10 Common Golf Injuries and Treatments

Golf is a game of perseverance and a lot of hands-on skills. A golfer needs to give a lot of time on practicing to excel at it. Every golfer face the body stress due to the nature of the swing and undergoes various golf injuries. It is a very obvious thing for the golfers to suffer from different kind of nagging injuries several times or at least once. Even those who play golf casually also experience some common golf injuries. If you want to play golf, you have to know about the golf injuries and golf injury preventions. For elbow injuries you should must use perfect elbow brace.

Some common golf injuries and their treatment or prevention are the following:

1. Golfer’s Elbow and Tennis Elbow injuries

When there is eruption and pain on the inside of the upper arm close to the elbow is called golfer’s elbow. When someone feels pain or soreness on the outside of the upper arm close to the elbow is called Tennis elbow. Most of the golfers suffer from tennis elbow. You may feel pain while doing a backswing or at impact.

Prevention

Treatment may vary from person to person depending on the severity of the problem. The possible treatments are like medications, rest, surgery, cortisone, counter force bracing and therapy.
What you should not do during this injury:
+ Before impact, do not decelerate the club.
+ Do not expand the hands prematurely at the top of the back swing for a few days.

2. Back pain injuries

It is a very common injuries that the golfers come across no matter how professional he is. Both amateurs and expert golfers suffer from back pain. Year-long practice of swing causes back pain to the golfers. Sometimes you need to give pressure on swing even after mastering it. Back pain occurs due to some other factors such as arthritis, muscle pain, disk related problems, stress fracture, mechanical problems etc. 

Prevention

The golfers should train themselves on the perfect swing. They should also know proper back mechanics as well as practice proper stretching.
What you should not do during this injury:
You must avoid placing your feet too far apart while you have back pain.

3. Carpal tunnel syndrome

It is a stress disorder that occurs in the nerves of the hand repetitively. The symptoms of this disorder is wrist area pain, tingling and numbness of the fingers, clumsiness and weakness of the hand.

Prevention

The possible treatments can be splinting, medication, rest. One may need a surgery if it is a worst case.
What you should not do during this injury:
Golfers should not give high pressure on the club grip as high pressure makes the swing less accurate and increases the wrist problems.

Read more : Carpal tunnel syndrome

4. Shoulder injuries

The reason behind the behind the shoulder pain is acromioclavicular joint arthritis, rotator cuff tendonitis, impingement, scapular lag, instability etc. Symptoms of this problem are upper arm pain at the different phases of golf swing and night pain.

Prevention 

The treatments of this problem is therapy, medication, rest, cortisone injection and at times surgery depending on the level of pain or severity.

You have to stretch your shoulder joints before playing golf. You can make your scapular muscle flexible by exercising to prevent the injury.
What you should not do during this injury:
Do not practice back swing with very high speed while having shoulder pain. Otherwise it will increase the stress on the shoulders. 

5. Knee injuries

One of the common golf injuries is knee pain. It occurs due to a number of reasons. Knee injuries may originate from the force placed on the knee to stabilize the spinning of the axis of the hip at the starting of the swing. Some other causes of this pain are osteoarthritis, torn meniscus and chondromalacia. The symptoms of knee pain are swelling or clicking of the knee making it worse by squatting or twisting. 

Prevention

The possible treatments are medication, rest, arthroscopic surgery, injection treatment, therapy, bracing and total joint replacement. You should see a doctor if you feel pain on the knee because the treatment mostly depends on the severity of the swelling.

6. Neck Injuries

New golfers are prone to have neck injury. They are not habituated to twisting the body for so long. The neck muscles get shorten in spasm as a result of hour-long hitting the balls and swinging the club and hence you might feel the pain of having a stiff neck. 

Prevention

You need to exercise to strengthen and make your neck and upper back flexible. You may take breaks during playing golf to avoid neck injury. You can work up slowly to longer periods for practicing golf.

7. Plantar Fasciitis

If you choose wrong footwear while playing golf then you might suffer from plantar fasciitis. It is a swelling of the plantar fascia which is located under the foot sole. It is attached to the heel bone. The symptom of this problem is feeling pain in the heel early in the morning.

 prevention

There are some non-steroidal drugs anti-swelling drugs and ice packs that are helpful for this problem and reduce pain to a great extent. Sometimes total rest along with splints is suggested for more severe 

8. Hand and Finger Injuries

It is a common injury for the golfers. It occurs due to the swing at high speed and the repetitive golf motions. These two factors increases the risk of having injuries in the hand and fingers. Repetitive blunt trauma of the fingers are the reason behind many worst conditions like deformed or broken bones, tendinitis, hypothenar hammer syndrome.

Prevention

You can take some measures to prevent these injuries such as knowing the proper grip, not hitting balls on the artificial mat, not trying long period of ball bashing. 

9. Tendonitis Injury

Golfers undergo DeQuervain’s tendinitis mostly. Pain, swelling and tenderness at the wrists close to the base of the thumb are the typical symptoms of tendinitis. Generally people feel pain at the left wrist while doing a backswing. It occurs by the swelling in the tendons controlling the thumb. Tendinitis also happens due to premature release of hands and excessive tilting of the wrist. Its symptoms have similarities with the thumb arthritis.  

prevention

The possible treatments are splinting of thumb spica, medication, rest, cortisone, therapy, surgery etc. Sometimes doctors suggest an x-ray to check the severity of the problem.
What you should not do during this injury:
Avoid releasing the hand prematurely at the backswing.

10. Hip Injuries

Hip is more vulnerable to get injured while playing golf than any other part of the body though hip is a mobile organ and it endures a lot of stress and weight. Golfers need to do pivoting and twisting movement for practicing golf swing. They also have to adduct repeatedly during a swing. It impose a tremendous amount of force on the hip. Low back injuries and groin strains occur due to shear and rotational forces. Since the hip joint is similar to the rotator cuff, hip injuries are similar to the tear of the rotator cuff too.

Prevention

You need to make the hip muscle flexible as well as add strength to it in order to prevent injuries. So before playing golf always try to do some routine exercise to warm up the muscles. 

Conclusion

No matter how many risk or injury factors are there, golf has always been a game of the players top most choice. You need to keep fit to practice golf. Otherwise you will not be enjoy the real excitement of the golf. We hope, this article will help you to be conscious about the golf injuries and their treatment and prevention and let you escape some injuries or help you to recover from one accordingly