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Does Jordan Spieth have the yips?


Kenny B

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11 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

Nope.  The average length of a marriage in the US is 7 years.  

+3 years to finalize the divorce... 10 years

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2 hours ago, Kwoodfield said:

I think we expect too much from guys like that each year. He’s been hot and cold, not the only player to do it. But putting has definitely hurt him of late.
 

I know players go hot and cold, but except for a couple of tournaments last year, he has been cold for more than a year.  It was supposedly "an alignment issue".  There's more going on; maybe physical, maybe mental... probably both now.  I'm not sure how he gets back, except by winning a tournament.

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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1 hour ago, Charli said:

But to answer the original post... this is no longer the yips. Yips don’t last this long. 

I posed the question last year because Spieth was struggling. He's still struggling. I don't know if Spieth has the yips, but yips have ruined careers.  Hogan had them.  Yips are why Johnny Miller gave up the game.  Tom Watson was a terrible putter from short range for years.  He has said that the yips probably cost him at least one tournament a year for 10 years.

When Spieth came out on tour, he was a reasonable short-range putter; not great, but adequate.  Something changed in late 2017-early 2018.  Whatever it was, it has caused him to lose confidence.  He's missing four-footers, and he's not lipping them out; the ball doesn't hit the hole.  He can't win a tournament only making 3 of 4 four-footers.

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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9 hours ago, Kenny B said:

I posed the question last year because Spieth was struggling. He's still struggling. I don't know if Spieth has the yips, but yips have ruined careers.  Hogan had them.  Yips are why Johnny Miller gave up the game.  Tom Watson was a terrible putter from short range for years.  He has said that the yips probably cost him at least one tournament a year for 10 years.

When Spieth came out on tour, he was a reasonable short-range putter; not great, but adequate.  Something changed in late 2017-early 2018.  Whatever it was, it has caused him to lose confidence.  He's missing four-footers, and he's not lipping them out; the ball doesn't hit the hole.  He can't win a tournament only making 3 of 4 four-footers.

It’s not the yips and it wasnt the yips. His problem is mental from tee to green. It started with not making putts and now he struggles with the driver and irons.

if he could get out of his head and play care free he will be fine. Just look at his last 8 holes last week where he made par on every hole after a disastrous start to the round 

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11 hours ago, Kenny B said:

Something changed in late 2017-early 2018

Cupid's arrow took him from the penthouse to the outhouse.  This sudden change aligned with his engagement and his game not been right since.

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3 hours ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

It’s not the yips and it wasnt the yips. His problem is mental from tee to green. It started with not making putts and now he struggles with the driver and irons.

if he could get out of his head and play care free he will be fine. Just look at his last 8 holes last week where he made par on every hole after a disastrous start to the round 

Yes, it started with not making putts, but why did he start missing putts in the first place?  That was not mental. I agree it became mental when he struggled with the rest of his game, but something started the decline in putting.  What causes a decline in 4 foot putting percentage from 95% to 80%?  It's a poor read, poor alignment, poor speed, or poor stroke.  

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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1 hour ago, Kenny B said:

Yes, it started with not making putts, but why did he start missing putts in the first place?  That was not mental. I agree it became mental when he struggled with the rest of his game, but something started the decline in putting.  What causes a decline in 4 foot putting percentage from 95% to 80%?  It's a poor read, poor alignment, poor speed, or poor stroke.  

He said he had an alignment issue related to his dominant eye and being right handed putter. He just hasn’t got that right and he wasn’t making the long putts as often and that put pressure on his short putts. He talked about this a few times last year

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16 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

He said he had an alignment issue related to his dominant eye and being right handed putter. He just hasn’t got that right and he wasn’t making the long putts as often and that put pressure on his short putts. He talked about this a few times last year

He said that a year ago.  it takes a year to fix an alignment issue?  Maybe he should look at videos from 2015 when he didn't have an alignment issue to see what's different.

It's not about making the long putts.  He's top 10 in making long putts.  It's how far away from the hole he is when he misses.  If he misses by 4-5 feet, he has a good chance of 3 putting.  Might be alignment, but it could also be a speed issue.  However, even if he sticks an approach shot to 4-5 feet, he has a good chance of missing it.  

