Short Putt Yip Fix

After suffering from the yips over the past few years, you learn to try different techniques and strategies in your on-going hope to find a cure. To-date, I still suffer from the yips on occasion but have found a few solutions that simply takes my brain out of the equation so that the stroke becomes …

After suffering from the yips over the past few years, you learn to try different techniques and strategies in your on-going hope to find a cure. To-date, I still suffer from the yips on occasion but have found a few solutions that simply takes my brain out of the equation so that the stroke becomes less about feel, and more mechanical. Aside from drinking a few brews on the course, this tip is one that I feel could help many golfers out there.  Here’s how it’s done:

For me personally, I was finding that my yip occurred on the follow-through of my stroke.  It would be a jerky transition from the backswing into the follow-through, with an abruptly finishing stroke right after impact. It was embarrassing to putt in front of my peers.. and even worse, I could often feel if my setup was going to trigger a ‘yip’ just by how it felt standing over the ball. This got me thinking.  All I needed to do was ‘take my head’ out of the equation on the follow-through, and I should be able to finish the stroke more consistently than before. I started to think about how to best do this.  Here’s what I tried.

Eyes Closed

This tactic is actually very effective for shorter putts, but unfortunately, without the visual cues, I often screwed up this tactic as well.  Learning to be comfortable and putting with your eyes closed is very difficult and often requires more brain power than just regular putting all together. So I tried this next, much more successful option.

Eyes Looking At The Hole

This strategy worked well – and Jordan Spieth would agree with us.  I was able to get the visual cues and felt comfortable over the ball open setup, and then rather than returning my eyes to the ball right before my stroke, I kept them trained on the hole. For short putts, this worked like a charm, for longer putts, I struggled a bit with my weight and feel – but at least my putts were on line. Over time though, I was able to become much more consistent with this technique and avoided yipping (for the most part) by removing my visual cues over the ball for the stroke (where my yip originated).

The next time you’re on the course or putting green, give these tips a try!