Back Into The Swing of Things: Overcoming physical (mostly lower back) limitations to play better golf

By Harris Prevost

Not long ago, Peter Kessler of The Golf Channel hosted a "Golf Talk Live" discussion on the future trends in the game. He asked the question, "What’s the next great breakthrough in golf?" and then volunteered some possible answers: The next high-tech metal after titanium? New shafts? Some super distance ball?

Kessler was surprised that his guests’ consensus answer was none of the above. They said the next golf breakthrough will take place with the performance of the human body, not in the performance of equipment!

Apparently Tiger Woods and David Duval already knew that. Their conditioning feats over the past winter are well chronicled. You’ve probably noticed that there’s 50 pounds less of the Walrus on Tour nowadays, and he is finding himself back on the leaderboard.

Most of the players on the Tours—make that plural like in all the tours—spend as much time working out in the fitness trailers that follow the tournaments as they do on the practice tee.

Physical conditioning has become a career saver to many Senior Tour players. They are finally listening to what Gary Player has been saying all along, and they have noticed that he has won tournaments in each of the past five decades.

A lot of players in North Carolina have noticed the benefits of fitness, too. Three major healthcare centers—Carolinas, based out of Charlotte; Moses Cone, based in Greensboro and Rex Hospital in Raleigh—have developed golf-specific fitness centers. All are busy.

Jeff Leatherman, who runs the Moses Cone center, said "Trends in golf come from the top down. When other players see Tiger and Duval exercising, they will do it too, and that is a good thing."

Necessity is, of course, the mother of invention. For golfers over 40 who have been introduced to some aches and pains, or who are recovering from surgery or an injury, necessity has arrived.

I am one of those—one day perfectly fine and the next day half crippled with lower back pains with no clue what happened. Most likely, you are in the same boat.

The lead paragraph in the May 2000 issue of Consumer Reports On Health confirms our worst fears. "In a recent survey of some 47,000 Consumer Reports readers, back pain was the most common physical complaint—and almost at the top of our ‘misery index,’ a rating of how painful various conditions are."

Unfortunately, back pain is not easy to cure. There are all sorts of proposed remedies ranging from back surgery to magnet therapy to acupuncture. In between these extremes are medication, chiropractic treatment, heat pads, ointments and deep-tissue massage.

Well, there is one other. Exercise. It’s the only option that requires a major, long-term commitment on our part. Consumer Reports recommends targeted exercise "for people who are seeking an active response to back pain." The magazine reported that 73 percent felt exercise helped their situation with 35 percent seeing significant improvement.

The magazine further recommends seeing a physical therapist for a supervised exercise program. That’s what I did, and permit me to share the experience. To say it was an eye-opener is an understatement.

I saw Kay Wheeler, director of the Carolinas Physical Therapy Network’s "Swing Into Better Golf" program in Charlotte. It is "a golf specific evaluation and customized training program. It identifies and eliminates underlying physical restrictions limiting the golfer’s ability to perform an optimal golf swing."

Kay came highly recommended by Golf magazine, "Top 100 Teacher" Dana Rader and by my home pro, John McNeely at Grandfather Golf & Country Club in Linville.

McNeely is also known as a great teacher. Several pros from the Buy.com Tour are working with him to move to the next level. He told me, "Kay is wonderful. She’s as good as anyone in the country."

Rader added, "Wheeler completely understands the way the body works during the golf swing. With her combined knowledge of both physical therapy and golf, she helps a lot of players achieve a pain free swing. I believe her program is truly unique and innovative."

Kay has worked with a wide variety of golfers—professionals, college players, pro athletes, business executives, even an 85 year-old man who comes up regularly from Hilton Head.

Most of her clients are in the 40-65 year old range, are good to better players and are serious about their games. Kay has a waiting time of two to three weeks for appointments.

Kay lettered for three years on the UNC women’s basketball team and was voted "Senior Athlete of the Year." She took up golf 12 years ago after knee injuries forced her to stop running marathons, and she now plays to a 4 handicap.

A licensed physical therapist, Kay started doing seminars for the LPGA and PGA eight years ago, literally "teaching the teachers" what to look for with respect to their pupils’ injuries and physical limitations, and how to deal with them.

Kay makes it clear she isn’t a competing golf teacher but instead a "body teacher" and partner to the pros. She gets a lot of referrals from area pros who spot physical problems in their pupils that they don’t have the expertise to handle.

As a physical therapist who is also an astute student of the game. She helps people understand their bodies and how to exercise to improve them with respect to their individual golf swings.

McNeely, one of the best players in the state before suffering a back injury, became a believer in golf fitness after working with Kay. "I made a change in my posture and hit a lot of balls, but my body wasn’t ready for the change. Kay showed me that I should have done some exercises first to make sure the newly used muscles in my back were strong enough and flexible enough to withstand a lot of ball hitting.

