I'm back! (literally and again)

After a multi-year hiatus, I’m back! To make a long story short, a lot of things happened in life that kept me away from the game, such as the birth of my second child and becoming the assistant (to the) coach for my son’s soccer team, which in itself is a hilarious story because I know literally nothing about soccer. As far as the blog goes, I was previously hosting it on WordPress which was running into a lot of issues and I really didn’t have the time to switch platforms until recently. But now I’m back and starting to play consistently again.

A few months ago, I started noticing some pretty bad back pain after a round of golf and it was starting to get worse each time I played. It got to the point where I felt pain in my lower back even after a range session. And progressed to the point where I would take very easy swings and I could feel it tighten up after hitting just a small bucket of range balls. I kind of avoided playing for a while and accepted the possibility that I may just never play again. One day I played 18 holes with a friend and the next day, my back was so tight that I could not walk or stand up. It was really interfering with my life, so I decided enough was enough and it was time for a change.

First, I realized my mattress was 12 years old so I replaced that to a firmer one and it seemed to make a difference. Next, I sought out a physical trainer who specializes in golf (yes that actually exists). I have tried PT’s in the past but they didn’t really seem to help that much. After doing some research, I came upon Dr. Nima Enayati at Tee it Up Physical Therapy. I explained to him my situation and he told me my back issues were very common and he was confident he could help me. It’s basically an online/virtual program where he uses an app to let me know what exercises to do daily and I even sent him my swing videos so he can see what was causing the pain. In my instance, I was swaying in my backswing, which was limiting rotation and causing my lower back to rotate to compensate. Your lower back isn’t meant to rotate and I did not know that. So after a few weeks of the program, my pain went almost completely away and I’ve been playing weekly. If you have back pain from golf, I totally recommend Dr. Nima. He’s located in San Diego so it might be worth it to go in person if you’re nearby. Otherwise, the online route isn’t perfect but it’s working for me.

Anyway to give an update on where I am golf wise, I honestly have not been playing for 2 ½ years. This past weekend, I decided to walk the back 9 partly to test my back and shot a +8 of 44, which is a 16.2 differential. More importantly, my back feels great. My next goal is to break 80. I’m slowly getting back into things and have got some new equipment, which I will post about later.