All Golfers Have Bad Backs

Having suffered from a bad back since my college days, it has been extremely time consuming and expensive pursuing therapies – pain medications and muscle relaxers, chiropractors, orthopedists, physical therapists, massge therapists and so on.

In addition, I have bought and used special chairs, gravity incliners, beds, inversion traction equipent to relieve my painful back episodes.

I have learned and practiced TaiChi, Chi Qung and Yoga to keep my connected muscles stretched and pliable. ,

And exercise disciplines to strengthen my core musculature including Pilates and physical therapist prescribed exercises.

My brothers and both parents had been plagued by back issues and my mother specifically has stenosis passed down to each of us, her sons

My brothers learned golf in their 20s  and played together often for two decades. Especially after our middle brother passed away, I wanted to be able to play golf with my yougest brother as a shared activity - something we could together and do, after our parents and brother were all gone.

But once he reached 55 years old, his back was worse than mine. He has virtually no disc material left between two of the vertebrae in his lower back, so it is essentially bone riding on bone.

He could be a candidate for various surgeries, but none of those offer guaranteed positive results and relief.

His own efforts at therapies and exercise, meditation, and methods of ignoring pain have allowed him to continue to play golf serveral times a week.

But many times his rounds have been cut short when his back seized up and he could hardly walk - or he just had to bow out of a tee time with friends.

He had turned me onto virtual Golf with EA Sports Tiger Woods 08.  When I told him I always wanted to play for real, but worried about my back, he said, "All Golfers Have Bad Backs."

So this started my search for a way to play, despit my bad back.  See "Playing Golf with a Bad Back"