Driver swing after back surgery?

[Bullitt5339]

After returning to golf after back surgery, I obviously had to make some changes to my game.  The most notable is that my swing speed has slowed considerably, and I am only swinging 92mph with my driver now, down around 10mph from the peak 5 years ago.

I am having my driver reshafted with a Regular shaft instead of the Stiff that I used to play.  Currently gaming a DVS 65S and switching to a DVS 60R.

Currently my problem is that I have a push off the tee, which turns into a push/slice quite often.

Even more disturbing than that is that I have taken a few lessons to get rid of it, and the instructor can fix it for me.  I can hit them straight with a nice trajectory.  Simple right?  Practice the swing that gets them straight from the instructor seems like the right thing to do.  But there's one BIG problem.........

The swing causes me physical pain.  Not immediately, but I get fatigued from the pressure on my lower back after a few drives and start to feel it.  Hitting 20 balls at the driving range with the driver leads to Percoset the next day, I can feel the strain on my lower back when I'm going into my backswing.  If I don't feel that "pressure" for lack of a better word, it's push slice city or low bleeders.

I can hit irons all day without any pain though.

Are there any tips for a crippled guy who still wants to get a decent tee shot?  I don't want to hit them 300 anymore, I just want 230 and in the fairway nowadays.  More important, I want to enjoy the game again.  Because of this problem, my handicap has gone from a 10.3 to now I'm playing off around a 20.  My irons are better than they've ever been, my shortgame is improving, especially my putting, but it's tough to score when you're not hitting off the tee into playable positions.

I just want to play the game without physical pain.  Since I can hit my irons without pain well, there must be a way to hit the driver straight without pain for me.

[poser]

I had back surgery 2 years ago this June. I tried every different swing method I could to find something that fit and took pain off my back.  The biggest thing that has helped me is staying more centered over the ball and shifting down better so I don't have to cheat and dip my rear shoulder which causes me to back out of the shot and put pressure on my back.  I swing the same way with driver and irons so not sure why he has you swinging two different ways.  People love to say you need to torque into a braced right leg but, when I do that my pain in the back is horrible.  I actually pre turn my right hip to help me make a bigger hip turn and I avoid any tension or torque in my lower body or back and I may give up a few yards but, I'm not in pain anymore.

[Bullitt5339]

I ended up going to the range today with no idea of what I was going to do with my driver. I ended up just trying a few things to see what I could do without inflicting pain on myself. What I figured out is that if I concentrate on having the feeling of keeping my hips square to the ball during my backswing, I could take the huge slice out easily. Then I read your post about pre-turning your hips and realized that's pretty much what I was doing. By keeping my lower body quiet on the backswing and moving the ball forward in my stance about 2”, I was able to take the slice out completely, but was still pushing them slightly. Like you said, it also seems to help me get a full hip turn, something I was missing before.  Then I thought Geez, you have one of those high speed adjustable drivers, maybe you should try using that little wrench they gave you. I set the R9 on full left and then was pulling my shots about 15 yards left of target, but no hook involved. I hit a few like that and was very consistent with the amount of pull I had going on. Then I pulled the wrench back out and opened the face up one notch, so it was in between neutral and left. After that, I was hitting them straight.

The setup feels a bit strange to me, but is easily repeatable and consistent. I've never hit a ball that was forward of my front toe, but it's working for me and causes me no pain whatsoever. I was hitting them about 220-230 every time and straight. I can live with that right now, especially with a setup that feels alien to me.

I have never had any instruction on my irons. I haven't had trouble hitting my 6-PW for years, and still don't, even after surgery. My iron swing is also pretty steep and I take pretty nice sized divots, so when I try to use the same swing, I end up hitting the ground. And I'm not about to retool the one thing that works good in my game, when so many things aren't,....... lol

[GixxerTed]

How long has it been since you had back surgery?  What kind of surgery was it?  I had a decompression done 4 years ago on L4-l5. No matter what you do golf is gonna irritate you back.  Best thing that helps me is working out/ stayin active  and ib profuen before i play.  I've got my back and core pretty strong now and most days its like i never had an injury. Played yesterday 36 holes no problems. Little soreness but i feel great.