Bad back made me a better golfer.

[jeardley]

A while back I put my back out and long story short it was about 8-10 weeks before I could make a full swing without making it worse and suffering. Couldn't play on the course at all.

Anyway, during that time I honed in my short game working on shots from 70 yrds in.

Where as before i'd always approach a 60-70 yrd shot with a full 56 wedge, I found myself hitting a 48 degree wedge or 9i with half a swing instead. This pitch had a much lower trajectory and for me felt much more controllable with the shorter swing... couple of bounces then stop

I am sure this has lead me to lower scoring over the summer.

I also paid a lot of attention to chipping around the green in general, trying to get up and down more consistently.

Anyone else made the most of an injury / lay off?

 

[link80]

I'm about 4 weeks into having a really bad back which will probably take another 4 weeks to recover properly. Even though I only play about once a month I do practice quite a lot. For the first couple of weeks I couldn't do anything at all and since then have just been working on my short game. Played last thursday and despite topping nearly every tee shot 20 yards in front of me and barely out of the tee boxes, I managed to shoot 96, only 7 shots worse than my handicap. Considering how bad I was off the tee and the pain I was in I managed to get my head down and make 3 pars and a birdie 2 on the back nine and hit the pin with my second from about 100 yards on the par 4 18th. I just hope when im fully fit again I can find some form back off the tee again and keep improving my short game. Also the worst of it was that the clubhouse had lent me a g15 driver to try as I don't use one but I could only manage one shot with it.