How To Overcome The Dreadful Yips
- Updated: January 18, 2022
Twitter/@GolfWRX
I have played golf for almost 33 years out of my 36 years on this planet and I have been competing competitively since the age of twelve.
This is my honest story from last season, which is full of despair, depression, flat-out embarrassment, overcoming adversity, finding confidence, and overcoming a drinking problem because of the putting yips.
I hope my story can inform, help or just flat out make you laugh and relate. Enjoy!
Back in 2020, we all had hell to go through.
Whether we lost loved ones, we’re on lockdown, missing our family, or just flat out bored every citizen in the world went through this pandemic, and if you did lose loved ones my thoughts and prayers go out to you.
2021 came around and I was optimistic, signed up for my usual golf events, and was ready to go.
Little did I know that 2021 would be the most depressing and dreaded year of my life…
The year was 2020 and I was riding a hot streak.
June through the end of October I think I had shot over par one time and that was a blustery, rainy day on a very difficult golf course. Then again shooting +2 on a day like that was a great score.
I was even signed up for Korn Ferry qualifying for the 2021 season. I was finally improving and staying consistent.
I was on the golf course with my usual buddies late in October in 2020. My round was actually going rather well and I was playing pretty well. I had posted a 31 on the front nine and was hitting almost every shot as I imagined. I had pared 10, birdied 11, 12, and 13!
I was picturing a great celebration to ensue at the bar and grill after my round and I was very excited because my golf game couldn’t be better.
Number 14 on my home course is a very odd par 3…
It’s uphill about 220 yards with a very long narrow green. There is OB about fifteen yards left of the green and OB about 5 yards directly behind it…why people chose to live five yards off a green with sliding glass patio doors is beyond my comprehension but that’s a story for another day!
I noticed the flagstick was tucked way back to the right and it is a sucker hole location to go for, but I know better than that. I hit my iron shot directly into the middle of the green where I’m supposed to. I have always been an expert putter and the middle of the green didn’t bother me at all.
As expected, I nearly holed about a thirty-foot putt and left my golf ball above the hole about 1 foot away. The putt was going to move maybe an inch to the right which is not a big deal for me, in fact, my playing partners said it’s good.
So thinking nothing of it, I lined inside left of the hole, as I rocked my shoulders back, my stomach became sick because I felt my hands fully fight each other when I started my downstroke, my left hand felt like it was going forward and my right hand felt like it was moving backward!
I watched in absolute horror as my ball missed seven inches right of the hole!
My buddies thought I was messing around, but I knew what happened…
I had yipped my first putt in my entire life.
With this worry in the back of my mind the rest of that round, I had another bogey on the way in and the round ended flat and left me deflated.
The next few months I didn’t play due to work, weather and snow. I had chalked that yip up to having too many beers on the course, it was late in the season and I had forgotten all about it.
I was still very excited for the 2021 season. Once the weather got warmer and the snow was gone in Late February I was out playing and practicing a lot.
I picked up 2021 right where I left in 2020.
I was shooting way under par, and my game was very good. When my U.S. Open Local Qualifier hit in May, I was ready to go. I knew I would play well.
I was going through my round very nicely, I started my round on hole 10 and I was -1 when I reached my sixth hole (hole 15 at Common Ground Golf Course in Aurora, Co).
Side note: If you are not familiar with this hole I suggest you play Common Ground because it’s one of the best courses in Colorado! Check it out here!
This hole is massive! It’s was playing 517 yards that day as a par 4, yes I said par 4, which is uphill the entire way, a massive 13-foot lip bunker left of the fairway about 290 yards off the tee and a massive two shelf green with a five-foot raise to the second shelf.
My tee shot was perfect down the right center of the fairway and still had 224 yards left to the pin, which of course was up on the second tear on the right side of the green.
I was between a 4 and 5 iron and I knew long was dead, so I hit the 5 right towards the center of the green, I watched my Pro V1X travel almost to the top part of the green, I thought it was going to settle about five feet pin high, then that damn ball rolled backward, it just didn’t have enough energy to get up the shelf.
