March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Standing over a 6-inch putt late in the final round of the 2005 Fairbanks Open, Rich Lundahl said he could feel trouble brewing.

``There was a lot of electricity going on in my hands and wrists,'' Lundahl said of that moment during a professional tournament in Alaska. ``I was choking.''

With a halting stroke, he hit the putt.

``It never even touched the hole,'' he said.

Lundahl, like thousands of other golfers, suffers from the yips, or putter's cramp. A new study involving a $14,000 glove and possible treatment with wrinkle-reducing Botox might lead to a cure, researchers say.

The yips have afflicted golfers from Old Tom Morris, one of the sport's most influential figures and the designer of Scotland's Old Course at St. Andrews, to Doug Sanders, who missed a 30-inch putt to lose the 1970 British Open to Jack Nicklaus.

After his 6-inch gaffe, things only got worse for Lundahl, a 43-year-old former professional baseball player. He coughed up a two-shot lead with a final-round 77 a year later to lose another Alaskan tournament. The collapse came after his final- round opponent said the night before, ``Lundy, I'm going to work you over,'' Lundahl says.

``My nerves were killing me all day,'' said Lundahl, who runs a golf school in Gilbert, Arizona. ``It tends to happen when the pressure mounts.''

Yips Study

Unlike Morris and Sanders, Lundahl sought medical help. He took part in a study of the cause of the yips conducted by Charles Adler, a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Debbie Crews, a sports science researcher at Arizona State University in Tempe.

The study is the first to include analysis of brainwaves and muscle activity in hands and wrists, Adler said. Researchers monitored 50 golfers, 25 of them yippers and 25 non-yippers.

It was financed by a $193,000 grant from Allergan Inc., of Irvine, California. Botox is Allergan's biggest product, with $1.2 billion in sales last year. The drug is best known for reducing skin wrinkles and also is used to treat muscle cramping in musicians and Parkinson's disease.

The yips, commonly described as an involuntary movement, or jerking, of the putter before striking a golf ball, have long been thought to be caused by anxiety or stress.

``Your brain is sending you a message and your body just kind of backfires,'' said Louise Simpson, 50, of Tempe, Arizona, who took part in the study.

Practice Green

Adler, like Lundahl, has a simpler name: ``choking.''

Studies in 2001 and 2005 by the Mayo Clinic showed that golfers with the yips suffer from focal dystonia, a tightening of muscles similar to writer's cramp.

Adler moved golfers from the laboratory to a putting green next to Arizona State's Karsten Golf Course to simulate playing conditions.

``There were people standing around watching them as they putted,'' he said. ``It created a bit more anxiety.''

Golfers struck putts at four separate holes from six feet to 12 feet. A wireless CyberGlove measured muscle activity in their right hand and forearm, while an electroencephalogram, or EEG, monitored brain activity.

When the study's results are compiled in two months or so, Adler said he hopes to find a cure for the yips.

Bar Cure

If the study shows yips are primarily caused by muscle cramping, Adler said the condition could be treated with small injections of Botox. The drug isn't considered performance- enhancing and isn't banned under golf's new subtance policy, said U.S. PGA Tour Executive Vice President Ty Votaw.

Sanders, 75, who missed the British Open putt, says he knows one proven cure: ``It's called vodka tonic.'' Alternatively, he says, ``Sometimes if you have three or four beers, it really helps a lot.''

Alcohol can be a short-lived treatment, Adler says. Yips sufferers can become tolerant of the drink and will eventually need more to get the same effect. Over time, the movement disorder often gets worse, he said.

The passage of 38 years hasn't dulled the emotional and financial pain of his putting gaffe, Sanders says.

``That putt probably cost me hundreds of millions of dollars over my lifetime,'' he said. ``I'd rather be famous for making a shot, not missing one. But famous is famous, I guess.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Buteau in Atlanta at mbuteau@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 6, 2008 00:10 EST