Golf....after back surgery. Anybody have story to tell?

[Divotmaker77]

Had severe back spasms after running about 4 months ago.  It went away and thought I was fine and then I was on the range one day and stated to feel some slight pain in my left glute area.  Over a 2 week period it developed into pain all down my left leg but no numbness.

Had an MRI done and found out I have a slight bulge in the L4-5 area, but the pain is being caused by an annular tear in the disk. 

As of right now no surgery.  Doing some yoga, lighter exercise at the gym, and no golf (except putting and chipping) for the next 6-8 weeks.  Pain is starting to go away but any twisting is going to flare it up again until the tear repairs itself.

All I can say is that I never realized why back pain is so debilitating to folks in general and especially golfers until I had this incident. Literally have lost 10 MPH to my swing speed. I tried speeding it up and the body just would not allow me to.  My appreciation for being able to play golf (good or bad golf) has gone up exponentially after this injury.

[paininthenuts]

I play against a friend who had back surgery a few years ago. He was unable to play until last summer, and now has to use a very short and restricted swing. He is a lovely bloke, but to be honest his golf is complete rubbish.