Accursed by an erratic driver and exorbitant enthusiasm -- two traits undoubtedly shared by many weekend golfers -- my 5-iron and I have strolled into some unusual situations.
Cart paths, snake pits, parking lots, pot bunkers, flower beds, tree groves, dinosaur-sized divots, poison ivy patches, adjacent fairways, adjacent backyard patios and pool enclosures, lateral hazards and hazardous waste dumps -- name a strange spot and odds are that we've hacked our way out of it.
Last week, we added a new one to the list:
Medical facility.
It felt a bit strange to be swinging my 5-iron inside the St. Francis Hospital Medical Arts Pavilion, but it was for good reason. I was taking part in the Golf Performance Program, which is administered by the Performance Centers of Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare.
I'm not what you would call a serious golfer. In fact, the biggest problem with my game is a lack of time to play and practice. But, I would like to hit the ball more consistently, lower my score and avoid falling apart at the end of an 18-hole round.
The Golf Performance Program claims it can help, so here I am -- standing in the middle of a large space filled with exercise equipment, computers and examination / therapy rooms, I pounded a series wiffle balls off the rubberized floor and into a giant net in the corner of the room that includes a basketball hoop.
"You get bonus points if you make a basket," said David Passinault, the Wheaton Franciscan physical therapist serving as my "coach" for the day.
I'd met Passinault an hour earlier at the reception desk of the facility, which is located at 2025 W. Oklahoma Ave. Upon arriving for my 90-minute appointment, I filled out a brief medical history and a somewhat lengthy questionnaire about my golf game (or lack thereof).
Questions ranged from "How many rounds per week do you play?" to specific queries about scoring, handicap, average full swing distance for each club, average putts and fairways hit per round and areas of the game most needing improvement.
As he looked at the answers, Passinault told me about the program. "We want to see what your strengths are and what you want to work on the most," he said. "We check your balance, posture, flexibility and strength and see how that relates to your golf swing.
"Then, we do a personalized exercise program that relates to golf; something you can do in the summers and in the Wisconsin winters to stay in shape, year-round, for golf."
With the golf interview complete, Passinault led me to an examination area and put me through a series of bending and stretching tests that measured balance, flexibility and strength. The results weren't surprising. Like most middle-age guys with sedentary jobs, I suffer from tightness in my hamstring and hip muscles.
"That’s not uncommon for people who sit at a computer," Passinault said. "You are pretty flexible in your lower back and you have good shoulder flexibility, which is important for golf."
As Passinault set up a video camera, I loosened up by hitting a few balls into the net in order to prepare for my screen test. I took about eight full swings, which is more than I usually take before a round of golf because I always seem to arrive at the course about five minutes before my tee time.
"It’s important to warm up before you play," Passinault said.
With the camera rolling and my hips and hamstrings feeling noticeably stiff, I hit a series of balls into the net. Passinault filmed from two different angles and we walked to a video room to see the results. On balance, I was pleased with the way my swing looked on tape. The takeaway was smooth, the downswing was firm yet fluid and my body seemed to be aligned properly at impact.
One thing I noticed is that my "loose" shoulders and torso enable me to take the club far past parallel on the backswing.
"You have good shoulder rotation," Passinault said, his thumb toggling the slow-motion control on the VCR. "A lot of people have a limited backswing. You actually might be coiling a bit too much."
The exaggerated coil can generate a lot of club speed, but, as my playing partners in the every scramble-format charity tournament can attest, it can also lead to problems with accuracy.
"I think we should work to improve your posture at address," Passinault said. "Nobody has perfect posture, but you'd like to have a straight line from your ear to your shoulder to your hip. Ideally, that will give you more power in your shoulder blades and pelvis.
"As you stand over the ball, you're knees are pretty straight and there is limited flexibility in your back arch. I recommend a little more flex in the hips and knees. That will come with stretching your hamstrings and hip muscles and strengthening your core area."
We headed back to the gym, where Passinault showed me a series of stretches to perform on the physio ball and on the floor that would help my problem areas.
"Try those things out, then come back in a couple weeks and we'll see how you've progressed," he said.
During the drive home, I wondered how much time professional golfers spend stretching their hamstrings or working on the physio ball. I placed a call to my friend, John Adam.
Adam, who spent nearly two decades as the head athletic trainer for the Brewers, now serves as director of golf operations for Physiotherapy Associates, the official provider of fitness training and physical rehabilitation for the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour and the Champions Tour.
"The No. 1 malady on the men’s tour is L-spine or lumbar spine problems -- the low back," Adam said. "No shocker there. A lot of men have problems in that area and we work on strength and flexibility a lot.
