Tips for golfers to beat their injury bogeys

THIS weekend sees the culmination of one of the year’s greatest sporting events – The 146th Open Golf Championship at Royal Birkdale.

Golf is one of those sports that quite often doesn’t go to script. Anyone can emerge from the field to win – and not necessarily one of the big names.

Add to this the unpredictable UK weather and we are guaranteed one of the great sporting weekends.

While we may think of golf as a safe sport when it comes to the risk of injury, it may surprise you to know that up to 10 per cent of our top golfers are injured at any one time and that the average professional golfer misses five weeks a year through injury.

As a non-contact sport, injuries in golf are usually the result of overuse and the repetitive nature of the game, not just playing but the hundreds of balls hit during practice.

The most common sites of injury among golfers are the lower back, wrist, elbow and shoulder.

Watching a golfer hit the ball off the tee, with the force required generated from the shoulder and hip movement explains the frequency of recurrent back and shoulder problems.

This may also allow the golfer to continue playing.

Prevention, as in all sports, is the key to keeping a golfer on the course rather than in the physio room. A study of 1000 club golfers found less than half did no warm-up at all and in only three per cent was this considered adequate.

Professionals, however, understand the benefits of a warm-up with a systematic stretching of the “golfing muscles” (including hands, wrists, forearms, shoulders, lower back, trunk, groins and hamstrings).

The next stage involves a series of progressive golf swings, increasing the range of swing and speed of the club should ensure the golfer is in optimum shape both to score well and prevent injury.

Professional golfers are also aware of the benefit of time spent in the gym working on strength, flexibility and general fitness.

While warm-up, fitness, strength and flexibility training are vitally important in preventing injury, we should not forget the benefit of technical adjustments especially of the swing.

Golf club professionals are now an excellent source of advice and all are experienced at changing your grip and swing if problems occur.

Golf is one of the great sports and is brought to life by our excellent television coverage.

The tradition of The Open is to invite past winners to compete each year.

This year’s winner will have to master that history as well as the course before he gets his hands on the claret jug.