I have been working on this new stroke for a while now and can putt real well when practicing, but the second I get on the course, YIP. A jerk left at impact. I jsut can't seem to let it happen. Something wants to take over when it counts. argg.

Dear Shuey,

Your asking for help on the yips is likely to get lots of different responses!

One thing that should help is paying more attention to just rolling the ball straight than to sinking a putt. You can roll a ball straight wherever the putter face is aimed, and there's nothing to it. But once you factor in the result of whether the putt will sink or not, you engage those fragile parts of the brain that skip and yip the stroke.

The way I deal with this is to first AIM the putter face, and then FORGET the target. After my head turn, I'm loaded to the gills with distance information, so all that is left for me to do is "make a beuatiful stroke" and just roll the ball wherever the putter face is aimed. My whole focus is on a solid, straight roll with a nice unhurried tempo.

Then, if the putt misses, it's not the stroke's fault!

Cheers!

Geoff Mangum
Putting Coach and Theorist
PuttingZone
http://puttingzone.com
Golf's most advanced putting instruction -- you're either in the PuttingZone, or not.

thanks for the quick response. I'll try that. I am very impressed with the way the stroke is when I do it without yipping. I finally know what it feels like to release the putter head. I'm so use to a hit than a swing of the putter head and boy is there a difference in the roll.

Geoff, this seems to go against the mind gurus cure of focusing on the target only.

I am going to try your method as the concentrate on target method dosen't work any longer....it seems to add to the pressure.