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September 12, 2003

Strange But True!

  • A weekly column of incidental information, off-the-wall observations and other random facts about the world.
    • By BILL SONES and RICH SONES, Ph.D.
    Special to the Journal

    Q. U.S. Open Golf Championship, 71st hole, years ago: Ben Hogan needed to sink a short putt and par the final hole to force Cary Middlecoff into a playoff. Hogan stood over the ball, then by all accounts his hands just "froze." He backed away, re-approached, re-set, then his hand inexplicably jerked on the putt, and the Open was lost. Did Ben choke? Were his nerves shot?

    A. More likely it was the "yips," a form of dystonia afflicting as many as 30 percent of golfers, as well as violinists, dentists, writers with hand cramp, says sports psychologist Prof. Gordon Russell in "Sport Science Secrets: From Myth to Facts." There are sudden involuntary pulls of part of a limb, and a locking into place (neurologist Harold Klawans). Pressure-packed circumstances are triggers: In putting, the golfer must stay very still, muscles held stationary yet required to bring off a delicate and exacting movement.


     
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