"Does Tiger Have The Chipping Yips?"

That's the question Matthew Rudy explores with several top teachers in this week's Golf World.

Most questioned by Rudy see mere mechanical issues with the legendary scrambler's game.

Comments

[ol Harv]

Hank Haney had Rudy on his show today and it was interesting to listen to. Haney slammed many of the so-called experts who claimed it was merely a few adjustments, or a shaft lean, fix. He did indicate that even if Tiger has the yips he can overcome them. Tight lie from hardpan, over a bunker, with the yips...tough to overcome.

[Bif]

I think Tiger will overcome the chipping yips, do in part to rust. The driving yips are another question.

[Pat]

Yips schmips. The cool part of this issue is the pic and mention of our very own Brad Fritsch as item 6.

[KCW]

As someone who has had the yips, I think it is way too early to call it the yips. They come from years and years of bad technique and nerves. One tournament on chewy Bermuda grass where plenty of players were chunking it, I think it can be easily fixed and once he starts clipping them properly he won't think about it again. I believe he has the first tee yips though as pointed out by Haney in his book. First tee shot at Hero straight OB

[Solly]

Tiger = chips yips

[Chico]

Far too soon to say. There's a big difference between a bad week and the yips. If he starts doing it of decent lies then there is a problem.

[yipper in remission]

I agree it's too early to make such declarations BUT it seems to me he doesn't hole out as well as he used to which might subconsciously be putting extra pressure on his chipping.

[Convert]

No need to speculate, severity of chipping ills are revealed by how far off the green a player will use his putter.

[Brad Fritsch]

Pat - looks like I had a big breakfast that morning.

[John]

I'm glad Golf World is offering its content for free, but it's 2015, rendering a magazine online similar to dead tree print format is so, 1990s. Get with the times Golf World.

[elf]

Tiger has the most yips of any golfer ever! He has the driver yips, the chipping yips, the putting yips..I'm just waiting for the iron yips, the 3-woods yips to become involved. And yet heroically he has battled through those problems to win 8x in the last 3 years.

[Abu Dhabi Golfer]

@elf - you're forced to refer to 3 years because the last 18 months have been utterly abysmal.

Here's Tiger's problem going forward - he's knows everyone is whispering about the chipping & putting yips and it's encumbent upon him to prove everyone wrong. On top of everything else that he is trying to prove. Sucks to be him.

[Comedy Gold]

Is it possible, at least a little, that he was forced to use three years due to, you know, some injuries as well?

I played for a while, nothing spectacular, I teach, and have a few very good players I get to work with.

My answer to does he have the yips?
DOn't know. Will watch this year and see.

[elf]

@abu I used the last 3 years because people have been talking about him having the yips for at least that long. I mean after Pebble in 2012 the entire world had decided he had the driver and putter yips.

As Comedy has correctly pointed out due to injury it'd be really hard to use the last year, since due to injury & poor play, he managed to complete 4 rounds only 4 times. In the previous 18 months though he's won once, had two top two's, and an additionally top 5. Plus played rather ok in the Presidents Cup and an 11th in the play-offs.

[elf]

@abu note that I think Bridgestone from 2013 falls technically under the 18 month provision, but you're welcome to exclude it - my overall point remains. More though you seem to have missed the point of my post - which is that we seem to have an odd enthusiasm for ascribing to Tiger's poor shots the yips, rather than them just being poor shots, and a golfer who at 39 might not be as good as he was at 32.

[ol Harv]

elf, The people who said Tiger has or had the yips with the putter and driver really don't know what they're talking about. Hitting it crooked and missing a bunch of 5 footers is not the yips. BUT, as far as chipping or pitching, I would say what he displayed at his tournament looked an awful lot like what a yipped chip looks like. If he doesn't do it again, then he probably just had a rough week off some tight lies. But if we see more, you cannot deny it. To me the definition of a yip is a flinch. He hasn't flinched at the driver or putter. A yipped putt is when the blade goes back and then abruptly flinches forward causing the ball to either go five feet by the hole or stop way short. Ask Johnny Miller, he can describe the yips.

[johnnnycz]

I wouldn't call them full blown yips just yet....more like "cats in his brain" at this stage.

Without making a specific change...they will not go away on their own.

[TampaGolfer]

ADG,

I guarantee that almost everyone on this board and probably on the planet would love to be able to hit a golf ball like Tiger Woods, "yips" and all. I'll even include you in that company. I think people sometimes forget that, personal warts and all, he is still one of the 4 best golfers to EVER play this game (with Jones, Hogan and Nicklaus). And with $500+ million in the bank, a smoking hot GF, what appears to be a very loving relationship with his kids and an "I don't give a f*ck what anyone else thinks about me" attitude, it absolutely does NOT suck to be Tiger.

[Abu Dhabi Golfer]

@TampaGolfer - Tiger tries waaaaayyyy to hard contriving everything he does for effect - there is no way that he doesn't give a f*ck what anyone else thinks. He obsesses over what everyone thinks. It does suck to be like that.

And, IMO, his GF is a little too weather-beaten and suffers too much from downhill-racer-thunder-thighs to be considered "smoking hot" at this stage. But if she's ur thing, then so be it.

[TampaGolfer]

ADG,

With respect to LV, there is something to be said for being fit. :)

As for Tiger, I am pretty certain that he doesn't give a f*ck what YOU think.