Played 9 holes, where did this come from?

So as I said last time, I'm done waiting. Hell, I'm only 8 days away from my follow up visit to the surgeon again (should be the last one). He stated that by this visit I should be back 100%. I've been practicing pretty hard and have had several lessons with Jeff in the past few weeks. Met up with a friend of mine and his son this past Sunday and played the back nine in the cold ass rain, here we go! (Been waiting a looooong time to say that again!)

Started out on #10, 426 yard dogleg right par 4 and SNAP HOOK, hit the downslope and made it into the lake at the corner. Crapola, welcome back. Took a drop and hit fat 4 iron about 10 yards short. Pitched it into the bank and instead of a one hop and stop it took 3, left me about 6 feet left to right down the hill for bogey, which I made. Nice bogey dude, wow. #11 is a 188 yard par 3, pin all the way back, hit 4 iron to the middle left of the green, hit the first putt down the hill, down down down down, about 8 feet by. Nice read, canned that for par. Interesting.

#12 is a 541 yard par 5, tee was up a bit though, hit a great tee shot down the right side into what is normally a chute that runs down the hill but with the wet conditions, it went nowhere. I'm right at 245 to the middle stick and promptly fatted a 3 wood about 25 yards short, on fire. There's a big backstop behind the stick as it's on the bottom of the 2 tiers, so I think "I should skid this in there and run it back down the slope" and I'll be damned if I didn't pull it off. Made the 3 footer for birdie, back to even after 3 holes. Thirteen is a 396 yard par 4 that never plays that far, and I just got a 19 degree Titleist hybrid for Christmas, pured that thing to the left side of the fairway, leaving myself 117 yards to the front pin. Since I just got the hybrid, I had to pull a club out, which of course was my gap wedge, which would have been perfect here. I decide on a little punch wedge but pulled it up on top of the slope left of the green. Now I've got a ridiculous downhiller through 4 feet of fringe to a pin cut what looks like 6 inches on, on a slope that is tilted about 20 degrees, crazy pin. Hit that 8 feet by, couldn't really expect any better for short siding myself, canned that one for par too.

14 is playing 151 yards to the stick, just over the bunker. I nearly whiffed a fatted 8 iron (in the cold too, that HURT), ended up pin high left, about 12 feet below the surface of the green, about 5 feet of green to work with. Hit a nifty pitch that landed in the fringe and ran out to 2 inches short, dead in the heart. I thought for sure that was in. Wow. 15 is a 535 yard par 5, again the tee is up a bit, good tee shot down the left side, but ended up in the left rough on a downslope. I have 210 in with a nasty lie, hey that's what they make hybrids for right? Didn't hit it all that well, but you really can't hit a bad shot with a hybrid, it hooked back into the fairway and when I got to the green I see I made it on the front, about 30 feet short. Missed the eagle putt (on the high side mind you) by no more than 3 inches, birdie to get to 1 under.

Blocked my tee shot on the 390 yard 16th into some trees and rough, but plenty of room to get out. I'm left with 110 yards (hey, great shot for a GW no? dammit...), it's a bit downwind so I pull SW, but no, leave it about 30 feet short. How this putt missed I have no idea, just turned right at the last possible second, tap in par. 17 is playing 151 yards (just like 14) so I decide to hit a better 8 iron. Well, it wasn't fat. Way out on the toe, comes up about 8 yards short left, hit what I thought was a too soft pitch but it bounced hard out of the fringe somehow and ended up about 8 feet past the hole. I surveyed the putt over and over and played it left edge, ended up 18 inches right of the hole, great read jackass, back to even.

18 is a 420 yard par 4, HUGE tree in the middle of the fairway, pin is left so I take the right alley and busted it good. Left me with 114 yards to the pin (anyone seen my GW? Oh yeah, it's in the trunk of my car...) so I decide on another little cutesie wedge, which I fatted to about 5 yards short of the green. Well, I've been chipping and pitching good during my practice sessions, so let's make good use of it. Pretty straightforward shot and hit it clean, viola, chipped it in for birdie, back to 1 under. Will wonders never cease?

We turn to go back down the front but there's quite a few players out and it's backed up so we call it a day. It's sort of official from a USGA standpoint as the 9 hole score counts, but most of all it was me back out on a golf course again. Pretty damn happy about getting the first tee shot wet and still keeping it all together. Just a friendly round but I was surprisingly calm throughout the day, never worried about making a put, hitting it offline, not scared of trouble / OB, just "played" and it felt great. It's great to be back!

Sick of waiting, done waiting...

I practiced for about an hour today, absolutely no pain. I have lessons scheduled the 6th, 13th, 20th and 29th. I think I have pretty much abandoned Dr’s orders and I’m 100% back into it. Here’s my reasoning, he says I can hit wedge through 7 iron off a tee starting 12/19. Ok, well doc you do realize that wedge through 7 iron are the clubs most likely to dig down into the dirt, transferring that impact energy back up into my shoulder right? And as far as off a tee doc, since you don’t play golf I’ll explain this one to you, you see after striking the ball perched on said tee, the club head continues down into the ground, taking said divot, regardless of where the ball happened to be when the swing started. So off a tee really doesn’t minimize any impact stress at all. Besides, when in Physical Therapy and I’m curling 25lb dumbbells, going through full upward rowing motions with 50lbs on the cable and doing ball walks and pushups supporting my full weight, I think I’m throwing more stress on the shoulder than in a frickin wedge shot. So doc, I’ll see you on the range.

Range of motion is great, basically 100%. Pretty much all of the tightness is gone except for in the most extreme of stretching positions. My last day at the PT was today! I go to their other facility 2 times a week for 2 weeks starting Monday to work with a guy who specializes in golf programs, but supervised PT for the shoulder is complete. I won't be able to practice at all until my lesson Saturday, but the way I hit the ball today, that's a blessing. It's amazing how much I can forget in 13 weeks, it's like I've never held a club before. Nothing crazy, just no ooomph. No compression of the ball at contact, and everything is really high. Now that I know what the golf swing is supposed to feel like, just swatting it out there like I did today is not acceptable. The comeback is on...

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...