Stan Utley's Art of Shortgame

Although I havent read either book I have adopted the one wedge for all shots approach. I had read an article that quoted Jack Nicklaus as saying he only used his sand wedge for all shots around the green because he knew what it was going to do.

After committing to this technique my chipping has been the best part of my game this year. Its hard to hit a bad chip shot. Its easy to hit a lob or pitch shot fat or blade it. This isnt about pretty golf shots.......its about scoring. Once you figure out your roll you can cozy it up close or rattle the pin almost every time.

Although I havent read Stan utleys book I can totally agree with the concept. Having confidence in getting up and down has taken a lot of stress off the rest of my game.

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"You've just one problem. You stand too close to the ball after you've hit it." -Sam Snead

"Golf tips are like aspirin. One may do you good, but if you swallow the whole bottle you will be lucky to survive." -Harvey Penick

"I hit two of my best balls today......I stepped on a rake ".

Haven't read the Stan U book (although larger than life Amazon.com keeps on recommending it to me. I don't necessarily even want to read it since I'm getting good results with Pelz method (HCP 9).
My reasoning for choosing (and sticking with) Pelz is as follows:
- got only limited time to practise (once or twice a week)
- Forced to practise also other areas of game than short game

I.e. I simply do not have the luxury the pros have to spend several hours chipping/pitching each and every day hence no way I can create much of a feel to any given shot. Better stick with simple and robust method in scoring. So far none better than Pelz's ideas.

Several different ways to achieve your goal but pain in you-know-where is how to select the optimal mantra. For me the guiding factor was available time to practise and maximizing benefits potentially to be achieved in that given time.

hi
i think one think with the pelz system is once you get use to working out how far each club makes the ball fly and how much run then you can work out where on the green to have the ball land on its first bounce and then run to the flag, if there is a hump or hollow then you take a diffrent club, your swing if like taking a long putt, i find working out the distance was hard at first and had a note book i looked at but can work it out ok now, if you had to get a ball over a bunker and run about the same amount i think picking the club is easer then trying to make a shot happen with your fav club.
bill

Now that the season is over, I've had some time to reread the book and that has certainly helped. I understand the concept a lot better now and I began to apply SU's thoughts on other than standard "around the green" shots. For example, I can now chip the ball 80 yrds with my 9I. Not a bad shot to have in the bag. Doesn't look pretty but it is amazingly effective. Just by delofting and hitting with the leading edge, granted a "powerful" chip swing, I get a ver straight line to my target with no effects from wind. Without his book I doubt I would have discovered this kind of shot. Now I'll begin to see what I can do with some other clubs using that chip swing.

I switched to the Utley method several months ago. I must say that I am enjoying my short game again. I am so much more confident from 100 yds and on the greens than I have ever been. I have never had so many chip ins and my putting average has never been better.