Stan Utley on Impossible Wedge Shots

Hey, this is just a cool instructional article to read. Golf Digest has an article by Stan Utley called Pitch It High from Any Lie. What makes it so cool? To demonstrate the techniques Utley used, here's what he did (and I quote):

"To make a point here, I tried out four extreme playing surfaces: pavement, my back-yard pool, the artificial turf at Arizona State's football practice facility and the desert."

Here's the photo of him hitting from the pool. (I wanted to used the one off pavement but couldn't get the link off the site.) In case you don't see the ball, it's about halfway between him and the left side of the photo, over the rocks but just below visor height. See it now?



Utley says it's mostly about setup changes and how you use the bounce of the club; once you learn how the club should interact with the ground, you just need to choose how far behind the ball to hit the ground. Here are the section headings, which briefly summarize the article contents:

• HARDPAN: Stay Tall and Skid Through Impact
• SOFT LIES: Give It Plenty of Speed at the Bottom
• TIGHT LIES: Keep Your Lead Arm Relaxed
• WASTE AREAS: Learn to Read the Ground

I'll let you read the sections yourself, but even the pictures are cool.

I'm particularly interested in learning to hit off pavement. That may not be so useful, but I bet it'll impress some of my friends.

And no, this isn't an April Fool's joke. It just sounds like one.