All I did was bend down to pick up the tee. I had just flushed a righty-driver on the very short 13th hole. Normally I’m careful with how I pick up the tee – keep my back straight, bend the knees and squat down. For whatever reason though, I just bend over to pick it up, and felt something bad in my lower back. It was nothing like the intensity of the herniation a few years ago, but I knew right away that some sort of disc bulge had emerged and tapped on a nerve.
I moved off to the side and got down into a prone press-up position, hoping against hope that I would get some sort of immediate relief. I didn’t – things started tightening up. I let my playing partners know that I might not be able to finish, but since we’d be at the parking lot after the following hole anyway, I was going to see if I could still make some sort of swings at the ball.
Before the start of the round, I was feeling pretty optimistic. I had done my core exercises in the morning. I hadn’t hit an actual ball in a couple of weeks, but I had been pretty diligent about making practice swings in front of the mirror. I was really working hard on the “pump drill” to help the sequencing of my swing and stop coming over the top as much. I wasn’t expecting to put on a stripe show or anything, but I was hoping to see some evidence that the work I was doing was paying off.
There was a pretty decent turnout for the member group all things considered. It was about 40 degrees, but overcast and kind of windy. The weather wasn’t much better than the last couple of times when I showed up only to find that I was the only person brave or stubborn enough to play. We had 9 players, but only one other person who typically plays the white tees. We decided to play up on the yellows with the rest of the older guys.
I always enjoy playing the yellow tees. The course is only about 4220 yards, and it really changes several holes. Many of the par 4’s play like long par 3’s, and the par 5’s play like par 4’s. To give you an idea of the relative difficulty, as a 13.x handicap, I only get 4 strokes from the yellow tees.
I played pretty poorly overall on the front, shooting a 9 over. If I was playing well from the white tees, I might just be 9 over after 18 holes. My phone started blowing up on the 8th hole due to a report of a system being down at work, so I was on the phone between shots on the 9th and 10th hole. I certainly can’t completely blame the distraction, but I did bogey 9, and made a double on 10.
The double on 10 was particularly frustrating because I made a really bad mental error. After hooking my lefty tee shot into the neighboring fairway, I was blocked out from the green by a really big tree. I could have punched a low shot toward the green. I wouldn’t have been able to get it on the green, but I would have likely ended up someplace that would have left a basic pitch shot for a likely bogey. Instead, I tried to flush a pitching wedge up and over the tree from a kind of slippery uphill lie. Of course I hit the tree, and had to then punch it to where I should have punched it the first time. On the green in four, two putt for double.
Things changed quickly at 11. From the white tees, hole 11 is tough, featuring a 90 degree dogleg, with a downhill second shot. Even if you hit a good hybrid up and over the corner and just have a short iron into the green, the downhill lie of the second shot can be hard to judge. Usually I’m happy to just make a bogey on this hole. However, from the yellow tees, you start at the end of the dogleg, and have a straight shot to the green. The tee box to slanted with a downhill like for a righty tee shot, but with the slope it only plays about 185 – 190 yards. I flushed one of my righty hybrids to about 12 feet and drained the putt. Technically that was an eagle, though from that distance I just consider it a birdie.
On 12 I hit a mediocre lefty 8 iron just left of the green, and a really good righty pitch to about 4 feet. I drained the putt for par. On 13, a short par 4 playing about 250 yards, I aimed safely to the left of the green and flushed a righty drive pin high, about five yards left of the green. Then I bent over to pick up the tee.
After gingerly walking up to the green, I had a pretty straightforward lefty pitch shot. However, I couldn’t make my regular pitching motion, and I shanked it. I then faced a pretty straightforward righty pitch shot, and played it pretty well to about 8 feet. Even though I couldn’t bend over into my regular putting posture, I somehow drained the lefty putt to save par.
14 is a short, downhill par 4 that plays about 220 yards given how the fairway slopes down to the green. I thought this was going to be my last hole of the day, as the green is next to the parking lot. I decided to revert back to a Shawn Clement style swing – a technique that I had used in the past when I first started having lower back trouble. The basic movement pattern is to turn your whole body and raise your arms, then let your arms drop as you turn your body out of the way. I had moved away from this style of swing primarily for vanity reasons. I much prefer the aesthetics of a flatter Hogan style swing, where the body generates the power. However, I knew that I just couldn’t swing like that with my back.