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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31 minutes ago, Kenny B said:

He said that a year ago.  it takes a year to fix an alignment issue?  Maybe he should look at videos from 2015 when he didn't have an alignment issue to see what's different.

It's not about making the long putts.  He's top 10 in making long putts.  It's how far away from the hole he is when he misses.  If he misses by 4-5 feet, he has a good chance of 3 putting.  Might be alignment, but it could also be a speed issue.  However, even if he sticks an approach shot to 4-5 feet, he has a good chance of missing it.  

Yes it takes that long sometimes. If he can’t get comfortable it’s hard especially when you play 25 pga events, preparing for a wedding and life.

hes gone through equipment changes and back to old stuff. Like I said in artist post the pressure of missing putts especially ones you are used to making puts pressure in the rest of the game and when one gets in their own head it’s hard to get out of it.

hes had good rounds but when things start going bad or he starts thinking too much because of where he is on the leaderboard he gets off track. 

Edit: theres been several analysts/experts who have said he doesn’t have the yips 

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I did a little more looking at the stats over the last few years to try to get a better sense of what is going on with him (in the table below, the number in parentheses is ranking). We know he has never been a great driver of the ball, but, up until this year, I would call him perfectly adequate in terms of strokes gained (top 25%). But, his strokes gained off the tee have been in a pretty steady decline since 2015 and so far this year has fallen off a cliff. At the same time, his approaches are further from the hole. I don't think that is huge surprise since it is hard to get it close to the hole when you are playing from less-than-optimal lies 50% of the time. Whatever is going on with his putting appears to be at least partially related to poor driving and the resulting more difficult approach shots. If you then add in alignment issues or whatever else was/is going on on the green, and you have the types of scores we are seeing from him.

Spieth.jpg.5444115ac40be775091ed5c0aa62a214.jpg

I'm not the biggest Spieth fan, but I hope he gets things sorted out soon because I think having him back in the hunt most weekends can only help the game. 

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Well, he's missing cuts and while he might have one nice round, it's usually early in the tournament and his weekend rounds are abysmal.  

Which analysts/experts say he doesn't have the yips?  I haven't heard that.  However, Hank Haney and an unidentified player has said that he does have the yips.

http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/25714462/jordan-spieth-yips-comes-next-starts-new-pga-tour-season

 I don't know that I agree with Haney, but something isn't right.

Here's an article that talks about a possible reason.  Sorta makes sense.

https://www.golf.com/instruction/2019/01/11/jordan-spieth-short-putts-stats-yips-video

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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1 hour ago, Kenny B said:

Well, he's missing cuts and while he might have one nice round, it's usually early in the tournament and his weekend rounds are abysmal.  

Which analysts/experts say he doesn't have the yips?  I haven't heard that.  However, Hank Haney and an unidentified player has said that he does have the yips.

http://www.espn.com/golf/story/_/id/25714462/jordan-spieth-yips-comes-next-starts-new-pga-tour-season

 I don't know that I agree with Haney, but something isn't right.

Here's an article that talks about a possible reason.  Sorta makes sense.

https://www.golf.com/instruction/2019/01/11/jordan-spieth-short-putts-stats-yips-video

Golf channel ha talked about the performance over the last couple years and I dont recall who said it but only Haney iirc has said he has them.

as for missing cuts he has only missed 2 of 7 this year and only missed 5 of 23 last year so saying he is missing cuts would be a bit misleading as that’s far and few between

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1 hour ago, MaxEntropy said:

I did a little more looking at the stats over the last few years to try to get a better sense of what is going on with him (in the table below, the number in parentheses is ranking). We know he has never been a great driver of the ball, but, up until this year, I would call him perfectly adequate in terms of strokes gained (top 25%). But, his strokes gained off the tee have been in a pretty steady decline since 2015 and so far this year has fallen off a cliff. At the same time, his approaches are further from the hole. I don't think that is huge surprise since it is hard to get it close to the hole when you are playing from less-than-optimal lies 50% of the time. Whatever is going on with his putting appears to be at least partially related to poor driving and the resulting more difficult approach shots. If you then add in alignment issues or whatever else was/is going on on the green, and you have the types of scores we are seeing from him.

Spieth.jpg.5444115ac40be775091ed5c0aa62a214.jpg

I'm not the biggest Spieth fan, but I hope he gets things sorted out soon because I think having him back in the hunt most weekends can only help the game. 