"On the women’s side, it tends to be more C-spine or cervical spine. It’s the upper back. A lot of people wonder why there is a difference, but I think it’s about posture. The women tend to be forward with their head and have their shoulders rounded forward a little more. Plus, women are inherently a little weaker. They often have a little imbalance, so we try to develop and strengthen the muscles of the upper back."
It’s good to know that the pros have problems, too. It’s not surprising, either, considering they hit balls about 12 hours a day on the course and the range.
"A lot of the problems we see on tour come from overuse," Adam said. "Some of that is just insecurity and a lack of confidence. I see players who finish a round and will hit balls until it’s dark. They don't need the practice, but they still do it and you get to a point of diminishing returns."
What about the average duffer who doesn't have time to pound 250 balls a day? When I tell Adam about my visit to the Golf Performance Program, he says that Physiotherapy Associates is conducting a similar program and the key to success is to have the therapists and golf teachers work together
"When a guy goes to his club pro for instruction, most of the time all he really wants to do is beat his neighbor or the guys in his regular foursome," Adam said. "He works with the pro and eventually, he hits a wall. Why am I still hooking the ball? Why am I pushing it right? It gets frustrating for the player and the instructor.
"That’s where we come in. We're not swing gurus. We're not golf pros. But, when 30 or even 50 percent of students hit a wall ast some point, we can look at why it’s happening. We tell the pros to let us evaluate players physically. Most players are right-handed How does the left hip look compared to the right? Is there a leg-length discrepancy. Is there a hip problem? Maybe there is a locked down L-4 or L-5 (vertebrae). Maybe there is a ligament problem or a disk problem. Golf pros can't tell you those things, but we can.
"A lot of it is conditioning, too. Things that people do on the first few holes of a round aren't necessarily what they do on the last few holes. We're all guilty of going out and playing without stretching or warming up. A lot of people, before they hit the back nine, are basically blown out. They're tired. It’s kind of like a baseball pitcher who can't get on top of the ball. His arm is dropping, even though he swears it isn't, and the pitches flatten out and he gets pounded.
"It’s the same thing with golfers. As you tire, your body breaks down. You don't have the same hip rotation. You're not getting through the ball. You start pushing it to the right."
While paying attention to conditioning and flexibility won't turn a player into Tiger Woods, it can shave a few strokes from your game. At least I think it can. It was too hot this weekend to try out my new stance, but the stretches have definitely made it easier to walk to the refrigerator during commercials.
Cart paths, snake pits, parking lots, pot bunkers, flower beds, tree groves, dinosaur-sized divots, poison ivy patches, adjacent fairways, adjacent backyard patios and pool enclosures, lateral hazards and hazardous waste dumps -- name a strange spot and odds are that we've hacked our way out of it.
Last week, we added a new one to the list:
Medical facility.
It felt a bit strange to be swinging my 5-iron inside the St. Francis Hospital Medical Arts Pavilion, but it was for good reason. I was taking part in the Golf Performance Program, which is administered by the Performance Centers of Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare.
I'm not what you would call a serious golfer. In fact, the biggest problem with my game is a lack of time to play and practice. But, I would like to hit the ball more consistently, lower my score and avoid falling apart at the end of an 18-hole round.
The Golf Performance Program claims it can help, so here I am -- standing in the middle of a large space filled with exercise equipment, computers and examination / therapy rooms, I pounded a series wiffle balls off the rubberized floor and into a giant net in the corner of the room that includes a basketball hoop.
"You get bonus points if you make a basket," said David Passinault, the Wheaton Franciscan physical therapist serving as my "coach" for the day.
I'd met Passinault an hour earlier at the reception desk of the facility, which is located at 2025 W. Oklahoma Ave. Upon arriving for my 90-minute appointment, I filled out a brief medical history and a somewhat lengthy questionnaire about my golf game (or lack thereof).
Questions ranged from "How many rounds per week do you play?" to specific queries about scoring, handicap, average full swing distance for each club, average putts and fairways hit per round and areas of the game most needing improvement.
As he looked at the answers, Passinault told me about the program. "We want to see what your strengths are and what you want to work on the most," he said. "We check your balance, posture, flexibility and strength and see how that relates to your golf swing.
"Then, we do a personalized exercise program that relates to golf; something you can do in the summers and in the Wisconsin winters to stay in shape, year-round, for golf."
With the golf interview complete, Passinault led me to an examination area and put me through a series of bending and stretching tests that measured balance, flexibility and strength. The results weren't surprising. Like most middle-age guys with sedentary jobs, I suffer from tightness in my hamstring and hip muscles.
"That’s not uncommon for people who sit at a computer," Passinault said. "You are pretty flexible in your lower back and you have good shoulder flexibility, which is important for golf."
As Passinault set up a video camera, I loosened up by hitting a few balls into the net in order to prepare for my screen test. I took about eight full swings, which is more than I usually take before a round of golf because I always seem to arrive at the course about five minutes before my tee time.
