'X-factor' golf swing linked to back pain

[nitpicker]

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47114990

'X-factor' golf swing linked to back pain

By Michelle Roberts
Health editor, BBC News online

5 February 2019

Striving for a supercharged golf swing could play havoc with your back, according to US doctors. The modern "X-factor" swing favoured by many professionals may hit balls harder and further but it can also put extra strain on the spine, the Barrow Neurological Institute experts say. They look at the example of Tiger Woods in their research, which is published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine.
(snip)

An X-factor golf swing tries to get maximum rotation of the player's shoulders relative to their hips at the top of the backswing. This big rotation creates wound-up potential energy - the X-factor - but Dr Corey Walker, Dr Juan Uribe and Dr Randall Porter, from Barrow, say it may come at a cost, twisting the lumbar spine.

The spinal surgeons have been studying how the golf swing of present-day professionals, including Tiger Woods, differs from those of golf veterans, such as Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan. They say players' physiques and techniques have changed significantly over recent decades. Modern players are more muscular and have more powerful downswings and this can put increased force on the spinal disc and facet joints, they believe. And over time, it can result in a damaging process that the authors call "repetitive traumatic discopathy" (RTD).
(snip)

Dr Walker said: "We believe Tiger Woods's experience with spinal disease highlights a real and under-recognised issue amongst modern era golfers. "Tiger was using the mechanics of the modern day swing and that places a tremendous amount of strain on the back. It's still a theory but we are starting to see the late stages of this in some of our patients. We are seeing younger and younger elite level golfers with degeneration in their lower back."
(snip)

[underpants]

1. Interesting. I'd say buy the Titleist THE BOMB ball +10-20 yards on drives

At least on mine.