Tiger has the yips?

[max power]

Putting also seems to get a little bit harder after you hit mid 30's, if the history of golf is any indication.  Not for everyone obviously, and not to the same degree, but maybe enough for Tiger to choose the wrong line on a putt or two here and there.

[WUTiger]

Could be the yips , also could be vision problems following Lasik surgery.

Sometimes the yips has a physical dimension to it - occasional slight hand tremors as a person gets older, especially if the player has had hand or arm injuries along the way. In the movie The Greatest Game Every Played , someone asks the Harry Vardon character why he's smoking a pipe during actual golf play. Vardon replies, "It calms me." (the nicotine). From what the Senior Tour players have said about yips, I think Tiger's a little young to worry about it.

Vision problems idea comes from one of the Masters announcers on Sunday. He said Tiger had recently had a second Lasik eye surgery, and might be having trouble getting used to the focal adjustments. I wear glasses, and in the weeks after I get a new optical prescription I often have to make putting adjustments. It usually has to do with me thinking I'm standing "over the ball" when I'm not. Just have to play through it.

Any opthalmologists or vision professionals out there who could comment on the Lasik remarks?

Or, maybe... Tiger is less than perfect sometimes?

.

[Clambake]

Watching Tiger in person and up close at the US Open last summer and at Torrey Pines at the start of this year, there was a little quirky hitch in his putting stroke several times.   On a few holes I was luckily positioned so I was right in line with his putts and standing in hollow so that my eye level was only slightly higher than the green.    With this "worm's eye view" his putter head didn't move on a real straight or arcing path, but had a little hiccup on the backswing where the club wasn't going back on a smooth path - it kind of jerked outside the line a bit.     Every time we saw it he missed the putt.     At Pebble a guy standing beside watching the same thing said "wow, looks like he's getting the yips".

[Kenny D]

This is what happens when you go from using a real putter to a nike

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by Kenny D

This is what happens when you go from using a real putter to a nike

Take that, kettle!  I kid, I kid!?!

[motteler621]

Tiger has been working so hard on his swing right now that they have put off putting and havent given it as much practice as it requires. Now that his swing is coming around him and Foley will be working on putting more. This is what Foley said

btw- I had a hard time watching Tiger putt those 5-6 footers this weekend when you really want him to make them

[Shorty]

Originally Posted by The Recreational Golfer

So I ask, does Tiger have the yips?

I'm guessing that you've never actually seen someone with the yips.

[golf4fun12]

with the long putts I felt that he was going for it and knocking in the birdies and eagle. but those little short ones, I felt like he was finessing the ball to the hole. so any little tiny bump would throw the ball off enough to miss. I am probably entirely wrong, but I just felt like he was putting like that with the short ones.

[misty_mountainhop]

If you'd seen, say, Bernhard Langer battling the yips in his career you wouldn't be asking if TW has the yips; he doesn't. His putting stroke looks pretty ugly at times now, but it's no yip.

[franky21]

I don't think it is the yips i think it is a lack of practice with the putter.Foley even said they have been focused alot on the swing which means less reps with the putter. I have to say his putting has really improved  from where it was at the start of the year. He did miss some short putts but i will say he is looking good to me. Compared to where he was when he started this whole changing his swing thing and release points on his putter and chipping. I was concerned but he is looking good i think now that he is swinging the club well he can focus more on his putting and it will come around.

[TourSpoon]

I think it has more to do with the level of difficulty of the greens than anything else. Tiger wasn't the only one missing those short ones. Those greens are brutal and are the fastest these guys will see all year. It's like putting on the garage floor. Any other course those putts are in.

[walk18]

with the long putts I felt that he was going for it and knocking in the birdies and eagle. but those little short ones, I felt like he was finessing the ball to the hole. so any little tiny bump would throw the ball off enough to miss. I am probably entirely wrong, but I just felt like he was putting like that with the short ones.

You have to putt like that at augusta or the ball goes 10 feet by the hole.

[daveny]

It's strange to watch him fail to convert the putts he never missed.

[golf4fun12]

Originally Posted by walk18

You have to putt like that at augusta or the ball goes 10 feet by the hole.

yeah, true. I just wish he would of made those putts is all.

[sbasson]

I have been playing professional tournaments for a living for the past 13 years and let me tell you what happens to the body during tournament play, which the average player never experiences and never even know is happening! When you put well and play good you are in control of most of your senses, this means you are able to see and feel certain feelings when you play. Now when you putt well you get to see a line on the green you like and your touch (feel sense) allows you to hit the putt on that desired line, and if the line was good, the putt goes in! In the case of Tiger he still sees that aggressive line and muscle memory refuse to allow him otherwise, but feel (maybe because of not playing for a while) can cause him to to miss the speed he needs to match the line he saw!

So to answer your Question, NO! its not yips, its confidence in what he sees! And as a player myself i can not stress enough that this is the difference between amateurs and pros. Pros know how to use the body to play golf, the WHOLE body and not just the heart!!!

[allin]

Originally Posted by max power

Putting also seems to get a little bit harder after you hit mid 30's, if the history of golf is any indication.  Not for everyone obviously, and not to the same degree, but maybe enough for Tiger to choose the wrong line on a putt or two here and there.

I really think, as an older golfer, that it is more about changes in vision and physical issues, such as bad backs, that limit practice time as age.  Jack Nicklaus once said after he first go contacts that now he could see he wasn't making anything.  If its harder to read the putts, you can't practice as much, and of course the memories of missed putts have multiplied, most people will have trouble retaining the same skill and confidence level.

[PinkMagic]

I actually liked how he played on Sunday.  It always gets interesting when Tiger is near the leader board.

Can't wait for the next major...

Meow

[franky21]

Originally Posted by daveny

It's strange to watch him fail to convert the putts he never missed.

Originally Posted by PinkMagic

I actually liked how he played on Sunday.  It always gets interesting when Tiger is near the leader board.

Can't wait for the next major...

Meow

I totally agree it does make everything a little more interesting knowing he is making a charge. I think it makes the others try harder knowing he is on there tails.