Disc Golf Putting is Harder Than It Looks

If I had to guess, I’d say that I spend 95% of my disc golf practice time throwing backhand and forehand drives. That’s because I want to make sure that my primary “engine” is working—that I can consistently drive the disc down the fairway.

Maybe 4% of my practice time is spent on approaches and shorter shots.

However, only about 1% of my time is spent on putting.

That’s a very poor set of priorities.

I'm not a great putter. I tend to rush my throws, and I typically straddle-putt because it’s the easiest method for me.

I should be practicing my putting so much more. But I generally get bored—or frustrated—quickly. And I want the excitement, the pleasure-reward of throwing big backhands in practice.

Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if I could buckle down and find a reliable putting style?

The real price for my lack of putting practice comes when I miss relatively easy putts. And also, I tend to get the “yips.”

The term “the yips” comes from traditional golf. It’s the very human impulse to get nervous under pressure—to overthink, to overdo, a relatively simple putt. Something stops me at the last second from confidently (or relaxedly) tossing a putt. I get nervous. I tighten up. I miss the shot.

The “yips” is very, very, very frustrating. It’s almost like a subconscious act of self-sabotage: “I’m gonna miss the putt anyway, so let me just miss it and get it over with…”

But also, there are times that I come up short on a close putt. It’s embarrassing. It’s not that I can’t easily toss a disc that short distance. But because I tighten up, I don’t extend properly toward the basket. And then the disc just dies out and flops to the ground.

I was watching the recent GoThrow Tour event at Persimmon Ridge, in Arkansas.  The round one feature card included Calvin Heimburg, Jeremy Koling, Kevin Jones, and Jake Hebenheimer. And if you want to see an unfortunate moment of putting yips, look at what happened to Jake Hebenheimer.

Hebenheimer is an excellent disc golfer. And he has a great backhand. As just one example, check out his drive on the 748-foot, par-4, 15th hole. He unleashes a bomb of a throw—with the disc flipping up perfectly after release.

Hebenheimer went into the tournament having played Persimmon Ridge many times. He’s also the “co-owner of the course record.” So it’s possible that his lengthy experience with the course over-prepared him. (When you know a disc golf course well, you might put extra expectations on yourself.)

The problem for Hebenheimer is that he had a few bad breaks at the start of the round. And if it’s your home course, an unfortunate start can put you in a bummer mood. Hebenheimer likely expected to shoot a good round. But he ended up double-bogeying the second hole. By the end of the front nine, he was five strokes behind the leader, Calvin Heimburg.

By the 15th hole of the round, Hebenheimer was at +3. That was rough for such a talented disc golfer—since both Heimburg and Kevin Jones were tied for the lead at -7 by that point.

You can see the nerves in the putting. Hebenheimer bogeyed the 14th hole. Look at the wobbly, somewhat unsteady missed putt for par. Commentator Luke Humphries observed that Hebenheimer seemed “a little tense.”

The really brutal moment for Hebenheimer had come on the 10th hole. He ended up with a quadruple-bogey after a sequence of two straight missed putts from relatively short distances. The first missed putt is particularly difficult to watch because it’s so clear that he’s nervous and over-thinking. He ends up holding onto the disc a moment too long—and pulls the putt wide enough that it doesn’t even touch the chains.

The reason I cite all of this is not to beat up on Jake Hebenheimer. He’s a top pro disc golfer. No, the reason I’m describing all of this is because I can completely empathize. Watching his first missed putt on the 10th hole, I’m essentially watching myself—and all the close putts I’ve missed. I totally “get” what’s going on at that moment: We get nervous, we get in our head, we lose confidence.

Take note, however, that Hebeheimer ended up shredding the final three holes—and finished the round at even-par after climbing as high as +3. That takes real guts and talent.

Overall, Hebenheimer’s unlucky round illustrates something that we can all study and learn from—just how difficult the mental aspect of putting can be.

How many times have I gotten nervous and tentative on a relatively easy putt, and then missed it badly?… Seeing a top professional disc golfer suffer one of those tense moments tells me that we’re all human. It happens to all of us. And probably there’s a zen method to help us in those moments. But I’ve yet to find it.

Feel free to leave a comment if you’ve been through this—or if you have a suggestion to help overcome the putting “yips.”