Todd Sones is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher and founder of Impact Golf, one of the nation’s leading golf schools. He is also the founder of Coutour Golf, which specializes in high-quality, custom-fit milled putters. Todd was kind enough to share the following drill exclusively with PutterZone.com readers, in which he reveals a “fundamental” secret about the yips—and some steps you can take to cure them:
“For the most part, the golf industry has tagged the yips as mental. I believe there are two types of yips: a fundamental yip as well as a mental yip. As a teacher I also believe in cause and effect. If you want to resolve a problem fix the cause, don’t waste time and effort trying to Band-Aid the effect.
A yip is the result of fear. Fear is the anticipation of an undesirable result. The fear that results in yips is fear of missing the putt. It’s embarrassing and no one wants to look like a fool by missing a putt they should have made.
The difference between a fundamental yip and a mental yip is that the fundamental yip is caused in your fundamentals while a mental yip is caused in your mind. If you’ve completed your back stroke and the putterhead is in the wrong place, meaning the path is off or the face is misaligned, your subconscious can be acutely aware that you have a problem and that you are most likely about to miss the putt. On the forward stroke you are forced to interrupt (yips) the natural path the putter is swinging on in an effort to get the ball moving toward the hole.
To fix a fundamental yip, check your set-up. Is your putter face aligned properly, are your shoulders square, is your grip correct? Does your putter fit? It is difficult to know if you are in the correct set up position because you can not see yourself. A good putting lesson from a qualified professional can make a huge difference in your score. The bottom line is don’t just assume that putting is between the ears, as it’s often between the face of the putter and the ball.”
P.S. Click here to read PutterZone.com’s earlier Insider Interview with Todd Sones.
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Todd Sones is a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher and founder of Impact Golf, one of the nation’s leading golf schools. He is also the founder of Coutour Golf, which specializes in high-quality, custom-fit milled putters. Todd was kind enough to share the following drill exclusively with PutterZone.com readers, in which he reveals a “fundamental” secret about the yips—and some steps you can take to cure them:
