Last week at FitGolf
in Conshohocken, physical therapist David
Ostrow released the Iliascus
muscle on the front of my pelvis.This week, to "release" the corresponding muscle in my lower back, he
flipped me over onto my stomach and went to work on my left quadratus
lumborum.
The quadratus
lumborum, which resembles a flank steak, wraps along the side of your back,
between the 12th and 11th ribs.When it become tight and contracted over
time, as my has, it contributes to the asymmetry of my entire body, with my
left shoulder being lower than it should be and my left hip being higher than
it should be.
The resulting affect on the golf swing is that the
rotation on my back swing is restricted.No turn, no torque.No
torque, no distance.
After a few minutes of working on the muscle, Ostrow had me roll over onto my right
side, whereupon he gripped my left pelvis with his left hand and the bottom of
my rib cage with his right hand – and then me began to pull them apart,
stretching my entire left side.
"We are releasing the back muscle," he told me.
It didn’t hurt but it was not altogether pleasant, either.
Afterwards, Ostrow took me out into the main studio to show me a side-stretch
exercise for the coming week.After he demonstrated, I tried it.It felt good – rather, it felt good for me.I won’t mind
doing it all week.
With my swing and my body fully
evaluated at FitGolf
in Conshohocken in Week 1, it was time for David
Ostrow and me to get down to work.The goal in the coming weeks being to
improve my flexibility and range of motion, both of which have more or less
ossified over time.
In Ostrow’s judgment, the place to
start was pretty much a no-brainer: my hip flexor.
In laymen’s terms, the hip
flexor is the group of muscles around the hip and pelvic area that control the
rotation and movement of your hips.In my case, my right side is okay.It’s my left hip and pelvis that are tight to the point that I can’t
rotate properly when I swing a golf club; it’s bad enough, in fact, that when I
walk long distances, I tend to limp slightly or almost waddle because my left
side won’t turn and flex as it should.
"We’re in the Keystone state
and I think of the pelvis as almost being the keystone area of the body," said Ostrow. "It unlocks a lot."
Digging in the Iliacus
Key to addressing my hip
flexor was "releasing" my Iliacus
muscle, a teardrop-shaped affair that attaches to the hip by a tendon, then
heads north before fanning out and attaching across the upper rim of the
pelvis.It helps pull your leg
forward when you walk.
To work on it, Ostrow had me
lay face-up on his examining table and he began working the fingertips of his
right hand into the Iliacusmuscle.He pressed firmly and steadily with his
fingertips without really messaging the area; it didn’t hurt but it was mildly uncomfortable.
Ostrowlikened what he was doing to pressing on skin of an onion until that outer
layer began soften; then he worked his fingertips in a little deeper, until the
next layer of the onion, or my Iliacus muscle, was
soft.Ostrow would continue working
his fingertips until the Iliacus eventually, almost magically, released.
In some people, this process
takes five minutes, said Ostrow; in others it takes three hours.My Iliacustook about 30 minutes to release, which is about average -- and
there was, as always, a warning.
"When the muscle is about to
release, my fingertips get warm to the touch," said Ostrow, holding out his hand for
a moment for me to feel his fingertips.Sure enough, they were warm.He returned to his work and within a few moments, done.
"When it releases, some people
say they feel Ôlight,"said Ostrow. "Some
say Ôlooser."Some say Ôsofter.""
When I stood, I too could feel
a difference.My left hip felt, I
don’t know, looser, freer.When I
took a few steps, my left hip felt like it was moving better.
My asymmetry
The point in dealing with my
hip flexor first was to begin to deal with what Ostrow called the "asymmetry" of
my entire body.Because my hip
muscles on left side were so tight and contracted, it actually made my left leg
slightly shorter, which has all kinds of ramifications on other muscles in your
midsection, not to mention your golf swing.
Out in the studio, Ostrow assigned
me an exercise
to do at home every day for five minutes to keep the hip flexor loose.Basically, I lie across a giant rubber
ball, with my left hip muscles stretched out.I’ve done it almost every day and, while
it doesn’t hurt, I do find myself watching the minutes and seconds bleed off
the clock until I can quit.
Seriously, my what
is shorter?
As our second session was
concluding, Ostrow
told me what we’d tackle next week; frankly, it sounded a little creepy:For reasons he cannot explain, the
muscles up and down the left side of my upper torso have tightened and shrunk
to the point that my left shoulder is slightly lower than my right shoulder,
and my left hip is slightly higher than my right, truncating the area between
my left shoulder and left hip.
While it sounds bizarre, Ostrow said that
upwards of 90 percent of people have this same phenomenon to some degree.It can happen on the left side or
the right side, and there is no apparent explanation for which side it happens to.The fact that I am left-handed has
nothing to do with the asymmetry affecting my left side, said Ostrow.
What especially surprised me
was that I had never noticed any of this until Ostrow had me standing in front
of a wall full of mirrors examining my reflection.Sure enough, my left shoulder is
perceptively lower than my might.
The golf test
Nothing puts Ostrow’s work to
the test more than playing a round of golf.I did that three days after our session,
on Saturday, monitoring my body at every step.
While my score didn’t drop
dramatically – at all, really -- I could definitely feel difference in my
left hip.I walked better, more
loosely, and at least in my head, I imagined a slight improvement in my hip
rotation when I swung.
A
few final thoughts and observations from the 2012 Masters...
¥Bubba
Watson’s recovery shot from out of the woods on the 10th –
the second playoff hole – is an instant classic that will join the Masters all-time highlight reel, along
with Tiger Woods’ slow-mo chip-in at the 16th (In your life...!) and Phil
Mickelson’s 6-iron at the 13th, from off the pine straw and
behind the tree.
¥
Speaking of Phil, what the
----?
Okay,
that sprayed tree shot at the 4th on Sunday was understandable given
the pressure of the moment.But the
decision to try to chop it out of the bushes right-handed, not once but twice?
It
was enough to make me revisit my Masters
predictions post from a few days ago.To wit:
I like Phil Mickelson, and he is a true Masters
stud, but Phil seems to have lost half a step at 41. I’ve also
found myself questioning Phil’s thought processes ever since he started
wearing those too-tight shirts with the weird collars. Any man who can
stand in front of a mirror wearing one of those shirts and think he’s good to
go, can no longer be trusted to make completely sound decisions on the back
nine at Augusta on Sunday.
Granted,
the shirt wasn’t too tight, but my comments about trusting Phil to make sound decisions turned out to be spot on.
¥
Don’t even get me started on Tiger.Just when you think he’s back, nah, he’s
not.How can somebody play like he
did two weeks ago at Bay Hill, then
collapse like a Walmart
pup tent at Augusta – a course
and tournament he has owned to the
tune of four green jackets.
And
the guy somehow managed to tarnish his tarnished image even worse by dropping a
very audible G—damn bomb on the
13th on Saturday.Kicking the club at the 16th was what you’d expect from a
spoiled 14-year-old.He embarrassed
himself.
¥
On the issue of Augusta National GC
remaining all-male, I’ve got to say I missed the call this time.I thought they’d embrace Ginny Rometty,
the new CEO of IBM.
Why?Because Billy Payne, the current chairman of Augusta National, is a man of these modern times.He understands how it appears to the
outside world to have a club that purports to be a symbol of promoting and
advancing the game to allow to itself to be such blatant symbol of a bygone
era.
I
know it’s a private club and they can do what they want, invite who they want,
create what ever little world they want.But to what end? And at what cost to the reputation to the club?
It
was one thing back when Martha Burk,
feminist activist, wanted former chairman Hootie Johnson to induct a woman member, any woman, just to make a point.This time, it’s almost like a personal
snub of a particular woman – an important, success corporate titan of a
woman.You’d think IBM would be
pissed off for her.
¥
This whole "patrons" thing has suddenly started to bug me. I wince and squirm a little every time I
hear one of the CBS guys, and now even the players, assiduously refer to the
gallery, the fans, the spectators as "patrons."
C’mom, is "patron"
a higher grade of spectator?The
patrons seem to wear the same goofy hats and holler the same dopey lines, like You da man, Tiger!!!
The
whole idea is so...artificial and transparent.
¥
What I really want to know after Sunday is what happened to that "patron" who
got nailed by Peter Hanson’s errant
drive at the 8th hole.I
can’t find anything anywhere, not even in the Augusta Chronicle. If you missed it, here it is:
This "patron" nonsense is absurd. Everyone involved kowtows to the Green Jackets. What would really happen if Jim Nantz let go and said "galleries" instead?
Okay,
here’s the thing:I hate doing
"picks" going into a major.
Even
10 years ago, when Tiger Woods was
at the peak of being Tiger Woods,
doing the obligatory "picks" for The
Inquirer on the Sunday before each major felt like an exercise in futility
bordering on dumbassery.No fool, I’d pick Tiger as first among
my "Five to Watch," but after him, it was like picking lottery numbers.Still, my editors wanted it, so I did
it.
All
these years later, out of habit, whenever a major rolls around, I find myself
doing "picks" in my head.It gives
me a headache.
You
can spend an hour on the PGA Tour website studying players’ stats and stuff
like it was the Daily Racing Form,
and you make a what feels like a semi-educated guess.But golf being golf, it all
unravels quickly.I mean, c’mon,
who among us didn’t see CharlSchwartzel
coming last year?
That,
of course, brings us to this year’s Masters.
I
might have picked Dustin Johnson,
who I think is overdue to win a major, but that putz
just WD’ed because of a back injury – something
about trying to life a jet ski.I’m
shaking my head here.
I
like Phil Mickelson, and he is a
true Masters stud, but Phil seems to have lost half a step at
41. I’ve also found myself
questioning Phil’s thought processes
ever since he started wearing those too-tight shirts with the weird
collars.Any man who can stand in
front of a mirror wearing one of those shirts and think he’s good to go, can no
longer be trusted to make completely sound decisions on the back nine at
Augusta on Sunday.
Who
else?
