Fact or Fiction: Understanding the Yips
Dade Crossing, FL - An estimated 34% of golfers will experience the yips during their lifetime, while an additional 52% will develop symptoms immediately after reading about them. Despite decades of research, the condition remains difficult to explain and frequently misinterpreted.
The GSTPA understands. Our Fact or Fiction guide may not help, but it should at least clear up some of the confusion surrounding one of golf’s most bewildering afflictions.
FICTION: The yips are caused by anxiety.
FACT: The anxiety is caused by knowing you have the yips.
FICTION: The yips are mostly psychological.
FACT: This is comforting because psychological problems are notoriously easy to fix.
FICTION: Golfers with the yips should avoid thinking about the stroke.
FACT: Try not thinking about the stroke.
FICTION: Changing your putting grip can cure the yips.
FACT: It can also give you entirely new yips.
FICTION: The yips usually occur on short putts.
FACT: Longer putts provide sufficient time for additional problems to develop.
FICTION: Confidence is the key to overcoming the yips.
FACT: Confidence was last observed three putts ago.
FICTION: Buying a new putter will not cure the yips.
FACT: Then explain why golfers with the yips own eleven of them.
FICTION: Unsolicited advice can make the yips worse.
FACT: This has never prevented anyone from giving it.
If you have the yips, you are not alone. Millions of golfers have successfully learned to live with the condition by avoiding short putts whenever possible. Those unable to do so are encouraged to continue buying new putters.
- Some rounds are over before they begin.
Archaeologists Discover Ancient Golf Course
- Evidence suggests the game was a bad idea from the beginning.
Extraterrstrial Susceptibility
- New research identifies golfers at elevated risk of extraterrestrial contact.
From the Lab:
- Scientists have now identified small gravitational fields near water hazards.
These materials reflect field notes, behavioral observations, and informal conclusions derived from prolonged exposure to golfers and golf culture. Views expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the GSTPA, the GSTPA Tour, or Sham Golf Media LLC.
Grand Sham Tournament Players Association
Officially unrecognized since 1987.
The Grand Sham Tournament Players Association (GSTPA) is an unaccredited organization. Content published on this site is satirical and intended as commentary on golf, its structures, and the lived experience of those who continue to play it.
The GSTPA does not evaluate performance. It records outcomes.