I accepted my fate of a long uphill lag putt.
Little did I know my entire season was about to change…
As I walked up to the green I fixed my ball mark and started to survey my putt. I have had this same putt before, I knew I had to hit it hard and start the putt about 7 feet left of the hole. I was confident in it.
After I had my line on the ball lined up, I stood over my putt, did everything I usually do… I inhaled on my back stroke-like always, and I started my downstroke, I felt my left hand moving forward as my right hand was moving backward again.
At that very moment, my mind freaked out:
“GO MORE LEFT…ADD MORE POWER…SHIT! WHAT IF YOU HIT IT TOO HARD YOU IDIOT?!?!?! DON’T PUTT IT OFF THE BACK OF THE GREEN!!!! EASE UP!!!”
I have never had so many thoughts and doubts go through my mind in less than a second!
Man alive, I hit the most pathetic putt you’ve ever seen. I wish I was joking.
Now I can look back and laugh about it thank goodness, but this ball left my putter face 10 feet right of my intended target line, went 1/3 of the way up the hill and took a vicious right turn, and literally broke another 14 feet or so to the right and finished a miraculous 40 feet away from the hole when my original putt was only 30 feet, to begin with.
If I was playing horseshoes, I used a bean bag and lost my grip on it as I was moving my arm backward and launched that sucker 20 feet behind me! That’s how bad that putt was!
Now facing total embarrassment, a fresh yip in my mind, I hurried to my ball all pissed off, guess what happened next on an even harder putt?
I yipped it so hard left and strong, it finished fifteen feet past the hole on the fringe! Yay, I was up this hill now, thank the Golfing Gods!
Somehow going back down the hill seemed easier in my mind, by a miracle I made the next one! Bogey three-putt or was it only two because my second putt and third putt were from the fringes, well I guess one putt?
Who knows but by that point the fear was in my mind. The rest of the round was a blur except for holing a fairway bunker shot for an unexpected eagle on number 3 from about 120 yards or so. Don’t tell anyone I bladed it.
I missed the hole on 5 from about six inches out, and somehow I carded a great 75!
After this round, I went directly to the bar, ordered two shots of jack fire, and followed it with a Fat Tire and maybe 3 more? Good thing I had a ride home that afternoon.
During the next few months…
I drank a lot, I was playing tee to green to shoot in the low sixties, hell maybe even a 59 in there, but my scores suffered. I didn’t break 70 hell not even 75 most days.
I had the yips…I was literally having 35-42 putts per round. Normally, I am somewhere in the mid to upper 20s.
To help this situation, even more, I was falling deep into depression and making that move from a social drinker to a full-blown alcoholic.
Each day I played, the plague was growing in my mind. I feared putting even from 6 inches. Golf was miserable and life was even worse.
I would sit with my friends and they would tell me to not change a thing, I was always a good putter and it would come back.
One of my buddies would sit on the practice green for hours just having me roll the ball end over end three feet in front of me. I could practice fine but when I hit the course in a round, the fear and doubt would cause the yips to come out.
Nothing was changing.
I went from thinking about making the tour to not even being able to compete in a five-dollar match against a 17 handicap!
Was it ever going to change and who would help me?
I have always been a conventional putter. For us right-handed players that means the left hand is on top, the right hand is on the bottom.
Earlier that year during the winter, I had finally decided to get my right shoulder worked on through physical therapy.
I was 35 at the time and I had been dealing with a sore shoulder since high school. My shoulder felt great and intact it still does to this day so this is a good thing, however, feeling my small muscles in my right shoulder and hand for the first time in years caused some activity that I wasn’t used to.
I also had to cut back on drinking because this was a bigger issue than the yips themselves. Did I go to AA or some group?
No, it has never worked for me or meshed well with my emotions. However, I had a long talk with myself about how I desired to putt well again, and in order to do that, I was going to have to change this drinking habit.
