Forethoughts: Healthy Concerns

Jon Rizzi

Hypochondria isn’t my thing. I’m usually pretty stoic about aches and pains.

But in putting together this 15th Club issue—devoted to health, fitness and wellness—I’ve caught myself wondering about the hidden health perils of golf. For example, last fall, while having a patio lunch at a local club, I watched a guy in a HAZMAT suit fumigating the 18th green—the same surface from which my playing partner would later pick up his ball, mark it, lick it clean and replace it.

He said he’d done that since he was a kid. I say that can’t possibly have been good for him.

Nor can fishing balls from effluent water or trying to squeeze in another shot after the lightning horn sounds (unless you want to end up like the bishop in Caddyshack or get DQ’d from a tournament.)

Admittedly, during my darker moments I’ve questioned whether hours of practicing bunker shots could result in silicosis, or if a heavy rain could produce a sinkhole capable of swallowing my golf cart. Searches into deep rough have occasionally prompted me
to consider stocking my golf bag with antivenom, which I’d store next to the bear spray and the insect repellant that wards off West Nile-virus-carrying mosquitoes.

The golf course obviously isn’t the minefield suggested by these addled ruminations. Superintendents take great care to provide safe environments. The only real and present danger comes from the solar beatdown we get at altitude. So we cover ourselves in sunscreen and UV protective clothing, depriving ourselves of Vitamin D.

But how do we protect ourselves from injury when we repeatedly engage in one of the most unnatural body movements ever—the golf swing? The physical toll that action takes on avid players runs the gamut, from the neck and shoulders to the wrist, elbows, hips, knees and the back.

“Prehab” is one solution. No longer an oxymoron, “golf fitness” has enmeshed itself in the fabric of the game. Even the amateurs in Thursday-night beer leagues have evolved from paunchy duffers into trim golf athletes. They might not be doing 300-pound squats like Rory McIlroy, but exercises like the ones on pages 52-71 certainly make a difference in performance.

Still, no matter how fit, professional athletes still get injured. When your livelihood depends on your physical execution, the slightest pains can cost you major dollars. That’s why Parker-based PGA Tour player Shane Bertsch sees Greg Roskopf, founder and CEO of Muscle Activation Techniques.

He’s not alone. Roskopf’s patient list includes such elite athletes as Peyton Manning and scores of leading competitors from across the country. His most recent and publicized success has come with Amy Van Dyken-Rouen, the six-time Olympic gold medalist whose legs were paralyzed by an ATV accident. Roskopf and his team have worked miracles in helping the 43-year-old Denver native slowly regain her ability to walk.

While nowhere near as mind-blowing, Roskopf’s work with Bertsch is critical to the golfer, who has bounced between the PGA Tour, Web.com Tour and the medical exemption list. Roskopf’s work twice helped Bertsch recover from broken bones and sustained his musculoskeletal strength. So when the golfer felt some continued discomfort in his left shoulder, he immediately knew whom to seek out.

Keeping you fine-tuned for golf, whether through training or rehabbing, comprises much of this issue. It will help prepare your mind and body for whatever the game presents—except, perhaps, when your partner licks his balls.

More “Forethoughts” from editor Jon Rizzi:

Golf Done to a Turn

It Happens Every Spring

To The Good Life?

Fitting Your Top Club

Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.