains had a bigger school system than Thayer, and it had a nine-hole golf course, too.

  We were three blocks from West Plains Country Club, and it didn’t take me long to get hooked.

  The junior clinics at West Plains were run by a woman named Rhoda Luna, who played in the

  men’s matches from the back tees when she wasn’t showing us kids where to stand and how to hold it.

  I seemed to have the knack for it right from the start. I liked all the freedom to play the hole any way

  you wanted. I loved golf for the same reason then as I do now: I didn’t have to rely on anybody else to

  make the right decision with the ball for it to turn out the way I wanted. When things went good, I

  knew I was the one who had hit the shots.

  When I was thirteen, my dad and I were playing in a scramble tournament and we were paired

  with Mr. Lanning, who was famous in southern Missouri as a teacher and a player. One of my first

  golf memories is from that day, when Mr. Lanning told my dad that if I was serious about golf, he

  would help me. Mr. Lanning’s interest seemed to show my dad that I had some real potential, and he

  agreed to drive me the hundred miles to Mr. Lanning’s club to get lessons every month.

  You’re going to read a lot about the putting basics in the next few chapters, and you can thank

  Mr. Lanning for that. He was a stickler for the basics, and he believed that if you made the game

  simple and kept to a few simple principles, you’d play your best golf. He worked with me on my full

  swing more than anything else early on, and I got to playing really well. When I was in ninth grade, I

  was already playing on the high school team—even though I was in my last year of middle school. I

  wouldn’t call myself a superstar in high school golf, but I got better every year. By my senior year, I