About 12 years ago at the age of 55, I developed a bad case of the putting yips. I can still remember the first one. I was left with a 4 foot putt the win the match at the 17th hole in in a foursomes knockout competition, so under a bit of pressure. The putter just seemed to go off in my hands, and I hit the putt about a foot left of the hole and 6 feet past, which didn't exactly please my partner, particularly when he missed the one coming back so that we lost the hole. We also lost the 18th and then the 1st extra hole to lose the match. I was mortified.
Over the next 3 months my putting got worse and worse until I could miss 6" tap ins. Generally I pulled my putts left and long, but occasionally blocked one out to the right. I took putting lessons and bought a putting track, but these didn't help much at all, especially under pressure out on the course. A friend who had already been afflicted lent me his broom handle putter to try out, but I found this clumsy and difficult to use in windy conditions. Then tried putting left hand below right, but although my putts now went straight, I couldn't get any real feel for distance. My handicap which had been 13 started to creep up and up due to my inability to putt. I seriously considered giving up golf altogether as it seems rather pointless to continue, because I had no chance of putting in even respectable scores. I had the odd good day when I made buffer, but that was about it. Another player at the same club got the yips so badly that he changed over to putting left handed, despite being an otherwise right-handed person and golfer.
Then I heard about Chris di Marco and his claw grip and gave a try. Wow what a difference it made. Gone was my rather awkward stabby putting stroke, replaced by a smooth controlled stroke. I have since got my handicap down to 10.2, although it has recently crept back up to 10.6 due to other failings in my game.
What caused the yips? Possibly a combination of years of trying to get the ball into a relatively small hole in the ground under pressure, plus using a putter that was too long for me. For my height I have rather short legs and long arms, so my floor to wrist measurement is only 33". Yet I had been using a straight off the shelf 36" long Ping Anser putter for many years. I now cut my putters down to 33" and have been relatively more successful at putting than I ever had been before, averaging just over 30 putts per round.
Over the next 3 months my putting got worse and worse until I could miss 6" tap ins. Generally I pulled my putts left and long, but occasionally blocked one out to the right. I took putting lessons and bought a putting track, but these didn't help much at all, especially under pressure out on the course. A friend who had already been afflicted lent me his broom handle putter to try out, but I found this clumsy and difficult to use in windy conditions. Then tried putting left hand below right, but although my putts now went straight, I couldn't get any real feel for distance. My handicap which had been 13 started to creep up and up due to my inability to putt. I seriously considered giving up golf altogether as it seems rather pointless to continue, because I had no chance of putting in even respectable scores. I had the odd good day when I made buffer, but that was about it. Another player at the same club got the yips so badly that he changed over to putting left handed, despite being an otherwise right-handed person and golfer.
Then I heard about Chris di Marco and his claw grip and gave a try. Wow what a difference it made. Gone was my rather awkward stabby putting stroke, replaced by a smooth controlled stroke. I have since got my handicap down to 10.2, although it has recently crept back up to 10.6 due to other failings in my game.
What caused the yips? Possibly a combination of years of trying to get the ball into a relatively small hole in the ground under pressure, plus using a putter that was too long for me. For my height I have rather short legs and long arms, so my floor to wrist measurement is only 33". Yet I had been using a straight off the shelf 36" long Ping Anser putter for many years. I now cut my putters down to 33" and have been relatively more successful at putting than I ever had been before, averaging just over 30 putts per round.
