"The Art of Scoring" by Stan Utley

[iacas]

Discuss "The Art of Scoring" by Stan Utley here.

[JetFan1983]

I just bought this tonight. Yikes! No comments! Not a good sign so far....

Hopefully some of you better players out there have some good things to say about this book.

EDIT: I just realized this book was first published in September. My bad!

[Shindig]

Utley has another book out? Will acquire with next Amazon purchase.

[shankapotamus]

Yeah, this'll make a great birthday present to myself. But I wouldn't mind hearing some reviews first though...

[Shindig]

  shankapotamus said:

Yeah, this'll make a great birthday present to myself. But I wouldn't mind hearing some reviews first though...

Wait a few days. I just ordered it from Amazon, along with

Gossip Girl: Season 2 , a copy of Alice in Wonderland (the book), and a novel about pirates. I can't imagine what the folks at shipping will think when they see this order. Hopefully, they figure out which part of the order is a gift for my little sister. I'll probably post something about it in 1-2 weeks.

[gogolfing]

Shindig

I'm thinking of asking for this for XMAS, so I'd like to hear what you think of it.

[Shindig]

  gogolfing said:

Shindig

I'm glad my opinion is so valued. I got the book in the mail today, and will read it during the week and write something about it.

[shortgamewiz]

There's always a lot to consume in these books, at least for me. I've been obsessed with him for several years now. Some of it is definitely review material from the first two books, which might put off some folks, but I don't care because things are elaborated on somewhat differently, and for me that just means more clarity. Anyway I need to hear it again and again in order to sink in. There's an interesting section about creating a "short game handicap" which I still need to fully absorb. There's a cool way to simply annotate your scorecard to capture what is going on with your short game. Sometimes the smallest idea can make a huge difference. I really liked a suggested approach he has for most troubleshots near the green -- to mainly with a standard bunker technique instead of trying to improvise shots and how the "average leave" would probably be better. Also, his discussion of the concept of "leave" was definitely enlightening. I would say that if you like Utley then you'll like this and you should get it, and you should also buy anything and everything with the guys name on it. Anyway, these books are really cheap so if you don't like it, you can always use it for ...

[JetFan1983]

Amazing book IMO. The chapter on putting strategy was enlightening to say the least. I've only gotten a chance to get in one range session to practice the 50 yard pitch shot, but so far, I like my immediate results. I also like the advice of gripping the putter in the lifeline in my right hand, rather than gripping it like a 9-iron like I used to do.

All in all, I found this to be a great book and I plan on reading it again before next season starts, when I can really start applying what I've read into my practice sessions. I highly recommend this to any high handicappers looking to improve their game.

[msd3075]

What I really liked about this book is how he explains his short game routine by how you should approach each shot and determine what you should do, not just how to swing the club for each shot. He discusses how you shouldn't always be trying to pull off the perfect shot if you know you can't consistantly do it and how just thinking before you hit your shot or even approach your shot can make a huge difference in your score.

I also like how if you take the dustcover off the book (no "golf" graphics) and leave it laying around the house, people will see the book and think something completely different......

[gogolfing]

I got this for Christmas, so am looking forward to reading it. I'll put up some posts as I work through it.

[Quinn07]

I picked this book up today and will be reading it over the next couple of days; will post some thoughts when I start getting into it.

[santiago53]

I have read this book as well as Utley's Art of Putting and Art of Short Game. This book is great and it complements the other first two books. I have been practicing the shots detailed in this book during the past week and my short game has become much better. The strategy chapter gives great information. The bunker play has always been my greatness weakness, but using Utley's technique I now not only get it out easily off the bunkers but also leave it close to get up an down quite often. When I enter the bunker and after seeing the shot I tilt the spine to the left (by letting the left hand reach the left knee, then I grip the club, leave my head in its place and execute the shot exposing the bounce of the club). Alos, there are many trouble shots described in the book that are very useful. I now have gained more shots which I am confident to execute. The technique for pitching in hardpan or bare lies works very well. If you want to improve your short game you will probably get very useful information from this book.

[shortgamewiz]

  santiago53 said:

The bunker play has always been my greatness weakness, but using Utley's technique I now not only get it out easily off the bunkers but also leave it close to get up an down quite often.

I too have had fantastic results with his bunker technique. Also chipping, and greenside recovery shots.. I feel really good about now... all stuff I learned from him. The only thing that I struggled with was pitching, particularly. from tight lies... and I actually had to learn some other things from other sources in order for it all to eventually click. The other thing I would say is I absolutely needed his online videos for it all to gel, and the books alone weren't enough. But no big surprise on that... you can only learn so much from a book imo.. you need to see it being done.

[EightBlue]

really like this book as well. I had used his bunker technique before i even read it, but his rec on widening the stance even further has really helped. I think most golfers are far better off using his slingshot/pivot technique for chip shot. Even though I don't do it as he prescribes it, i still use his swing though of keeping the bounce paralell to the ground (e.g. dont turn it over).

[JetFan1983]

  JetFan1983 said:

Amazing book IMO. The chapter on putting strategy was enlightening to say the least. I've only gotten a chance to get in one range session to practice the 50 yard pitch shot, but so far, I like my immediate results. I also like the advice of gripping the putter in the lifeline in my right hand, rather than gripping it like a 9-iron like I used to do.

Wrote that in Oct.09. I dusted this book off today and am giving it another go-round. It makes a lot more sense the second time around. Awesome stuff. Stan Utley is a genius. I've been putting out of my mind at the par 3 course.

[keb]

Just read and tried to implement ideas today. I hit some good shots but found that I hit a number of balls at a 45 degree angle to the right. What's the deal. My conclusion is that I am not making proper pivot. Thanks for any help.

[JetFan1983]

  keb said:

Just read and tried to implement ideas today. I hit some good shots but found that I hit a number of balls at a 45 degree angle to the right. What's the deal. My conclusion is that I am not making proper pivot. Thanks for any help.

This is my dreaded miss as well, but it usually only happens at the range. It happens often during the Weight Forward-Stop and Hit aka Flying Wedge Drill that I do often. My assumption is that the face is wide open and the pivot was bad, but I'm not sure. It could be a heel, hosel, or toe hit as well (coupled with an open face)- hence the ball going dead right. Would love to know exactly what's going wrong, but I think we'd need video for that.