Why is Tiger's Short Game so Bad? Does he Have the Yips?

[Rick Martin]

  Rick Martin said:

You can also go a few months without them - then they come out of nowhere. So time will tell.

kinda looked like he got them again today......

[saevel25]

  Rick Martin said:

kinda looked like he got them again today......

Nope.

Primarily because his technique was bad today. Look at that pitch shot. He basically hinged the club and took a very steep angle of attack, also bringing in the leading edge. This type of move requires a very very precise contact or you do what he did there, duff it short. He would be better served to brush the ground more and let the bounce help him.

The next shot after that one he just didn't give enough speed to the shot for that much loft applied.

The bunker shot earlier in the video looked to be one where he was trying to hit a very high soft shot and just caught to much of the shot. If he bladed that one with that much speed he used the ball would have been into the crowd.

Just some poorly executed shots.

[Mulligan Jeff]

Memorial Round 3 the moon phase was Waning Gibbous producing low biorythms. End result poor Grade D-

[mmoan2]

  saevel25 said:

Nope.

Primarily because his technique was bad today. Look at that pitch shot. He basically hinged the club and took a very steep angle of attack, also bringing in the leading edge. This type of move requires a very very precise contact or you do what he did there, duff it short. He would be better served to brush the ground more and let the bounce help him.

The next shot after that one he just didn't give enough speed to the shot for that much loft applied.

The bunker shot earlier in the video looked to be one where he was trying to hit a very high soft shot and just caught to much of the shot. If he bladed that one with that much speed he used the ball would have been into the crowd.

Just some poorly executed shots.

So true... Why would you need that shot in that situation? I guess he wanted to try and hit a perfect shot with lots of check that would give him a two-footer to salvage a decent score on the hole and it backfired. I don't know that it's poor technique - it's just a very risky shot that backfired monumentally.

[iacas]

  mmoan2 said:

So true... Why would you need that shot in that situation? I guess he wanted to try and hit a perfect shot with lots of check that would give him a two-footer to salvage a decent score on the hole and it backfired. I don't know that it's poor technique - it's just a very risky shot that backfired monumentally.

I'd tend to agree with that.

Every time Tiger flubs a short game shot, we can't immediately go back to "the yips returned!" Sometimes you get a shitty lie or take on too much and don't pull it off.

[mvmac]

  mmoan2 said:

I guess he wanted to try and hit a perfect shot with lots of check that would give him a two-footer to salvage a decent score on the hole and it backfired. I don't know that it's poor technique - it's just a very risky shot that backfired monumentally.

It was also at the end of a really crappy round and he just hit in the water. Bottom line is his short game technique is much improved and doesn't have or never had the yips.

[dchoye]

My opinion of the "yips" is that Tiger has/had it and it's struggle between techniques It looks like he wants to chip with a rolling vs a running method and he can't do both. Yips to me is simply a flubbed shot because the mind is confused with too many thoughts I don't think I seen anyone with a neurological condition that causes seizure like spasms It's all in the mind.

[Mr. Desmond]

I think Tiger's pattern over the years is that his work on the long game causes him to have problems with the short game until he is sufficiently happy with the long game and goes back to work on the short game.

But if you want to know more about the yips than I knew previously, try this (if not already posted):

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/05/26/the-yips

The yips are often conflated with choking, but research suggests neurological causes. CREDIT ILLUSTRATION BY LEO ESPINOSA

Six or seven years ago, I played a round of golf in a foursome that included Hank Haney, who at the time was Tiger Woods’s coach. Haney’s golf swing was exceedingly strange. On the first tee, after he lined up his shot, he drew his driver back high in the air while turning to look at the clubhead, took a baseball-like practice swing well above the ball—then, immediately, took the club all the way back again and swung. The last part looked pretty normal, but if I hadn’t known who Haney was I wouldn’t have guessed that his occupation was teaching golf..... AND then

Goes into the research of ...

[Big Lex]

That wasn't his only poor short game shot. He half bladed a very simple chip in the fourth round I think. I thought there was one more very poor short game shot. I think he is much more prone to shots like that than he was before, and more so than typical tour pros. Call it whatever you want...he is prone to uncommonly crappy execution in short game shots or he is yippy....In this case, the thing that seemed to bring it on was the humiliation he must have been feeling. M He ain't the same player anymore, not by a long shot. But it seems like everyone believes he just needs to buckle down in his practicing and he will be back to winning. He hasn't won a major in almost 8 full years.....most of his thirties. By tour standards, he has no idea where the ball is going. It isn't just the driver, although it's worse with the driver. Unless something is radically different , he is one of the most prolific practicers in the game. But it isn't working. He has lost it. I think it's unlikely he will get it back. What is interesting is wondering how long he will be able to tolerate playing tournaments as an also-ran.

[mmoan2]

  Big Lex said:

That wasn't his only poor short game shot. He half bladed a very simple chip in the fourth round I think. I thought there was one more very poor short game shot. I think he is much more prone to shots like that than he was before, and more so than typical tour pros. Call it whatever you want...he is prone to uncommonly crappy execution in short game shots or he is yippy....In this case, the thing that seemed to bring it on was the humiliation he must have been feeling. M

He ain't the same player anymore, not by a long shot. But it seems like everyone believes he just needs to buckle down in his practicing and he will be back to winning.

He hasn't won a major in almost 8 full years.....most of his thirties. By tour standards, he has no idea where the ball is going. It isn't just the driver, although it's worse with the driver. Unless something is radically different , he is one of the most prolific practicers in the game. But it isn't working. He has lost it. I think it's unlikely he will get it back. What is interesting is wondering how long he will be able to tolerate playing tournaments as an also-ran.

If it wasn't for 2013 and his injuries, I'd be with you. I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet. One bad break at the Masters in 2013 cost him 4 strokes and a possible win. If this is the same level of play we see for another year or two, I think it's the end of the era.

[Big Lex]

  mmoan2 said:

If it wasn't for 2013 and his injuries, I'd be with you. I'm not ready to throw the towel in yet. One bad break at the Masters in 2013 cost him 4 strokes and a possible win. If this is the same level of play we see for another year or two, I think it's the end of the era.

Yeah he had a good year in 2013.... I think his only chance of getting it back is to take time off and reboot. Clearly some of this is mental....I believe that being caught between two or more methods is partly a mental issue, too...a long absence from golf might clear cobwebs for him, etc. If I were advising him I'd suggest he take a minimum of six months off. No golf whatsoever. No practicing, no putting, no chipping, etc. Put the clubs away completely. Maybe a full year. Hang out with his kids, his mother, travel for leisure, etc. Then start over. Either alone or with one of his original teachers like Harmon. Preferably alone.