Another progress update...

Well I'm still going to physical therapy twice a week, last night when I was there one of the PT's who hadn't seen me in 2 weeks was amazed at the additional range of motion that I had obtained in such a short period of time. Overall he feels I'm missing about 20%, but that is focused on 3 key areas, let's see if I can explain this...Laying down on your back, right arm 90 degrees from your body, then bent at the elbow straight up to the ceiling. Moving the arm as far forward as possible from the elbow and as far back as possible, I'm still tight on both of those movements. Then standing up, take your left hand and scratch up behind your back as high as you can go, I can get almost to my neck. Then with the right hand, I can only get it to the middle of my back, a LOT of tightness in the shoulder there. Problem is, that's the part that tucks in neatly into your ribs on your backswing, so I still have a bit of a chicken wing going on there.

Ahem, you know...if I was to actually swing a golf club, which I don't because my doctor hasn't approved that yet. (cough, bullshit, cough). Anyway, the first 10 or so wedges I've hit have been blocks, not a surprise since that's about 2 months early and I'm kind of tentative. But this weekend when I was out putting (oh, and chipping and hitting 40 yard pitch shots, haha) I took 4 more swings with a SW and stone cold nutted them, dead straight, no block, nice divots, ah that felt great!

So I met with the Dr. Monday for my 10 week follow up (was actually 9 1/2 weeks). So here's the prescription:

* 12 weeks - chipping and pitching ok up to 30 yards (11/28/2008)
* 15 weeks - 7 iron through wedges off a tee (12/19/2008)

I see the Dr. again on 1/14/2009, which will be right at 18 1/2, almost 19 weeks. He stated we should be VERY close to full release at that point. So starting at week 15, he told me the plan is to hit up to 7 irons off a tee and start working up from there through the 2 iron off a tee. I'm supposed to gauge my own progress there and the precaution is to watch soreness, if I get sore I have to stop for a day, two, three, whatever until the soreness goes away, then start up again. Once I get through to a session where I can go through the irons off a tee and have no soreness the next day, we can start hitting off the turf and gauge the ability to hit 3 wood and driver.

Truth be told, I don't think he's too keen on me hitting driver, but realistically, wouldn't it be more damaging to be hitting bunker shots than free wheeling a driver off a tee? Makes sense to me anyway. He contradicted himself when I asked him about being able to hit a golf course up North over Thanksgiving that is closed, planning on driving around and hitting pitch shots into greens and trying to get up and down 18 times, since nobody will be around, it would be a great time to do so and the golf course is ok with it too, win / win! He said that's ok, which is actually a full day ahead of schedule! Anyway, the point is he didn't yell at me for hitting some wedges already, reminded me to be careful, which I will. It's not a science, just take it as it comes, you can do this much starting here, but if it hurts you have to stop. Ok, well shit doc I can keep track of that, what am I paying you for?

Hit a wedge today

Nothing crazy, just a 3/4 wedge I borrowed from a guy on the range that I practice at. He was a little tentative at letting me use it at first, but I talked him into it. I teed it up as well so as to minimize any risk of impact stress on my shoulder. To be fair, it was a bit offline, a slight block about 5-8 yards right of target, but compressed and in the center of the clubface. Man did that feel good! No pain whatsoever either, very exciting! I only hit one, didn't want to tempt fate. If my doctor was there he'd have probably kicked me in the nuts as we're currently about 2 1/2 weeks from "possibly" being allowed to hit chip shots. Oh well, I just couldn't help myself. I thought for sure the first ball I hit coming back would be a timid, cold top, but I got after it and made a nice aggressive swing, pretty amazed actually. Just think, only 2-3 months and I can do that for real (sarcasm).

"Get Aggressive"

Had my 6 week checkup with the surgeon today to chart the progress of the shoulder surgery and recovery. I have some really good motion and can almost raise my arm straight up and down, side to side is well past parallel. He put me on the table and move my arm up and my forearm down and YOW, that's some pain! I point blank asked him if I'm ahead or behind from a recovery standpoint and he gave me the middle of the road "you're right where I want you to be at 6 weeks." Great, thanks for that doc.

I brought a putter and wedge with me to show him the motions of each and he instantly signed off on me putting, so we start tomorrow! I hadn't even turned around to grab my wedge and he said "but no chipping". Jerk. Even after I showed him the motion and told him how it was built by Stan Utley (through books anyway), he wasn't biting. He then told me that we're going to shoot for full range of motion at 10 weeks, and then I can start chipping. From what I'm seeing that's 2 weeks ahead on range of motion and 4 weeks ahead on hitting balls of any kind. He then updated the chart that goes back to the physical therapist and wrote in big letters "GET AGGRESSIVE" and circled it. He moved my next visit from 6 weeks to 4 weeks and said he expects full range of motion out of me by then.