"It’s important to warm up before you play," Passinault said.
With the camera rolling and my hips and hamstrings feeling noticeably stiff, I hit a series of balls into the net. Passinault filmed from two different angles and we walked to a video room to see the results. On balance, I was pleased with the way my swing looked on tape. The takeaway was smooth, the downswing was firm yet fluid and my body seemed to be aligned properly at impact.
One thing I noticed is that my "loose" shoulders and torso enable me to take the club far past parallel on the backswing.
"You have good shoulder rotation," Passinault said, his thumb toggling the slow-motion control on the VCR. "A lot of people have a limited backswing. You actually might be coiling a bit too much."
The exaggerated coil can generate a lot of club speed, but, as my playing partners in the every scramble-format charity tournament can attest, it can also lead to problems with accuracy.
"As you stand over the ball, you're knees are pretty straight and there is limited flexibility in your back arch. I recommend a little more flex in the hips and knees. That will come with stretching your hamstrings and hip muscles and strengthening your core area."
We headed back to the gym, where Passinault showed me a series of stretches to perform on the physio ball and on the floor that would help my problem areas.
"Try those things out, then come back in a couple weeks and we'll see how you've progressed," he said.
During the drive home, I wondered how much time professional golfers spend stretching their hamstrings or working on the physio ball. I placed a call to my friend, John Adam.
Adam, who spent nearly two decades as the head athletic trainer for the Brewers, now serves as director of golf operations for Physiotherapy Associates, the official provider of fitness training and physical rehabilitation for the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour and the Champions Tour.
"The No. 1 malady on the men’s tour is L-spine or lumbar spine problems -- the low back," Adam said. "No shocker there. A lot of men have problems in that area and we work on strength and flexibility a lot.
"On the women’s side, it tends to be more C-spine or cervical spine. It’s the upper back. A lot of people wonder why there is a difference, but I think it’s about posture. The women tend to be forward with their head and have their shoulders rounded forward a little more. Plus, women are inherently a little weaker. They often have a little imbalance, so we try to develop and strengthen the muscles of the upper back."
It’s good to know that the pros have problems, too. It’s not surprising, either, considering they hit balls about 12 hours a day on the course and the range.
"A lot of the problems we see on tour come from overuse," Adam said. "Some of that is just insecurity and a lack of confidence. I see players who finish a round and will hit balls until it’s dark. They don't need the practice, but they still do it and you get to a point of diminishing returns."
What about the average duffer who doesn't have time to pound 250 balls a day? When I tell Adam about my visit to the Golf Performance Program, he says that Physiotherapy Associates is conducting a similar program and the key to success is to have the therapists and golf teachers work together
"When a guy goes to his club pro for instruction, most of the time all he really wants to do is beat his neighbor or the guys in his regular foursome," Adam said. "He works with the pro and eventually, he hits a wall. Why am I still hooking the ball? Why am I pushing it right? It gets frustrating for the player and the instructor.
"That’s where we come in. We're not swing gurus. We're not golf pros. But, when 30 or even 50 percent of students hit a wall ast some point, we can look at why it’s happening. We tell the pros to let us evaluate players physically. Most players are right-handed How does the left hip look compared to the right? Is there a leg-length discrepancy. Is there a hip problem? Maybe there is a locked down L-4 or L-5 (vertebrae). Maybe there is a ligament problem or a disk problem. Golf pros can't tell you those things, but we can.
"A lot of it is conditioning, too. Things that people do on the first few holes of a round aren't necessarily what they do on the last few holes. We're all guilty of going out and playing without stretching or warming up. A lot of people, before they hit the back nine, are basically blown out. They're tired. It’s kind of like a baseball pitcher who can't get on top of the ball. His arm is dropping, even though he swears it isn't, and the pitches flatten out and he gets pounded.
"It’s the same thing with golfers. As you tire, your body breaks down. You don't have the same hip rotation. You're not getting through the ball. You start pushing it to the right."
While paying attention to conditioning and flexibility won't turn a player into Tiger Woods, it can shave a few strokes from your game. At least I think it can. It was too hot this weekend to try out my new stance, but the stretches have definitely made it easier to walk to the refrigerator during commercials.
Host of “The Drew Olson Show,” which airs 1-3 p.m. weekdays on The Big 902. Sidekick on “The Mike Heller Show,” airing weekdays on The Big 920 and a statewide network including stations in Madison, Appleton and Wausau. Co-author of Bill Schroeder’s “If These Walls Could Talk: Milwaukee Brewers” on Triumph Books. Co-host of “Big 12 Sports Saturday,” which airs Saturdays during football season on WISN-12. Former senior editor at OnMilwaukee.com. Former reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
