Putting-Guru-to-the-Pros Will Give Multiple Sessions At The Glencoe Golf Club
GLENCOE, Illinois (May 8, 2006) – Former PGA Tour-player-turned-putting-guru Stan Utley will appear at the GreenToTee Golf Academy later this month to conduct a series of exclusive, in-depth, hands-on short-game schools that will be limited to nine players per session.
Among Utley’s more well-known students are 2006 Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman, Stewart Cink, Chad Campbell, Jeff Sluman, Kirk Triplett, Steve Elkington, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley, Jay Haas, Peter Jacobsen, and Craig Stadler.
Utley will conduct the six-hour clinics in conjunction with members of the GreenToTee coaching staff at the Glencoe Golf Club, 621 Westley Road, in Glencoe.
"The GreenToTee Golf Academy always has been committed to providing golfers with the best instruction available," said GreenToTee co-founder Joe Bosco. "The idea of inviting Stan Utley to our facility grew out of that ongoing commitment. We invite anyone who wants to improve his or her putting and short game to sign up for a session with Stan Utley."
Utley’s upcoming schools are scheduled for May 25-26 with two separate six-hour sessions per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Utley also will return to GreenToTee/Glencoe to conduct morning and afternoon clinics July 6-7-8 and August 17-18-19.
Bosco said each student is guaranteed one-on-one instruction from Utley in the four areas of short game concentration: putting, chipping, pitching and bunker shots. Each student also will receive a complimentary autographed copy of Utley’s new book, The Art of Putting, soon to be available in stores.
Bosco said clinic participants will utilize GreenToTee’s two revolutionary SAM PuttLab machines, which use ultrasonic imaging to measure a myriad of elements in the putting stroke and provide insight on how students can improve their putting. GreenToTee, which was the first in the Chicago area to get the machine, currently owns two SAM PuttLabs.
Each of Utley’s half-day sessions will begin with participants measuring their putting strokes on the SAM Putt Lab in order to create a baseline of knowledge about each student’s putting stroke.
Students will spend the rest of the session working closely with Utley, learning his short-game philosophies and working to put those philosophies to work in their own games. GreenToTee coaches have been trained in Utley’s philosophy and will work with students during the sessions. Each session includes a break for lunch or a snack.
Utley, 44, played on the PGA and Nationwide Tours from 1988-2005, a 16-year career during which he won $1.1 million in official earnings. Utley won the 1989 Chattanooga Classic on the PGA Tour and posted three Nationwide Tour victories in the mid-’90s. He set a nine-hole PGA Tour record for fewest putts, needing just six putts on the front nine of the Northview G&CC during the 2002 Air Canada Championship.
In recent years, the native Missourian, who now resides in Scottsdale, has been helping fellow pros and amateurs alike improve their putting and chipping. Utley said he is so busy that the GreenToTee sessions are the only times he has available to provide instruction for the rest of the year.
Utley’s reputation took off after he helped Haas with his putting in 2002. The next year, Haas, at the age of 49, won $2.6 million on the PGA Tour, more than double his previous best season total. Peter Jacobsen credited Utley’s short game instruction with helping him win the 1995 Greater Hartford Open. Utley also worked with Craig Stadler prior to his victory at the 2003 B.C. Open, where he shot a final round 63 and became the first Champions Tour player to win a PGA Tour event.
Utley’s putting philosophy challenges the conventional notion that the putter head must be taken straight back from the target line in order for the putter face to be square at impact through the ball. Instead, Utley teaches that the golfer should take his putter head back slightly inside the target line and return it square-faced to the ball.
"There are many theories in golf and we think golfers interested in trying to improve want to find out anything and everything they can in order to get better," Bosco said. "Stan Utley is going to bring a lot of new ideas and a lot excitement to golfers who sign up."
To register for the Stan Utley clinics visit www.greentotee.com. For more information, call Joe Bosco at the GreenToTee Golf Academy at 847-405-9800.
Founded in 1989 by Bosco and Peter Donahue, the GreenToTee Golf Academy specializes in developing customized golf skills training programs for individuals who want to improve their games. Not satisfied with providing players with the popular "temporary quick fix" or "one-size-fits-all" golf lessons, GreenToTee instructors work one-on-one with each student to develop a "planned personal program" aimed at producing lasting improvements and measurable results. In addition to helping players identify effective swing models, GreenToTee instructors teach students to manage their games on the course, using on-course playing lessons and an essential element of the teaching process.
Contact:
Barry Cronin
Cronin Communications, Inc.
847-698-1801 (office)
847-867-3032 (mobile)
bcronin@cronincommunications.com
