YIPS AT WORLD AM 2024? NO PROBLEM!

Note: Click on photos for better view

Stephanie & T. A. at Ole
Corkscrew in Oct. 2023

My thought for today is never underestimate the value of a loving partner who is willing to go through the rough times with you! Why do I say that? Well, yesterday I was practically in a panic, on the verge of an existential meltdown because we leave for the Myrtle Beach World Amateur Handicap Championship in 13 days, and I had the yips! Yikes!

So, you might be saying to yourself, “Existential meltdown because of the yips? Dude, your priorities are out of whack.” I suppose I couldn’t argue that point much, but you’ve got to understand that the only thing more important to me than golf is the relationship I share with my beloved. To each their own, eh?

Stephanie & T. A. at 
World Am 2013 

Anyway, I’ve only been back to playing frequently and with purpose since May, after an off-and-on hiatus since I tore my Achilles in 2016, and Stephanie (my aforementioned beloved) encouraged me to play the World Am again. I haven’t played it since 2016. Seriously? Play a golf tournament, after not playing much and not competing at all over the past several years? Well, why not? It’ll be a blast from the past. We used to do a golf blog (it’s actually still up, just not very active), and the content included events that I would play and write about, and Stephanie would take pics.

2013 Leaderboard, 2nd Round

So anyway, I started off just trying to get used to playing again, keeping expectations low (I used to carry a 6 and now it’s 11.9), just enjoying being on golf courses again. I figured Stephanie and I would have a blast at the World Am regardless of my results (I did okay in 2013 and 2016). But you know how that goes. It doesn’t take very long before you have a good round and start thinking, “Heyyyy, maybe I can still play this game! Maybe I will actually have a shot at winning my flight!

So, I entered a couple of Florida State Golf Association tournaments to get myself back into competitive mode. After all, I have played the Thursday and Sunday points and skins games at my home club (Myerlee Country Club, par 60), and I’ve come away with $$ four of the six games I’ve played. Different story in the FSGA one-day tourneys where I finished tied 10^th in my flight both times, but played pretty poorly (85, 86).  

Much of the “poorly” was on and around the greens, so I’ve been working my not so little (c’mon, I’m almost 65!) butt off to get my short game into some kind of decent shape. In the practice arena, I have been making progress. I’m probably chipping and putting better than I ever have…on the practice green. Went out to Myakka Pines Golf Club in Englewood yesterday and shot an ugly 90! I think I four-putted from 10 feet once and chunked and bladed my chips and pitches! Seriously? All that work and I legitimately have the yips two weeks before playing the World Am?

Yes, an existential crisis had fallen over me like the heaviest of wool blankets in the hot southwest Florida humidity. But here is where that loving partner bit that I opened with comes in. Stephanie and I live an hour and change away from Myakka Pines, and our plan was to play golf and then hit the beach, which we did. We talked a bunch about the yips, why I might have developed them, what did it mean, how to deal with them, yada, yada, yada. We even googled the yips because she hadn’t heard of them despite the many golf hours we’ve shared.

We talked about the yips at the beach, on the way home, after we got home, and again this morning before I headed out to play the skins games at Myerlee. I don’t know how many of you have partners who would do that, but as I came off the final hole today (played 27 and won $70), after making about a 9-footer for birdie, and reflecting on chipping in for birdie twice as well, I couldn’t helping feeling a wave of gratitude that I have such a supportive, encouraging (as well as beautiful and challenging) partner to share this journey!

Might the yips return in a couple weeks when we get to Myrtle and I’m just one of 3000 (okay, okay, only 2998 as of today) golfers trying to win the thing? Sure, they might, but I’m not concerned. I’ve got Stephanie to help me deal with em, and we’re going to have a blast even if I suck and finish at the bottom of my flight!

From Yip City, USA, 

T. A.