Playing With Injury

[Shanks A Million]

I now respect Tiger's U.S. Open win a lot more. I played the PGA tour stop, Disney's Magnolia with a strained ACL. I couldn't convince myself to shift my weight onto the left leg, and had a terrible, terrible day. I almost cried. I hit only 7 fairways, drove the ball about 200 yards on average, and hit exactly 0 greens. I thinned or skulled nearly every wedge. I ended up shortsided behind a bunker 7 times! I had to hit flop shots, and I could barely control them. I drove into multiple bunkers, several of which left me with absolutely no shot (under a lip on one, stymied by a tree on another). I made just two pars all day I believe, and even that was scrambling. I took 3 shots to reach every par 4 except maybe one. I reached one par 5, but hooked it into the greenside bunker.

I ended up with a dismal 107.

How do you come back after this? I think I'm healed up, but my brain seems to want to straighten my leg, which actually makes it worse. Now my confidence is shattered. In the whole day, I hit exactly 3 shots pure... That's it.

How do you regain trust in your swing?

[shortstop20]

It's only one bad day, no reason to lose confidence in anything.

[jamo]

It is all about having confidence on the leg, and you also need to do a lot of strengthening. My father shoots consistently in the 80s, but he only plays 2 or 3 times a year and has no ACL.

[Shanks A Million]

It's only one bad day, no reason to lose confidence in anything.

That's what I keep telling myself, but you know, it's hard to come back from injury. Do you think playing a few 9 hole rounds at familliar courses will help? I'm a little nervous to get out and play again, so I sit at home simmering, waiting to heal, and that round is etched on my mind. Even my scrambling was dreadful. I made one decent putt all day, and took a total of 31 putts, one of my worst putting rounds ever.

One problem I think, is that I didn't warm up. I always warm up first, but didn't want to stress my leg.

[shortstop20]

I wouldn't be playing at all until you heal.

Keep your mind and body occupied in the meantime though, exercise your arms, your back(not your bad leg though). Read some mental game books.

[ncb09]

ive badly pulled my groin playing football (soccer if ur in US...haha) i didnt think i wud be that bad to go for a round.... I thought rong, thats all i'll say!! o well, deep heat + painkillers... i'll be out again next week lol

[JetFan1983]

Gotta agree with shortstop. When injured, you just have to rest. Bite the bullet. You don't want to make it worse ya know?

[Shanks A Million]

I decided to do just that. I'm taking about two weeks off to let it heal some more. The funny part was it didn't hurt much at all, it was just hard to convince my brain to get my weight down, and as a result I thinned or skulled everything because I stood up through impact (which is why the leg was bad in the first place, ironically).