Coming to grips with the yips

One of the strangest and most troubling phenomena in golf is something known as “the yips.” It’s time to take a close look at the reality of common putting yips.

Basically, when yips occur it signifies an odd loss of ability to execute certain skills, such as short putts, that experienced players ought to handle routinely and successfully. Some athletes who play basketball (free throws), baseball (pitchers) and field goal kickers in football have struggled also with yips.

The term “yips” was coined in 1927 by legendary pro golfer Tommy Armour, after batting his ball back and forth on the putting green for a score of 23 on a par 5 hole at the Shawnee Open. In describing the yips golfers and coaches have used such terms as twitches, golfers’ cramps, jerks, hand stabs, jitters, freezing and some unmentionable words.

While the exact cause of the yips is not fully understood, it is generally agreed that it involves losing fine motor skills and psychological issues that impact muscle memory resulting in inability to perform at a simple level. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic found that 33% to 48% of all serious golfers have experienced the yips in their adult life.

Golfers who have played for more than 25 years appear most prone to the condition. More mature golfers suffer the most. Over the years a number of famous pro golfers have fallen victim to the yips, including Ermie Els, David Duval, Bernhard Langer, Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. The Mayo Clinic also discovered that some people have the yips due to a neurological condition known as “focal dystonia” that affects specific muscles.

The most common symptom associated with putting yips is an involuntary muscle jerk, although some people experience tremors and spasms. Anxiety worsens the effect.

Among the risk factors involved with yips are older age, more golfing experience and frequent playing in competition. Golfers experience the yips in different ways, with some having mainly wrist yips, others may notice both hands and wrists shake uncontrollably, and some just can’t take the putter back.

Many good golfers succumb to chipping yips, which is a real problem. Several years ago, famous golf teacher and coach, Hank Haney, admitted to suffering the yips with his driver.

There is no such thing as a fool-proof cure for the putting yips. Still, there are some strategies and techniques that have been successful in overcoming yips in many cases.

These include: visualization, as in seeing mentally the ball going into the hole; positive self-talk, which is essentially distracting yourself from worrying; changing pre-putt routine by either speeding up or slowing down; using the Navy Seals team form of deep “tactical breathing” to calm your nerves; changing putter configuration and length (e.g. going from blade to mallet). Consider going from a standard-length putter to a long wand “broomstick” style putter up to 48 inches long. Bernhard Langer went to a broomstick putter some 12 years ago and didn’t look back. He has since become the winningest player in PGA Champions Tour history.  

Practicing a resolute effort to erase nervous worrying during one’s putting routine will probably help a great deal. One of the reasons why aging pros get yippy is they have learned over the years how easy it is to miss putts. Feeling a self-induced amount of “pressure” is sure to increase the difficulty. The more self-conscious one becomes the worse it gets.

Finally, many tour pros have changed the way they grip their putter, away from the traditional grip, in order to keep their hands and wrists out of the stroke. With fast greens one needs to be very, very skilled to use their hands.  

These days you will see the claw grip, cross-handed grip, arm-lock grip and wrist-lock grip – all deactivate the right hand. Many use Super Stroke and Jumbo grips.