Y is for avoiding the Yips. Everyone gets them at one time or another when playing golf in Thailand. Whether on your first holiday round at an easy course like Lakewood Golf Club in Bangkok or one of the more challenging Pattaya golf courses, the yips can damage a golfer’s holiday confidence and ability to golf in Thailand to their potential.

It’s almost as painful watching a golfer with the yips, and then it is to actually having the Yips. Just yesterday at Thai Country Club I cringed every time one of my playing partners hit a short putt as I know he lacked confidence to make anything that day.

What are the Yips? In general, the Yips are a golfer’s disease whereby the wrists breakdown involuntarily when putting, especially on short putts. In Thailand, it is very bad as golfers seem to gets worse and worse the more fear they get while standing over a short putt.  When on golf holiday an intense anxiety sets in whenever golfers are faced with a new course, new greens, and probably have not played for a while. On a short putt, sometimes it is difficult for the golfer to even take the putter back straight.

The good news is that the Yips are curable and here are a few suggestions to fix the problem when on a Thailand golf vacation. The first thing to do is get rid of your fear and get away from the mechanics of the putt.  Just look at your putt and visualize the putt going in the hole. Try not to keep score for the first few rounds on your golf holiday, in other words come to Thailand to play golf for fun.

Second, try to line up your putt. I see many Thai golfers with the Yips and they also are misaligned when they putt. Of course if you are misaligned, then the only thing your brain can do so correct the problem is involuntarily twist your wrists during your putting stroke. Therefore, if you are going to look for anything wrong in your stroke, look at your alignment first.  When you’re over the ball, look at hole, look back the ball, and fire away. Get your thoughts onto seeing the ball go in the hole. What you can also try is going to a practice putting green and sinking a few practice putts. This gives you a huge boost in confidence knowing you can putt well and also relives tension out on the golf course.  Many players on their Thailand golf holiday have overcome the Yips and you can too!

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