Jordan Spieth has the yips.
That’s at least according to noted swing instructor Hank Haney, who sees a loss in confidence in the 2015 Masters champion.
“He’s got to get his putting figured out,” “I think he will. But he has to. And I think that spilled into the rest of his game. When I watch him putt, he visibly has the yips. You watch his hands on short putts and there is a tremor in there. I don’t care if the putt goes in or doesn’t. He was center cut on his first putt at the Ryder Cup. But his hands were shaking. He had to miss more short putts than anybody on tour.”
Spieth struggled last season on the PGA Tour, and part of that is due to his putting. He went winless for the first time since 2014, and fell from 39th in strokes gained putting in 2017 to 123rd.
However, he’s felt confident in his short game during his first tournament of the year, the Sony Open in Hawaii.
“I mean, felt comfortable with the putter today,” he said after shooting a one-over 73 on the first day of the competition. “Didn’t end up making anything, but felt like I hit my lines; felt comfortable.”
He’s currently in a nine-way tie at 127th on the leaderboard, but his competition thinks he’ll get his groove back at some point.
“I definitely think he’ll get it back,” said Jason Day, who battled Spieth for much of the 2015 US Open. “He just has to roll with the waves. It’s accurate you have to learn to roll with it and not get too in your own way. Let things calm down and keep working through it, and sooner or later he’ll be the Jordan Spieth of old.”