At the age of 14, he started playing at the old Amstel Golf Club which backed onto his parents' home in Ian Grove, Mount Waverley.

He also spent seven years on the European Tour in the 1970s, where he was joint winner of the 1975 Martini International with Christy O'Connor Jnr, and finished inside the top-60 on the Order of Merit six times with a best end of season ranking of 27th in 1975.

[1] From 1977 to 1978, Stanley worked with David Inglis in establishing the Australian Masters and obtaining sponsorships for the first tournament in 1979.

This led to the highly rated Golf Show which is still successfully running on Fox Sports today.

Stanley was a director of not-for-profit organisation Tee Up for Kids, which raises money for underprivileged children in Victoria.