Upper Body Injuries in Golfers

Abstract

Purpose of review: Golf is a sport that can be played by an athlete of any age, which enhances its popularity. Each golfer's swing is unique, and there is no "right" way to swing the golf club; however, the professional golfer often has more of a consistent swing as opposed to an amateur golfer. A collaborative, team approach involving the golfer with a swing coach, physical therapist, and physician often can be informative on how to prevent golf injury, but also how to treat golf injury if it occurs.

Recent findings: As a rotational sport, the golfer needs to be trained and treated with respect for how the body works as a linkage system or kinetic chain. A warm-up is recommended for every golfer before practicing or playing, and this warm-up should account for every segment of the linkage system. Though it has been thought of as a relatively safe sport, injuries can be seen with golfers of any age or skill level, and upper body injuries involving the cervical and thoracic spine, shoulder, elbow, and wrist are common. A narrative review is provided here of the epidemiology of golf injury and common injuries involving each of these upper body regions. In addition, treatment and injury prevention recommendations are discussed.

Keywords: Cervical spine injury; Elbow injury; Golf; Shoulder injury; Thoracic spine injury; Wrist injury.

Fig. 1

Ball address

Fig. 2

End of backswing

Fig. 3

Highlighting forces at the left thumb and right wrist

Fig. 4

Forward swing and acceleration

Fig. 5

Ball impact

Fig. 6

Early follow-through

Fig. 7

Late follow-through

Fig. 8

Reverse-C

Fig. 9

Lead shoulder position in backswing where symptoms of subacromial impingement, rotator cuff disease and acromioclavicular arthritis are felt

Fig. 10

Therapeutic exercise for rotator cuff tendinopathy. From Kinsella R, Cowan, SM, Watson L, Pizzari T. A comparison of isometric, isotonic concentric and isotonic eccentric exercises in the physiotherapy management of subacromial pain syndrome/rotator cuff tendinopathy: study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2017;3:45 [106], under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0).

Fig. 11

Original serape looking like a scarf wrapped around the neck, crossing the front of the body and inserting into the pant line. From Santana JC, McGill SM, Brown LE. Anterior and posterior serape: the rotational core. Strength Cond J. 2015;37(5):8–13; with permission [96].

Fig. 12

Body seen as serape involving muscles arranged in series along spiral lines with myofascial connections between muscles and their tendons. Many of the muscles and tendons do not connect directly to bone but through pathways ranging further than the length of one muscle. For example, the thoracolumbar fascia connects the lower limbs through the gluteus maximus muscle to the upper limbs through the latissimus dorsi muscle. From Santana JC, McGill SM, Brown LE. Anterior and posterior serape: the rotational core. Strength Cond J. 2015;37(5):8–13; with permission [96].