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Putting Tip: Recognize That Every Putt Is Just A Straight Line

Let’s cure your golf yips, shall we?

Part 2 of Tips for Your Yips… :-)

End Your Putting Yips By Controlling Your Eyes 

Looking up or peeking to see if the ball goes into the hole is a sure way to miss a putt. Resist the temptation to watch the ball. Keep your head still over the ball and stare down at the empty spot the ball he used to occupy long before you hit the putt.

Listen to hear if the putt falls. You may also catch yourself, one afflicted with the yips, watching your putterhead go back away from the ball and come back through contact. Don’t allow your eyes to follow the putterhead during the stroke. To help focus on the ball, pick a small, noticeable mark on the ball to look at. Keep your eyes fixed on the brand name, printed logo, a simple dimple, or an identification mark throughout your stroke.

Maybe the best way to steady your eyes and to play in the subconscious is to stand over the putt, put your putterhead on the ball, stare at a spot on the ball, and then stand perfectly still for five seconds. During these five seconds of still and calm, let the gaze of your eyes go out of focus. Your eyes still focus on the spot of the ball you were staring at, but everything else becomes fuzzy and soft. Go ahead and stroke the putt with your eyes and mind this blurry, meditative state. You may be surprised by the results!

YIKES!!!…you’ve got the YIPS!!

Not a good thing to have in golf. So let’s see if we can cure your yips…

Part 1

End Your Putting Yips By Clearing Your Head 

Because the major contributors to the yips are tension, anxiety, and ack of confidence, one way to help rid yourself of the yips is to empty your mind. Play in the subconscious - forget about the stroke, forget about the results, and forget about the circumstances. Just play, in the literal sense of the word.

If you step inside your local pub to play darts or shoot some pool, you probably do not get all bogged down in your technique when you toss the darts or set up for your corner shot. You may want to win the pool game, but you probably do not hang the balance of the world on your shot on the 8-ball, right? You just play casually, sipping a beer, and enjoying yourself, even when you miss.

 Try to put yourself into the same mindset when you putt. Just play and let it happen. Let your athletic instincts take over. Trust the practice and effort you have put toward your game thus far. Just step up to your position and make the shot, putting in the subconscious

The belly putter is golf’s latest and greatest idea – a compromise between the advantage of the long putter and the practicality of the traditional putter. The belly putter is longer than the traditional putter and shorter than the long putter.

You grip the belly putter just as you may imagine by the image that the name conjures up, by anchoring the top, butt end of the club, literally, into your belly. By anchoring the putter in your belly, the motion of the stroke becomes simpler and more reliable, just like a pendulum effect, just as with the long putter.

Vijay Singh, the professional golfer who unseated Tiger Woods as the world’s top-ranked player in 2004, popularized the belly putter more than any other player. Ironically, when Singh took the top ranking from Tiger Woods, he’d recently switched back from a long spell with the belly putter to a traditional putter.

Your putting yips may be easier to fix than you think. Take a look at these 3 common culprits and ask yourself whether or not they are getting in your way of a successful putt:

Over-analysis: You may get so caught up in the mechanics of your stroke that you paralyze your natural movement. You become so self-conscious of your body position, putting stroke, and movements, they can barely take the putter back in any simple, straight fashion, along the target line. You may find yourself watching the putterhead go back and come through the ball or looking up to see how the ball rolls.

Steering: Instead of letting the putterhead freely swing through the ball and propel it toward the hole, you may find yourself trying to steer the ball into the hole. Steering is typically a tension filled attempt to guide the ball into the hole due to a lack of confidence in the putting stroke. Tension can cause you to push the putterhead toward the hole and mistakenly get your wrists or legs into the act.

Insecurity: Getting nervous and insecure over a putt, especially a short one, is a sure way to miss it. Without confidence, you allow all manner of negative thoughts to enter your head and your play. What can you do to make the putt? Will it go in? Can you lose the hole or the match by missing it? Will you feel embarrassed in front of the other players by missing it?