Luke Donald, who is back to No. 1 in the world now? I want to
believe but, sorry, I don’t.Hunter Mahan?Possible.Lee
Westwood?Also overdue, but no.
Heck, I could go on like this for a while, but I won’t .For me, I keep coming back two
guys:Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods.
Right
now, I’d take Rory and Tiger against the field and be
happy.We all saw what Rory did last year in the Masters, right up to his tee shot at
the 10th on Sunday.He is to be greatly admired for the way he held his head high afterward,
and for the way he rebounded with his win at the U.S. Open two months later.He is the first to admit that he has much to prove this year at the Masters.Don’t bet against him.
Still,
after that performance at Bay Hill, I keep coming back to Tiger.Damn, he looks
good, confident, determined.Truth
is, he looks "back" in ways I didn’t think was possible.If you look at the PGA Tour stats, he
pretty much leads in every stat that matters.
So,
why do I feel all queasy in the stomach about picking Tiger?
Seriously,
why do I feel like a teenage girl who finally broke up with my badass
boyfriend, but now he wants back in my life and he’s on the phone, begging?I know he’s bad for me, and I know can’t
trust him, and I can hear my mother in the next room, yelling, "Hang up! Don’t you go back to that
boy!He will hurt you again!"
But
I’m all weak in the knees.Please,
stop me before I believe again.
I don’t know if Tiger is back.After that long-overdue and commanding
victory Bay Hill on Sunday, he sure looks back.
Who I do can say is back,
for sure, is me – back watching golf.As I planted myself in front of the
high-def, big screen yesterday, I couldn’t remember
the last time I had cleared the afternoon to watch the final round of a PGA
Tour event, from the introductions on the first tee shot to the tap-in on the
18th.
I can’t remember the last
time I watched every shot Tiger hit, studied every swing, looking for clues
into the State of Tiger.Was he
back for the day?For the
tournament?Or, you know, really backback?
For all the good to great
shots he hit yesterday, I thought the look on Tiger’s face was more revealing
than anything else.Gone were the
displays of disappointment and disgust with himself and his game we’ve seen of
late.Tiger looked confident, in control, steely, in ways we haven’t seen
in...well three-plus years.
Until now, we’ve only seen
flashes of what we hoped would be "back."There was his win last fall at his own tournament, which wasn’t terribly
convincing.There were the pair of
68s earlier this at the AT&T Pebble Beach, there was the 62 in the final
round of the Honda Classic and there was the 65 on Friday at Bay Hill.
But there was also a closing
75 at Pebble Beach, and there was a worrisome collection of missed putts at a
variety of tournaments.Then, there
was the limp-off exit at the WGC Cadillac Championship at Doral a couple of weeks
ago.When that happened, who among
us didn’t go, "Oh, no, here we go again."
But this hard-charging
5-shot win at the ArnyInvy is enough to get me and millions of golf fans
excited again.Frankly, I’m tired
of be smug and disgusted over what and how Tiger
imploded his life a couple of years ago.I’m ready for him to give us a reason to be exited about his golf
again.Now, he has done just that.
Of course, it couldn’t some
at a better time, only a week before the Masters.Can you imagine the buzz?Can you imagine the hype?
Golf needs this.Tiger needs this.Golf fans need this.
Gil Hanse,
homeboy, has been a rising star in the world of golf course design for more
than a decade.Suddenly, he is an
international superstar.
That’s the effect of his selection
Wednesday to design the golf course for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro – a selection, we might add, that
came over a Who’s Who of finalists: Jack
Nicklaus, Greg Norman, Gary Player and Robert
Trent Jones II.
It’s almost impossible to
overstate what designing the Olympics course is going to do for Gil’s career.His growing reputation in the U.S. will
go worldwide. He’s already designing one course in China but after 2016, with
the eyes of the world on Rio, Gil
will be in demand in every corner of the earth where golf is beginning to take
hold.He will become one of the
leading ambassadors of American golf, mentioned in the same breath with Tiger Woods, not to mention the single
most influential golf course architect in the world.
"This is a career changer,"
said golf writer Jeff Silverman, a
friend of both Gil’s and mine, when
we shared the news yesterday.
Of course, it was Gil’s work alongside Tom Doak, lead designer of Stonewall GC in Elverson, that gave
him the confidence and push to go out on his own and launch Hanse Golf Course Design, based in
Malvern, in 1993.
Since then, Gil’s work as improved and his
reputation has grown exponentially.Among golf course design aficionados, Gil’s courses are known for their subtle simplicity and purity;he has become the modern-day master of
understatement.It is a philosophy
that is winning him fans, fame and, increasingly, fortune.
In 2009, Gil was named "Architect of the Year"
by Golf magazine. Just a couple of weeks ago, Donald Trump hired Gil to
redo the Blue Monster at Doral.With his selection to design the
Olympics course, the sky is the limit. Thing is, all this couldn’t be happening
to a nicer guy.Gil is soft-spoken, reserved, humble --
and insanely talented.
All over the golf world,
people are sitting up and saying, Gil Who?They are about to
find out.