Perhaps 2015 was the anomaly and we are seeing him move more towards his true average over the last few years.  He may have hit his ceiling for his play and has not been able to move his floor up like other players have.  Maintaining high level performance is a difficult thing.

Something else to consider is how well the rest of the field is playing and improving around him. The tour is full of talented players and at almost every tournament, if you are teeing it up, you have a chance to win the weekend.

I enjoy seeing him at the top of leader boards and hope that he starts working these stats in the other direction soon.

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4 hours ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

He said he had an alignment issue related to his dominant eye and being right handed putter. He just hasn’t got that right and he wasn’t making the long putts as often and that put pressure on his short putts. He talked about this a few times last year

This argument is the definition of denial. He didn't just wake up and have a dominant eye problem. He won many tournaments with the same eye. It's mental. I hope he gets it fixed soon, but I am not optimistic as there is so much talent on tour and sports in general it is the mental game that separates the have's and have not's. He is not the first multiple winner to have this issue, but he may be the youngest. 

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28 minutes ago, palvord said:

Perhaps 2015 was the anomaly and we are seeing him move more towards his true average over the last few years.  He may have hit his ceiling for his play and has not been able to move his floor up like other players have.  Maintaining high level performance is a difficult thing.

Something else to consider is how well the rest of the field is playing and improving around him. The tour is full of talented players and at almost every tournament, if you are teeing it up, you have a chance to win the weekend.

I enjoy seeing him at the top of leader boards and hope that he starts working these stats in the other direction soon.

Good point. I had pulled some data earlier in the thread that showed he stayed fairly stagnant with his strokes gained putting, but people around him improved. I don't recall the exact details at the moment, though. 

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55 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

Golf channel ha talked about the performance over the last couple years and I dont recall who said it but only Haney iirc has said he has them.

as for missing cuts he has only missed 2 of 7 this year and only missed 5 of 23 last year so saying he is missing cuts would be a bit misleading as that’s far and few between

I'm looking at his stats over the course of a year.  He has missed an average of 4 cuts per 24 events.  He has already missed 2 cuts in 7 events, although I wouldn't count last week's WGC because there was no cut.  There is a good chance he might not have made the cut if it were a full field event.  Even so, that's missing the cut at about a 30% clip vs his historic 16%.  He's going to have to play extremely well the rest of the year to get to his average.  He only missed 2 cuts in 2016.

Does it look like he is going to turn it around?  Let's see...

When he has made the cut, he's finished 55th, 35th, 45th, 51st, and 54th.

He's had opening rounds of 66, 65, 66, 64, and 75.

He's had the following weekend rounds:
71-72... 72-72... 74-75... 70-81... 75-69

 

 

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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28 minutes ago, THEZIPR23 said:

This argument is the definition of denial. He didn't just wake up and have a dominant eye problem. He won many tournaments with the same eye. It's mental. I hope he gets it fixed soon, but I am not optimistic as there is so much talent on tour and sports in general it is the mental game that separates the have's and have not's. He is not the first multiple winner to have this issue, but he may be the youngest. 

You are right he didn’t just wake up with that problem but even at an amateur level we  can things go awry one day out of nowhere and then struggle to get it back. He got a little wonky and had to spend time trying to fix it while playing competitevly and work with his instructor on the issue. Then other issues start creeping in.

after one of his rounds he said something clicked and he started making putts. It’s definitehy a mental thing an hes one who is hard on himself. He needs to find a way to backof his internal pressure 

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9 minutes ago, RickyBobby_PR said:

You are right he didn’t just wake up with that problem but even at an amateur level we  can things go awry one day out of nowhere and then struggle to get it back. He got a little wonky and had to spend time trying to fix it while playing competitevly and work with his instructor on the issue. Then other issues start creeping in.

after one of his rounds he said something clicked and he started making putts. It’s definitehy a mental thing an hes one who is hard on himself. He needs to find a way to backof his internal pressure 

Yes, other issues crept in.  Spieth went looking for more distance off the tee, trying to chase JT, Rory, et.al..  He's gained 5-7 yards off the tee the last couple of years but at what expense?  

We don’t stop playing the game because we get old; we get old because we stop playing the game.”

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