WATCH: Graham DeLaet Uses One Hand to Chip at Safeway Open

Being around the game of golf, you get the opportunity to see quite a bit of different, unique swings. But what Graham DeLaet was doing at the Safeway Open this past weekend caught everyone off guard.

For those who aren’t familiar with DeLaet, he’s a Canadian born player that has been on the PGA TOUR on and off for about the last decade. Along the way he’s dealt with a great deal of back problems that have really halted his career. And even when he was able to play, DeLaet was always conscious of his back issues, which gave him a bit of the yips on his swings, especially his short game around the green.

DeLaet had a serious case of the yips back in 2016, where he was consistently hitting some chips way off the mark in tournaments. DeLaet tweeted back then saying: “I’m dealing with incredible anxiety while chipping/pitching right now. It’s not fun. I needed to WD to get it sorted out and get back ASAP.”

While he hasn’t sorted out everything yet with his game, he’s definitely trying a unique strategy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by PGA TOUR (@pgatour) on Sep 10, 2020 at 3:38pm PDT

DeLaet played in the Safeway Open this past week and while that shocking 2016 performance probably wasn’t on everyone’s mind, DeLaet actively tried to correct his yips by chipping with one hand. That’s right, DeLaet decided that he was only going to use his back arm to swing his club and chip around the greens. And surprisingly, it worked!

I’m sure many of you are thinking that it would be detrimental to do this long term since you’re losing a lot of control over your club, but for DeLaet it seems like it may have helped him avoid chunking or just simply mishitting his chips. He actually almost chipped in twice using this method and he gained just over 1 stroke on the greens over the competition. While this did work, however, DeLaet does say that he’s hoping to go back to a two-handed chip soon.

Regardless of how odd it is to see, it’s great for DeLaet that he’s finally starting to overcome some of his golf demons. Hopefully, this is the start of a nice comeback for DeLaet and he can continue having success for the rest of the season and beyond.

Cover Image via Instagram