It's been pure hell not touching a golf club for the past 6 weeks, but like I said I would do, I stayed true to my word and listened to the treatment plan. Hopefully we'll continue to progress ahead of schedule. Tomorrow's going to be a great day!

Wow am I bored

I'm 12 days away from being able to putt with the official ok from the doctor and physical therapist. Just got the ok to run on the elliptical and have been doing some core exercise during the therapy sessions. I can't even watch golf on tv any more. I've still got Round 6 of Q School from last year on the DVR, just can't stomach watching it right now. I'm so bored I started going through video that I've got archived of various practice sessions and have started uploading them to the YouTube site (What? You haven't seen my YouTube site? For shame...www.youtube.com/paperhogan). Now I've got the serious urge to chip and putt after seeing myself before I had shoulder problems.

On the plus side, I've been punishing the squeezeball the doctor gave me like a rented mule, my forearms are starting to bulge out. I feel like Popeye. You know, if Popeye was a laid up aspiring professional golfer cast into Purgatory awaiting 4-5 months of slow, check that, extremely slow recovery.

My instructor Jeff Ritter in Golf Digest!

Just got an email tonight from Jeff that he has a spread in the November 2008 issue of Golf Digest. It's the Breaking 100/90/80 series and starts on page 153. It's a 4 page spread full of tips with football analogies to help you through all kinds of situations. He definitely has some explaining to do as to why he didn't ask me to be in the shots. Haha!

Great job Jeff, maybe next time you get published to millions of readers you'll button your shirt and wear a belt that people won't laugh at. Just sayin...

Want to see a video of my shoulder surgery?

Well, not MINE, but the same surgery that I had done. I was doing some research and came across this tonight. I'm not one for being queasy, but when the doctor starts hammering the anchor into the tissue / bone / whatever, I pretty much got dizzy. Surely my doctor was more careful than this guy right? Yeah, probably not.


Find more videos like this on VuMedi

Final pre-surgery round recap

I guess I never got around to documenting this out. I played with some good friends of mine on 8/31 for the last round of golf that I got to play before the shoulder surgery. Since it was special we splurged and went to Troon North, an extremely nice track up in North Scottsdale. We played the Pinnacle Course from the back, a rating of 73.0 and a slope of 147! Pretty good stats from back there. Here we go!

As a condition of playing, one of my friends insisted that I not speak at all about how badly my shoulder hurt cause he didn't want to listen to me bitch. So I hand him my ball and tee on the first box and ask him to tee it up for me as my shoulder hurts, ZING, right off the bat. Going to be a long day. #1 is 392 yard, driver up the left leaving me 126 to the back left hole, PW to the dead center of the green and left the first putt about 5 feet short, missed it but I was still talking shit to the boys, yeah maybe we should try concentrating now. #2 is 405 yards, driver up the left side, I backed it up about 18" in the fairway, hmmm, you know some roll might be nice next time. 8 iron about 20 feet short up the hill, KILLED the putt about 8 feet by, I guess we didn't feel like leaving any more short, but I center cut it for par, that felt good.

#3 is a 468 yard par 4, into the breeze and I hit it decent, but it upshot into the wind, and I backed it up about 12" this time in the fairway. 206 in, fanned a 3 iron into the bunker and failed to get it up and down. #4 is a 416 yard par 4 (getting sick of par 4's already), decent tee shot into the middle of the fairway, got about 3" of roll, thought I hit a perfect 8 iron all over the stick, but it kept climbing. Somehow it cleared the bunker and ended up about 9' away, but alas we didn't capitalize and made 4. The 5th hole is named Dos Caminos, or as I explained, Two Caminos (yeah, I'm bilingual), 541 yard par 4, not a great tee shot up the left, 260 or so in and hit a smooth fat 3 wood to about 70 yards, joy. Hit a great held off SW exactly 70 yards, and 15 yards right, 2 putt par. 206 yard par 3 6th, downhill and double crossed a 5 iron into the front left bunker, out to about 10 feet and missed the putt. Nice bunker shot jackass, 10 feet, wow Seve would be impressed, no?

