KMSP/FOX 9 Twin Cities
by Hobie Aritgue

Golf can be the ultimate test in sport and one that can emotionally swing one way or the other. A game of some relaxation, which is often countered by a frustration called “the yips.” The “yips” are routinely thought of as an ailment caused by being caught up in your own head on the course, but Dr. Charles Adler of the Mayo Clinic has found a link between the links and a golfer’s neurologic make-up.   “It’s our belief that a small percentage of golfers have an involuntary movement,” Adler told FOX 9.  The study is an almost 20-year long dedication for Adler, a neurologist focusing on what’s called “dystonia.” Adler describes the issue as an “involuntary twisting, turning or jerking.”

Reach:  FOX 9 News broadcasts in Minneapolis-St.Paul, the 16th largest television market in the United States with 1.7 million TV homes.

Additional coverage: Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, Science Daily

Context:  Almost every golfer knows the feeling. Minutes after a picture-perfect drive down the fairway, a cascade of inexplicable missed putts leads to a disappointing triple bogey. Golfers’ lapses in play sometimes are blamed on a mysterious twitching condition called "the yips." But are yips physical or psychological? In a new Mayo Clinic study, published this month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, researchers combined multiple methods to quantify golfers’ yips and identify those with a neurological cause. “These findings are important because they could offer athletes with a type of yips called 'dystonia,' or 'golfer’s cramp,' improved treatment options,” says Charles Adler, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic neurologist and the study’s lead author. “Previously, there was no way to identify those with golfer's cramp using quantitative methods.” More information on yips can be found on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Contact:  Jim McVeigh

Tags: Dr. Charles Adler, Fox9 Twin Cities, golf, Uncategorized, Yips