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So, you’re just one short putt away from winning the game. As the onlookers watch, you feel beads of sweat forming just over your brow. Your eyes move back and forth between the hole and your club head, and you start to feel a little shaky as the pressure builds. The moment comes and you finally let her rip, only to feel a twitch in your wrist at the last moment. It pushes the ball of track, completely missing the hole and busting your chance at gold.
Ah yes, the yips can be a total play buster, and they say that once you have them, you never really lose them. But there are things you can do to minimize their effects. For instance, investing in the best putters for yips can significantly stabilize your hands and wrist, giving you a smoother, seamless swing. Interested in buying a game changing putter? Keep on reading to learn more about making the right choice.
The term “yips” pertains to unwanted, involuntary movements of the hands and wrist during the putt stroke. This putting affliction is typically associated with nervousness, causing the golfer to jerk or flick his wrist or hand unintentionally. This in turn affects the arc traveled by the putt stroke, resulting to an inaccurate shot.
More commonly, the yips occur with shorter puts because golfers have a shorter arc to work with and the club head travels a shorter distance between the backswing and impact. With that, the golfer won’t have enough legroom to calibrate their swing. Add a touch of nervousness, and the yips become almost inevitable.
Unfortunately, most golfers have found that once they have the yips, it’s almost impossible to get rid of them. The basic idea is that players typically flashback to the first time they experienced the jerky intruder every time they’re faced with a new putt, so they end up feeling nervous all over again.
Sure, curing the yips might not always be a feasible reality. So if you’re wondering how to overcome putting yips, a simple putter replacement might help you minimize their effects and thus establish a more efficient and accurate putting technique.
You best believe that manufacturers these days have managed to address any and every problem you might encounter throughout the course - and that includes the putting yips. If you’re not quite sure how to tell if a putter will work well to manage your yips, consider these tips to narrow down your options.
Yips on short puts are the most common because these types of shots don’t provide golfers a lot of room to move and calibrate their shot before impact. This is compared to a full-on backswing that golfers can use to perform slight changes to make sure their swing results to their ideal outcomes.
What manufacturers have done to address this common issue with short puts is relieve the player of that issue all together. And that’s when counterbalanced putters came into the picture. With heavier heads that are counterbalanced by weights built into the grip of the putter, these designs produce a much less effortful swing.
So essentially, all you need to do is set the putt in motion, and the weights work to produce a pure pendulum effect that works on the momentum you impart. Ultimately, this lets you become less involved in the swing cycle, leaving the weights to do the job.
Standard, slim, and comfort grips often encourage players to grasp their clubs more tightly, since there’s less ‘grip’ to hold on to. So in many cases, the best putting grips for yips are those that are larger in diameter, like jumbo or oversized grips.
Why?
Well, with more grip to grasp, your hands don’t have to clutch so tightly to maintain your hold on the grip. This then helps to keep a much less aggressively tense posture, which is known to exacerbate the yips. So instead, the larger handle lets you relax without losing stability, so you can execute a smoother, more effortless swing.
Longer clubs are typically designed for long distance shots, like the driver. But for players with the putting yips, a longer putter might be in order. There are a few different kinds of long putters, including the belly putter, long putter, and broomstick putter, and all are designed to help relax a player’s posture or augment the swing mechanism to minimize the effects of the yips.
For instance, the belly putter is designed with a shaft that’s just long enough to be pressed into the belly of the player during putting stance. The grip end that’s pushed into the belly works as a fulcrum and keeps the club in stable during the swing, absorbing movement and maintaining the hands in proper position throughout the putt. Keep in mind though that changes to golfing rules established in 2016 have since banned anchoring, so belly putters can now only be used for recreation.
Long putters or broomstick putters are designed with 48 to 52 inch long shafts, and were originally intended to be anchored against the chest or the chin. However, since the rules were changed, players with the yips who use the broomstick putter are encouraged to hold the club with only their hands, removing any fulcrum or anchor against any other body part in order to be considered legal.
With a counterbalanced design and an intuitive head design, the TaylorMade Golf White Smoke Putter IN-12 could just be the best putter for players with the yips. The club comes with a 130g weighted grip which works as an anchor all on its own, letting you achieve a smooth swing with near perfect accuracy and minimal effort. Aside from that, the wide face also provides a large sweet spot, resulting to fairly precise off-center hits.
Of course, there are a few other features that make the White Smoke Putter worth the purchase. With its durable build, Pure Roll Surlyn insert, and handsome looks, it definitely makes a great addition to anyone arsenal.
It isn’t the most affordable on our list, but with a putter, you get what you pay for, and the White Smoke IN-12 is definitely worth its weight in gold.
Now, if you’re pocket goes pretty deep, the Odyssey Works Sabertooth Tank Versa Putter makes a solid purchase. This high end putter features a seamless counterbalanced design, allowing you to produce the purest pendulum swing that’s clean, crisp, and smooth. The large head also provides a massive sweet spot, making sure that even if you get a little yippy, your shot won’t be a complete waste.
The Sabertooth Tank Versa is burly, durable, and efficient, creating an accurate shot even in unstable hands. It perfectly marries the counterbalancing tech with a textured face and an intuitive silhouette, making it a reliable putter in any and every situation. Sure, it comes at a pretty steep cost. But if we’re talking premium luxury reliability, this one is your guy.
For those who are a little more conscious of their budget, there’s the Taylormade Golf White Smoke Putter MC-72. Much like its IN-12 counterpart from the same brand, this putter boasts an efficient counterbalanced design that allows an effortless swing. The weighted grip adds substantial stability and eliminates unwanted movement, allowing a much smoother putt from backswing to impact.
The only thing keeping this putter from winning a higher spot on our list is the fact that it does feel pretty heavy. The larger mallet head combined with the weighted grip might feel a little too heavy for some players. Especially considering the fact that seniors and beginners are more commonly afflicted with yips on short putts, the heavy putter might be slightly more difficult to wield compared to the IN-12. Other than that though, all its other features are right on the money.
There’s nothing more satisfying than ending your run on a hole with a seamless, smooth, and sure shot putt. But when those nerves start to kick in, it might not be as easy as it seems! Now, just because the real cause of putting yips is nervousness, doesn’t mean you can’t turn to your putter to address the situation.
To help with this problem, make sure you invest in one of the best putters for yips that money can buy. In this case, we’ve found the Taylormade Golf White Smoke Putter IN-12 to be the most impressive design there is, boasting an intuitive counterbalanced structure that’s a perfect fit for players who just can’t seem to keep that intrusive fidget in control.