Typically I hit a 3/4 lefty driver on this hole, which is just about enough to reach the green. I hit a low, weak fade with the lefty driver that rolled out about 200 yards down the downhill fairway. However, it was in the middle of the fairway, with just a 40 yard shot. I did my best to just relax on the righty sand wedge – gentle turn, raise the arms, let them drop and move my body out of the way. I hit it just like I wanted, onto the green, leaving me about 20 feet for birdie. Two putts for another par.
At this point, I had to decide whether to get in the car and go home, or try and keep playing. I decided to keep playing. In part, this was because I was kind of afraid to get into the car. Sitting has always been the most difficult thing to do for me when the back is really acting up. I didn’t think I was quite ready to see if that would be the case. I also wasn’t sure how I would do emotionally. After all of the hard work that I’ve done, I was worried I might break down in the car. I sensed somehow that if I kept going, there was at least a chance that I might find something positive to latch on to.
15 is a par 5 that only plays about 350 yards from the yellow tees. I sliced my righty tee shot into the neighboring fairway, leaving me just about 140 yards. I had to play my second shot to the right of the green as I was blocked out by some trees. I took out my lefty 4H, turned, lifted, dropped and turned, and was pleasantly surprised to make solid contact. I finished green high in the trees to the right of the green. I had an opening though, and hit a fortunate pitch over a pile of wood chips and under some branches that trundled onto the green, leaving me about a 30 foot birdie putt. I still didn’t feel like I could get into a good putting posture, and stubbed my lefty first putt, leading to a three putt for bogey. Still, I had reached the green in regulation.
On 16 I turned, lifted, dropped and turned my lefty driver, hooking it back into the fairway on 15. This left me about a 140 yard shot into the green. I made a good easy swing with my 8 iron that left me just short of the green. I hit a really good lefty pitch to about 4 feet, and made the putt for par.
On 17 I hit a really nice and smooth righty driver that faded just right around the short dogleg. This left me with a lefty pitch with the ball above my feet. I dropped the club on the ball just right, leaving me about 12 feet for birdie. I just missed, and tapped in for par.
18 is a par 5 that plays incredibly short from the yellow tees – just about 320 yards. I flushed a lefty driver with my limited swing, just leaving me 120 yards to the green. Normally this would be a full pitching wedge, but I flushed my righty 8 iron pin high, leaving me about 20 feet for eagle. I knocked it a couple of feet by the hole, and made the putt for birdie.
When all was said and done, I shot 9 over on the front, and even on the back. I was two under for the last 8 holes, and even on the last 5 1/2 holes after the back issue.
As I type this the next day, I’m thinking / feeling a few different things.
I’m really proud of how I played the back nine. At my current handicap, my course handicap from the yellow tees is four over. The last time I played the yellow tees was back at the beginning of December. I shot an 81 that day – one stroke higher than yesterday. I was also three over on the back nine in the earlier round, compared with being even par yesterday. And that was with my back being “normal” for the entire round.
I’m also proud of myself for grinding out the round. I had a really good excuse to walk off the course after tweaking my back. It’s entirely possible that medically speaking, that might have been the best thing to do. Still, after going bogey, bogey, double-bogey on holes 8 – 10, I kept my composure and made a great swing on 11 to right the ship. I got myself back into the round, and I stayed focused on making the best swings and decisions I could for the rest of the round.
I’m also rethinking my golf swing. I worry that I might have placed too much confidence in the core work that I’ve done when it comes to how I swing the golf club. I already knew that I couldn’t create the kind of separation that I’d like to have in my swing, so I’ve kept it somewhat dialed back. I’ve played around with really firing the hips some after being warmed up, and while I really like the extra speed that I can get, I can also feel that it puts too much strain on my back. Fortunately, when I’ve tried this it has just led to a bit of soreness – not any sort of nerve pain.
While I can’t definitively say that the way I’ve been swinging led to this relapse, I certainly can’t rule it out. I also can’t ignore the fact that I switched mid-round into a Clement style swing with no practice and a tweaked back, and scored better than my handicap. I think I need to accept that this may be the way that I need to swing the club going forward. While I don’t like the way it looks, I can’t argue with the fact that it’s likely to be at least as effective as how I’ve been swinging it for the last couple of years.
I’m also struggling to know how to think about this upcoming golf season. Before the twinge, I was very optimistic. To this point, I haven’t really allowed myself to think about how the back might just go out again. As much as I’ve tried to focus on process goals, I haven’t been able to stop myself from thinking about outcome goals. I want to get down to a single digit handicap this year. This has been a reminder though about just how quickly things can change. It’s also a reminder of just how vigilant I need to be. No matter how long it has been since my back has acted up, I will always need to move properly.
Alternate Golf 