The Yips

Nearly two thirds of all golfers acknowledge some issues putting or chipping a golf ball. To golfers, these “yips” are like a chronic condition and many golfers say they go to great lengths to fix it. 12% take medication before rounds to calm nerves, 23% use 5 or 6 irons instead of putters, and a whopping 82% go to the internet to watch TikToks and you tubes for novel therapy. Several said they even blindfold themselves on the green while putting.

It’s both funny and said and while I suppose not all that important in the larger scheme of things, a round of golf is an important social and physical fitness outlet for many people young and old, so if there’s fear and anxiety and constant failure over a 5-foot a 7 year old can make, then maybe it’s more important than we think.

My 22 year bout of the yips is quite common - 64% of golfers say they have had this choking feeling putting a golf ball at some point in their life. The cause is usually attributed to a combination age and experience. But my case has apparently stumped the medical community. I had 9 differnet clinicians and sports psychologists try to diagnose and fix my ailment. Some said it had to be tied to the birth of my first born Jack, others said it’s PTSD from missing a 4 footer in the 3rd place sudden death match in the Long Beach Island mini golf tournament when I was 17 (I should never have had to be in that playoff!”) but a growing minority said it’s an involuntary muscle spasm caused by focal dystonia, a neurological condition, which my team of doctors say is probably genetic. So I blame my dad. In all seriousness, this choking feeling when putting a golf ball is a version of anxiety but it oddly doesn’t happen when putting downhill. “Then you need to visualize every putt as being downhill,” said sport