7th is a 456 yard par 4, decent tee shot that again backed up about 18", 210 yards in with a huge bunker in front, hit a cut 3 iron that started at the stick, oops. Apparently I had plenty of club as when we arrived the pin was in the back left and somehow I was pin high about 12' right of the hole, but we missed it and made a solid 4. 8th is a 190 yard par 3, back into the breeze and a bit uphill, I settled on 5 and upshot it, short right but hit a great chip to about 2 feet and made par. 9 is a 404 yard par 4 by the card, I don't remember the hole other than I hit the fairway and made 4. 10th is a very appealing hole, 288 to the row of fairway bunkers and the fairway is HUGE. I'm pretty sure I want to bust one and reach the traps as I've been hitting it all on the fly all day with no roll, so we teed it up high and nearly fagged the driver, must have gone 200' up in the air, leaving me 205 yards in on this 407 yard hole, awesome. Uphill, hit a perfect 3 iron that one hopped stopped in the fringe, 15 feet below the hole, putt just died short.

11 is a 539 yard par 5, dogleg right, downhill, just screaming "come take me". We learned our lesson on the last hole and made solid contact, smashed the tee shot, never cut but it was bombed. Get to the ball and the fucker backed up 18" again. This is really getting old. So now I've got 270 in with a wash 20 yards short of the green, we elect to lay up to 125 and hit PW to 10 feet, not bad but not stony either. Miss the putt and settle for par, a bit of a letdown after how I felt after hitting the tee shot. 12 is a 416 yard par 4, great tee shot, dead stop in the fairway (ok, maybe 2" of roll), a fatted 9 iron that I tried to stand on to get it there, pathetic pitch and missed the putt for 5. 13 is a 177 yard par 3, back into the breeze and uphill, learned my lesson last time and hit 5, pulled it right through the wind, I'm on by about a foot back left, pin dead center, just missed it and made 3 the proper way.

14, wow, 609 yard par 5, good tee shot, nearly plugged in the fairway (who me, want some roll on a 609 yard hole? Nah), perfect 3 wood (that DID plug in the fairway) and a pathetic attempt at a 9 iron that ended up short, uneventful up and down for 5, but another 5. I can't remember 15, hit the fairway, that much I know, I made a par, that's all I can remember. 16 is a 140 yard par 3 over water, which is not in play. [Rant]Let me take a moment to digress, we live in the desert, stop making big ass lakes that aren't in play just so you can say you have X number of holes with water. If it's part of a water treatment solution like say, Ocotillo golf course, then fine, but just because you need a signature hole, doesn't mean you need to use water. [/Rant] OK, so perfect 9 iron to 4 feet and FINALLY made birdie, only took 16 holes. Walking up to the 17th tee, it dawns on me that I haven't missed a fairway all day, hit every one so far. "Ok, stop thinking about that" I say to myself, then I change my mind "No man, you've hit every fairway and you're going to hit the last 2. No fear, no tentative swings, you've done it 12 times in a row, 2 more is easy". Free wheeled it and split the fairway, 441 yard par 4 17th. Unfortunately it AGAIN stopped dead in the fairway, 185 yards left, pin is middle right, over cut it just a tad and hit it a bit too hard, about 30 feet behind the hole, great putt that somehow stayed out, great putt.

18, last hole for 4-5 months. I've been dreading this all day. I want to keep playing, I want to call in sick to work all week and play every day. It's been a ton of fun all day, my friends and I just killing each other with put downs all day, literally one of the best times I've ever had on a golf course. The only thing that I would wish for is a closing birdie. Something to sit back on and that just in case something went horribly wrong and I could never play again, I'd always be able to say "I birdied the last hole of golf I ever played". And what do the Gods give me? A 447 yard par4 into the wind with desert / ob left, thanks boys, love you too. One more fairway, freewheeled it, never a doubt, split it again, 14 of 14 fairways. Oh, and I backed that one up too, I'm left with 195 yards into a slight breeze, I pull 4 iron and nutted it, big high draw that one hopped and stopped, leaving me an uphill left to right 12 footer for the closing birdie I've been dreaming of. Struck the putt perfectly and missed it by 1/4", but I hit it perfectly, enough speed, enough break, just didn't go in. Ah well. Finished with 2 perfect swings and a perfect stroke, sometimes that's all you can do.

3 over on the front, even on the back for a 74, 1 over the course rating. Hitting every fairway was special, not by a little, there was never a doubt on any of the tee shots. Our group lost a few balls, pretty much when you miss a fairway here, it's gone, 5-10' drop offs into the desert and some really gnarly brush, it's visually intimidating for sure. The highest slope rating I've heard of is 154 (there might be higher on ridiculously tricked up tracks) and let me tell you, 147 is no cakewalk. That's a really good course, but fuck me do I wish I had made birdie on the last hole.