Anyone who plays golf knows just how difficult it is already, let alone with the yips to contend with as well.
The yips are a sudden and unexplained loss of ability to execute certain skills, per Wikipedia, and even elite athletes can suffer from them.
Recent examples include NBA point guard Markelle Fultz and arguably the NFL’s greatest-ever kicker, Justin Tucker.
One former PGA Tour player who beat Jack Nicklaus and John Daly to win an event had the same issue.
The PGA Tour rookie who won 1993 Pebble Beach Pro-Am in fourth start
Australian golfer Brett Ogle is a name that older golf fans may remember, as he reached the top 50 in the world rankings in the 1990s.
Most of Ogle’s success came on the lesser-known PGA Tour of Australasia, where he won five times, but he also had one victory on the European Tour (now DP World Tour) and two on the PGA Tour.
He made his PGA Tour debut in 1993 and won the iconic Pebble Beach Pro-Am in just his fourth start, ahead of Nicklaus, Daly and other great players.
The 60-year-old also lifted the Hawaiian Open title the following year, at the age of 30, and it looked like he would have an excellent career in the United States.
Chipping and putting yips cost Brett Ogle his PGA Tour card
Ogle inexplicably developed the chipping and putting yips in the prime of his career and was never the same player.
He lost his PGA Tour card in 1996 and failed to regain it before retiring from all tournament golf in 2002.
Brandel Chamblee recently spoke about Ogle’s yips, describing him as one “hell of a player” who was “gone” after experiencing the issue.
Even with the remarkable advances in science and technology, the exact cause of the yips remains to be completely figured out.
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