Jacob Courtis stepped up to a routine putt in 2022 when it hit, and the daily battle to figure out why and how to fix it began.

“I stepped up, lined up and physically could not bring my arm down,” Courtis said. “I had to almost flex my bicep and kind of just sling my putter before I just putted sidearm the rest of the tournament.

“It was so weird, and I was so confused.”

It, he would later learn, was the yips and performance anxiety.

Andrew Ahrendt, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist, researcher, and sport psychology consultant, defined the yips as “the experience of a sudden involuntary spasm or interruption of movement that can involve shaking, jerking, twitching, tightening, or freezing of muscles that can prevent an athlete from executing a specific well-learned action” in a 2023 article he wrote for PDGA.com.

It would come and go, off and on, Courtis said, and only happened on the putting green. Suddenly, an action that he had done since discovering disc golf in 2012 at the age of 9 was a complete mental and physical battle.

Courtis’s version of the yips – an issue that has plagued athletes in a wide variety of sports – causes him to reset time and time again while putting, going on for well beyond the allotted time allowed by the Official Rules of Disc Golf, resulting in warnings and penalty throws. Pace of play rules are crucial to make sure that tournament play runs smooth for all competitors.

After a highly viewed tournament early in 2023, when his condition was in its early stages, Courtis, based on his own self-awareness and the harsh criticism received, stopped playing disc golf for a bit.

“That’s when it became known to the public,” Courtis said. “There were a lot of eyes on it. A lot of people were saying things. I got a bunch of DMs and a lot of bad comments, nasty comments about me taking forever.

“It got to the point where I didn’t want to go to the course. Then I went to the hypnotherapist for a session, and it made me believe, I felt like it did something and at least gave me the desire to go back to the course to practice and try to get over it.”

But, for most people, it’s not a thing that people just get over.

“If you know anything about yips or performance anxiety, it's one of the hardest things to overcome in sports,” he said. “There's not an exact percentage but (a lot of athletes) in baseball or golf that get the actual yips, they never come back. It's never the same. They can never get out of their head.”

It’s not an issue in practice for Courtis, he said, it’s in tournament play and on the green where the performance anxiety peaks.

“It’s definitely the shorter putts, inside the circle, putts that I usually make,” he said after Round 2 of the PDGA Champions Cup in his home state of California. “I’m usually pretty confident when I step up to it but as it keeps going and I start to feel it, it’s like ‘why is this putter not out of my hand?’

“It only comes in tournaments so I can’t physically work on it unless I’m playing tournaments. Without me playing tournaments, I’m never going to get over it. I have to play tournaments; that’s my way of battling it. If I don’t, then I’m out of the sport and I’ve put in too much work, blood, sweat and tears into this game to give up that easily, but I’ve come close.”

Tournaments are also where Courtis’ issue becomes an issue for others. His excessive time is in violation of PDGA rules and leads to warnings and penalty throws from card mates and officials, often angers card mates and the groups behind him because of the time, and draws extreme criticism from the viewing audience.

Courtis said he’s spent a significant amount of money working with hypnotherapists and doctors. He has changed his putting style — grips and stances — ‘at least seven times.’ He’s tried breathing exercises, skipping tournaments for a break, and more.

“It’s not like I’m not actively trying to work on it, that’s what people don’t see,” he said. “I don’t do it on purpose. I always tell my card mates that I’m sorry. We’re playing the same sport by the same rules so call me on it if I’m doing it. I’m not going to make an issue about it because just as much as you don’t like it, I hate it even more.”

So, what is happening when he resets and resets during those times where the yips are peaking?

Courtis said his particular symptom with the yips is the ‘hinge’ where he gets stuck in the cycle. He’s set, he resets, and repeats.

“You see that I’m ready to go and then it’s a full reset,” he said. “It’s those hitches of the routine.”

Another symptom is the performance anxiety, which, he describes, as a ‘fight or flight’ feeling.

“That’s what my body is stuck in every round, every time that I go to putt,” he said. “When my body is in that, it’s producing a bunch of adrenaline that is flowing through my body which causes me to feel like I’m cramping, like I’m going zero to 100 and super anxiety, so I tense up. They tested me to see if my lymph nodes were getting overworked with a blood test, but those came back good and I’m healthy.”

That’s the case for Cupcake, a nickname given to Courtis by Paul McBeth at the 2014 PDGA Amateur & Junior Disc Golf World Championships: a daily battle against a condition that has no cure, that hit out of nowhere, and is impacting his love for a sport that he fell for quickly.

“It’s not like I’m not actively trying to work on it,” he said. “It’s starting to cut down, not that I necessarily feel it any less, but it’s something that I’m still battling. I feel like I’m getting closer and closer.

“It’s hard, but I feel like I’m getting there.”

Courtis is currently tied for 11th place after two rounds at the 2025 PDGA Champions Cup.