I also had to understand from a mechanical standpoint what was going on.
After filming myself on the golf course, I started to realize that I was struggling drastically with uphill putts that broke right more than any other putt. So I slowed down my film and compared it to old film when I was putting it well.
The lesson I’m trying to teach you as a reader is that you can’t be scared to film or snap photos of your swing, putting stroke or set up and it’s equally as important to do so when you’re playing well. This way you have a reference point on changes that have happened.
By comparing footage I realized my feet were closed and my shoulders were completely open. This is not good!
Try pitching a softball underhand but start with your feet start and stay pointed at third base! It doesn’t work, if you manage to throw a strike over the plate it was a flat-out miracle! Hell if you make it to the catcher with enough power you did well!
The next step was to clear my mind of all these rambling thoughts.
I had to reteach myself how to get back to my routine and think confidently.
This was the most difficult step. Even though my mechanics were sound again, my setup was perfect for me, these thoughts still wouldn’t leave my mind.
The yips we’re getting better but would still happen from time to time. What was I missing and what could I do to change it?
I was still highly frustrated because I was only half-fixed!
So I went to the best pressure putter I had ever known seeking advice.
His name is Greg Burghart and I have known him for years.
He watched me set up and noticed I was fidgeting more than usual. He asked me about it and explained my entire story when it came to my yips.
I told him about Common Ground, my fear, my doubt, and the alcoholism that developed because of it. I showed my videos of setup and how I was struggling with it. I explained about my shoulder injury and recovery.
He looked at me completely dumbfounded and he smiled.
“No biggie” he exclaimed, “it’s really not a big deal,” he said again.
Then he asked me the most important question and it will stay with me forever, “why not try dropping your left hand below the right one?”
I told him, “I have never thought of it and I guess I was scared to make a change like that.”
Then he asked an even more important question, “why?”
“If being conventional is not working then you should try something completely different,” he explained. “Also that alignment issue with your shoulder will take care of itself naturally by going cross-handed and you’re right hand will stop trying to take over,” he said.
Wow, my mind was blown.
As golfers sometimes we get stuck in habits or clichés that no longer work and we must be open-minded to change things.
So I tried it, I dropped my left hand below the right and hit a 10-foot putt uphill breaking right, the ball rolled end over end, hitting the left edge of the hole but didn’t drop. I couldn’t recall a putt all season that broke right that finished above the hole with ease.
So I hit another putt and wham right in the back of the hole. Hit another one and found the hole a second time in a row. I was so uneasy about my left-hand low and how I looked I forgot about the yips.
It was something new, different and I had a new feel. I’m not saying everyone should putt cross-handed, the point I’m trying to prove is, don’t be scared of change.
Sometimes more often than not, change is good and happens for a reason. This can be applied to life lessons, not just golf.
Today I’m a new player (putter). I have overcome the yips for now at least. My journey has taken me a long way and I have learned a lot.
I want to share my experience with you fellow golfers and hopefully help you out.
If you’re having the yips or struggling in an area of golf here is what I recommend:
1. What caused the problem in the first place?
Mine was a yip that happened in a casual round of golf that steamrolled into a major issue during a pressure round.
2. What other issues are standing in your way?
Mine was fear, depression, a healthy shoulder, and overdrinking. It’s ok to admit our own flaws. We all have them.
3. What mechanical issues are going on?
Mine was bad alignment in my feet and shoulders. Check yourself. What bad habits have you developed?
4. What can you change? And do not be scared of change.
I went left hand low and it changed my entire mindset. Be honest with yourself. What can you change?
5. Do not be afraid to be open and honest and seek help.
Hey guys and gals it’s now 2022. I’m not saying I’m going to make the tour this year but I’m saying this year will be better than the last.
I’m not yipping putts, I’ve cut back on drinking and made some major changes in my mind.
Let’s have a good 2022 golf season and make lots of birdies!
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