Roundup: Tiger's Lost Golf Game And The Yips

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There's nothing positive in Tiger's 2015 Waste Management Open appearance. His 73-82, last place showing was a disaster in every way. Any yips-sufferer can attest to the damage done by playing through rounds that only solidify, confirm and exacerbate the mysterious mental disorder which largely plagues golfers, but has been known to haunt second basemen too.

I'm certainly do not want to pile on Woods, as a I've experienced yip syndromes in far less public fashion in two areas of my game. However, seeing one of golf's top five all time scramblers lose his scramble ability takes this case of the yips to a level that is far different. Rarely if ever has golf seen a player's strength become his nemesis. For whatever reason--most likely the bizarro demons that come with multiple injuries--the short game yips have infiltrated even a player of Tiger's immense scrambling ability. The weird wedge shots first happened (noticeably) at Torrey Pines last year, but few thought of this as a case of the yips because the rye rough was silly and by Sunday when it was happening regularly during a 79, Woods was out of the tournament, presumably bored as much as anything. Or so we thought.

It's hard to see any upside in taking a yippy wedge game to Torrey Pines next week. You'll see in the roundup some suggestions that more "reps" is the answer, but we yippers know that experiencing even more more yip in front of peers or fans just makes things worse, not better. Tiger patted himself on the back for fighting through his 82 Friday and in a strange way anyone who has been inflicted knows what he means. But the big picture suggests entering high-profile tournaments while still haunted by injury-induced flinchy thoughts will not serve Tiger Woods well.

So here goes...starting with Doug Ferguson's tough assessment in his AP story:

Tiger Woods never had shot a score this high in his 1,267 official rounds as a pro.

He had never looked more lost on a golf course.

From Steve DiMeglio's USA Today story:

Watching the winner of 79 PGA Tour titles and 14 majors hit shots from around the greens these days is as inconceivable as Secretariat losing by 50 lengths, Michael Jordan tossing up bricks for 30 consecutive games and Rafael Nadal losing 6-0, 6-0, 6-0.

But it's happening.

John Strege of GolfDigest.com on the lowpoint of Friday's Waste Management 82 and Tiger's explanation, which speaks to a level of denial that many yip-sufferers can attest to.

The worst of his short-game mishaps came on the par-3 fifth hole, where Woods bladed a chip over the green and into a bunker.

“Well, it’s the pattern,” he said, citing the swing changes he has made with instructor Chris Como as the cause of his short-game woes. “My attack angle was much deeper with Sean [Foley, his previous instructor]. Now I’m very shallow. So that in turn affects the chipping. I’m not bottoming out in the same spot. It’s a different spot.”

He did allow that it’s a mental problem as well, “because the physical pattern is different. So the trust is not quite there. I’m not bottoming out in the same spot. Yeah, to an extent, it is [mental], but I need to physically get the club in a better spot.”

Gary Van Sickle at golf.com took the humor route in his lede before getting to the seriousness of the disease at hand. His "Things You Say After Watching Tiger Woods Struggle (and Fail) to Break 80 While He Shoots His Worst Pro Round Ever on a Rainy Friday Morning at the Waste Management Phoenix Open" list:

Well, there goes the Vardon Trophy…

Aww, the Presidents Cup team can win without Tiger, anyway…

Yippy ki-yay…

Operator, get me the number for 9-1-1...

Tiger may be related to Aaron Baddeley’s brother, Chip Baddeley…

Do these new wedges make me look chunky?...

How many more reps can you have in just one round?...

Pardon the jokes, this is actually no laughing matter. Tiger Woods, as stated previously, appears to have caught the chipping yips.

Karen Crouse, writing for the New York Times, says galleries could feel the anguish.

As his round unraveled, the greeting he received at each tee box grew louder and more prolonged. Fans repeatedly shouted, “Keep your head up, Tiger!” and “Keep fighting, Tiger!” By the final holes, Woods was getting a reception fit for the Olympic bobsledders from Jamaica or the female sprinters from Iraq.

Gone is the golfer whose mere presence on the leaderboard Sunday seemed to send other contenders into a free fall. In his place is someone who looked frightfully familiar to the 20-handicappers in the stands. As one weekend duffer in Woods’s gallery mournfully noted, “Watching him makes me feel more normal.”

Jason Sobel looked at the oddity of both Woods and Phil Mickelson missing the cut and the hope for better things to come next week at Torrey Pines.

The two players, who have combined for 121 wins and 19 majors, had only previously missed the cut at the same event in their 198th start together -- the 2012 Greenbrier Classic.

After his second round, Mickelson pointed toward next week’s Farmers Insurance Open as reason for optimism for each of them.

“Next week is a course that we have both played well in the past, and hopefully we will be able to get it turned around for next week,” he said. “I was very optimistic heading into this week. I'm a little more surprised that I had such a struggle today, because I felt after yesterday's round I was going to really come out today and do something special. So this is disappointing, but I'll take this time on the weekend and see if I can get my game ready for next week.”

Bob Harig of ESPN.com was one of several who noted Woods' upbeat demeanor and joke dropping post-round as a positive sign, though the Tiger who won 14 majors would have been so angry that he'd have blown right by the media scrum.

Harig noted this about the golf:

He hit just eight greens for the round and got up and down for par just 2 of 10 times.

"I was caught right between patterns, just old pattern, new pattern," Woods said referring to swing changes he has been making with consultant Chris Como. "And I got it better, more committed to what I was doing on my back 9 and hit some better shots, but still got a lot of work to do.'

Woods admitted to some mental hurdles to overcome in the chipping game, and most observers would admit something is wrong.

Tod Leonard in the San Diego Union Tribune says everyone could understand Tiger WD's from the Farmers Insurance Open, but thinks reps will do the trick.

There isn’t a shot he looks comfortable making right now.

Who could blame Woods if he said he wanted to work out his foibles in private?

Yet Woods is in the toughest of spots, too. What’s wrong isn’t going to just be fixed on the range. In fact, that might be the last place Woods needs to be. And no matter how painful and ego bruising, massaging the kinks in the public eye might be the only way for him to get some mojo back.

It wasn't all bad news for Tiger. The explosiveness has come back! Sean Martin tweeted the shocking number that Woods led the field in driving distance.

The full Woods transcript.

GolfNewsNewt with the opening joke from Tiger, in reference to Marshawn Lynch, Rory McIlroy's media relations hero.

Regarding the yips, Coleman McDowell reports that golf.com surveyed their Top 100 teachers and a huge majority diagnosed the problem as the yips or "maybe" the yips.

As for upcoming reps, Tiger's chances of making the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral appear bleak. Will Gray explains:

Woods entered this week at No. 47 in the world, but after rounds of 73-82 he is projected to fall outside the top 50 next week for the first time since November 2011.

Adam Sarson tweeted this compilation of Tiger's lowlights:



The PGA Tour posted this short highlight package on YouTube.

Tiger's press conference, courtesy of GolfChannel.com:



And in the fun-awkward department, Golf Central's pre-game show recapped Tiger's early morning round, with Brandel Chamblee taking issue with Tiger's choice in consultants. Awkward since Notah Begay, who has been helping his fellow Stanford alum and introduced Woods to instructor Chris Como, was sitting to Chamblee's left.

Most fascinating was Begay's comeback that Chamblee is confusing Tiger's swing with his chipping yips. While that is Tiger's view, we all know that Begay has it right: these are two different issues and right now, the short game issues threaten to completely dismantle Woods's confidence. If it hasn't already.