Among the many embarrassments golf can dole out, missing a short putt may be the worst. The stroke starts with a twitch of the hands and a flip of the wrist, and then the ball lips out of the cup or skitters wide of the hole. And sometimes, with recreational golfers, the ball does not move at all because they have bounced the putter over it.

Known as the yips — but also the jumps, the shakes, the jitters and the flinches — the affliction is often linked to a kind of performance anxiety, reflecting perhaps an erosion of confidence or a weakness of will. Even some of the game’s heavyweights — including Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino, Johnny Miller, Bernhard Langer and, more recently, Tiger Woods — have battled it.

Among the 156 players in the field for the United States Open this week at Congressional Country Club outside Washington, there will be some who once had, now have or will have the yips. And one thing is for sure: the Open, with its super-fast green speeds, along with the pressure of playing for the national championship, will put severe demands on the putter.

For years, the yips were thought to have psychological or neurological roots, ideas supported by two Mayo Clinic studies. But a hypothesis has emerged pointing to a muscular source — the result of a buildup of scar tissue in the forearms — for the involuntary twitch that sets off the yips.