"Now, I’m careful to make sure my pupils can physically handle any swing changes I recommend. Teaching pros can’t just recommend swing changes without regard to the body. Sometimes it won’t do what we are asking it to do."

Also, some exercises right for some can hurt others, Kay feels. Thus, she customizes the treatment for each individual situation, explaining why specific exercises will help.

Kay began my evaluation by videotaping my golf swing. I had been playing well lately, despite my back, so I put forth my best "Ernie Els swing," then went to the TV screen to see how impressed she was.

To my surprise, she compared my posture and swing with the real Ernie Els and then pointed out some painfully obvious deficiencies. She got my attention. After being humbled, I was very receptive to what Kay had to say!

She had me do some exercises to evaluate my strength, flexibility, range of joint motion and balance. She also tried to pinpoint the areas of my body that were in pain during my golf swing. I discovered my body works backwards. Some body parts that were supposed to flex during my evaluation didn’t, and some that were supposed to stand firm flexed. (In other words, it isn’t my fault I can’t swing like Ernie Els; it’s my body’s fault!)

This information, combined with Kay’s observations of the weird things that happened during my golf swing, told her what areas needed attention in order for me to at least be capable of swinging a golf club freely and with power. She pointed out that weaknesses in other areas contributed to my lower back pain.

Kay then gave me a list of specific exercises I needed to do in order to strengthen some muscles, stretch other muscles, and achieve better balance. She had me do the exercises under her supervision to make sure I did them properly.

Kay Wheeler developed her "Swing Into Better Golf" program through her own training as a licensed physical therapist, her work with area pros, and training under former PGA Tour fitness guru, Paul Calloway

Calloway also trained Jeff Leatherman, like Wheeler an avid golfer and low handicapper, who runs the "Golf Fit" program for Moses Cone across the street from the Stoney Creek Golf Club east of Greensboro.

Leatherman echoed the sentiment of the panelists on The Golf Channel program. "Many golfers try to improve their games by buying expensive equipment," he agreed. "Yet, the most important component of the game is the body itself."

Another type of exercise program is "Back To Golf." The guru of this program is Bud Ferrante, a California physical therapist. Its format is very similar to the others: first visit is for education and comprehensive evaluation; follow-up visits to monitor progress, identify areas that require further attention, and possibly recommend more challenging exercises.

"Back To Golf" is a little different in that it affiliates itself with a specific professional who teaches their system rather than work with several area pros.

There are two "Back To Golf" centers in the area—one in Eden and one in Raleigh. Rhett Holliday and Meryl Freeman run the one in Raleigh, which is part of Rex Hospital. Holliday said most of their patients’ problems involve lower backs with the next most popular area the thoracic spine (between neck and lower back).

The pro they work with is Jimmy Hamilton, who runs a teaching center called Capitol Tee in Raleigh. They will refer to him if the situation warrants.

Holliday advised, "If you are in pain while playing golf, your body is sending you a message. Even if the pain isn’t bad enough to sideline you, it should be addressed before it gets worse. Take care of your back now so you will be able to play golf for a long time and have a better quality of life."

The other "Back To Golf" program in the area is TheraSport in Eden, which is run by Gary Rizza. He said that "Back To Golf" teaches a "stabilized spine golf swing," which is their way of saying to use the bigger muscles in the swing to protect the back. This concept transfers successfully to other sports with similar hitting actions such as baseball and tennis.

His referral professional is Steve Harris, at Greensboro National. Harris’ son Jason is one of the top junior golfers in the country. Rizza recommends a six-session program which emphasizes proper body conditioning for the first four sessions before working with Harris on the swing.

"If you have any pain, we can help," says Rizza, who has been in business 10 years. "We don’t just deal with bad backs even though we are called ‘Back To Golf.’ We also help people with hip and knee problems. We help golfers to play more, and to play longer."

If you are looking for the secret to solving to your back problems in this article, you won’t find it. The answer’s not some pill or a pin stuck above your left eyebrow. And it isn’t a list of "one size fits all" exercises for the masses.

However, there is a process to help your back, or whatever ails you. It is a program of regular exercise, designed specifically for your situation, by a trained professional who understands your body and your golf swing.

When asked about some of her favorite successes, Kay Wheeler fondly remembers a decent player in his 60s who was a scratch player 30 years ago and wanted to be so again. With her guidance and his dedication, he returned to scratch and whupped up on all the 20-something limberbacks to win his club championship last year.

Kay’s philosophy is that exercise improves your golf game, but the true benefit is the improvement of your body and quality of life. Better golf is simply the "carrot" to motivate the exercise.

Can’t get much better than that!