You Can Do It!
An injury and surgery gave way to my best golf season. Here's what I learned
Surgery and (lots of) physical therapy made good as new on the golf course.
There was a moment in February when I thought my golf season might be over before it had even started. I had woken up in a hospital bed from knee surgery in serious pain and wearing a balky leg brace. Seeing crutches leaning up against the wall, I believed that meant I was going to need to keep my right leg fully extended for three months to let my meniscus heal before starting rehab. Suddenly, even going on my annual buddies golf trip in July was in question.
Then my doctor, renowned orthopedic surgeon and fellow golf nut Stephen Nicholas, came by to check on me and instantly realized there had been a miscommunication.
“He doesn’t need all that,” he said to a nurse. “He’s walking out of here today.”
Turns out Dr. Nicholas had repaired part of my right meniscus, but most of it had been removed, meaning I didn’t need to go through the longer recovery. In the long term, that makes me slightly more susceptible to developing arthritis. However, it at least meant I’d have a full golf season.
The real question: What kind of season would it be?
Well, I’m happy to report that it turned into arguably the best golf year of my life. And I’m telling my story not to convince you that I’m a hero—although, if you want to say so, go ahead—but to help and maybe even inspire others who find themselves in similar situations. Now that I’m six months removed from that surgery, here are my five suggestions.
1. Don’t wait to seek help
A month before I found myself laying in that hospital bed I was absolutely convinced this would be my best year on the course yet. I had actually (Gasp!) been doing some off-season training. Speed training, in fact, which involved me—a lifelong New Yorker—actually making swings throughout the winter months on a consistent basis for the first time in my life. And thanks to the program, I had already gained more than 4 mph or about 10 yards of distance.
But on the last swing (of course) of one fateful session in January, I heard my right knee pop as I took the club back. When I finished my swing I hopped around unable to fully extend my right knee. I felt a mixture of pain and embarrassment. How the heck did I just get injured swinging a club in my own living room?! The incident didn’t keep me from making my weekly Costco run with the family minutes later, but I told my wife and my golf buddies the same thing: I think I really hurt myself.
It remained bad enough by the following day that I made a (Bigger gasp!) doctor’s appointment with NY Orthopedics. I had been referred to Dr. Nicholas, whose son, James, plays on the DP World Tour, by a friend. When I sheepishly told him how I hurt my knee a couple days later, I was expecting a bit of teasing. Instead, he asked, “Which training system?” And when I told him, he said, “Oh, I use that one too!” At that moment, I knew my knee was in good hands.
"My advice would be to find a doctor who is experienced in doing it and who you have the ability to connect with and communicate with," Dr. Nicholas says. "Someone who will answer your questions. That way you'll be able to assure that you're doing the right stuff."
An MRI a few days later confirmed Dr. Nicholas’ prognosis: A bucket-handle tear of the medial meniscus. It wasn’t the worst injury, but it wasn’t great, either. As I neared my 42nd birthday, I would undergo the first surgery of my life. I was nervous my knee would never be the same. I was scared I would never be the same level golfer (and it’s not like I was starting at the top level!) But I wound up coming back stronger than ever and not sacrificing my season. And that’s in large part because I didn’t delay getting medical attention.
2. Don’t skip leg day
Everyone’s situation is different post-surgery—just look at Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy. He also tore his right meniscus, but his doctor was able to make a full repair, something that isn't determined until the actual surgery. (Age plays a big role in this and he’s about 20 years younger than me, not to mention a slightly better athlete.) So J.J. is now going through that much longer recovery, one that will cause him to miss his entire rookie season in the NFL. But Dr. Nicholas instructed me to start rehabbing right away, so after my operation on a Friday I went to my first physical therapy session the following Monday. And for the next two months I went three times a week for an hour each time.
As I wrote and talked about a couple years ago during my big golf renovation project with the Golf Performance Center when I turned 40, I have never been one for consistently working out. But I saw what that could do for me then and I was determined to get the most out of this experience as well. And you know what? I actually liked it. Having people push me through a variety of exercises (Shout-out to James, Bailey and Dean at ProClinix in Armonk, NY!) made me work hard each hour-long session.
"Therapy has modalities which can help you cope with pain, number one. Number two, it puts the patient at ease because they get to speak to somebody who is an expert who's seen it all before," Dr. Nicholas says. "So because of that, the patient gets a little bit more comfort knowing, 'OK, I'm just like everybody else.' And number three, it monitors the patient's progress to make sure they're not an outlier and not doing as well or not much better than the average patient. So, all those things are important in assuring a good result."
On my last day of PT, I finally swung a golf club for the first day since I heard my knee pop. To my relief, it felt pretty good. Sure, I was timid first, but I felt normal doing it. And it was still only early April.
3. Take the work home with you
I was encouraged to do the exercises at home as well and I did. Keep in mind some of these (flexing my quad, seated leg raises) were pretty easy when I first started so I could do them while watching TV. And, yes, I got some weird looks from the kids at times. But I could feel my knee getting stronger and more stable. And it was somewhat addicting. But you also need to beware of overdoing it.
"Early on for the first couple of months, it's all about the therapy and not adding more on," Dr. Nicholas says. "And once the healing process is completed and you can build up, sometimes a lot of people do things on their own. But the most frustrating part is understanding that you gotta give it time and patience."
If I was riding the train to work, I’d do some stretching in my seat. If I was at a playground with the kids, I’d do some balance exercises. As we’ve stressed in Golf Digest’s 1-Percent Challenge, doing little things consistently over time can compound in a big way. And at least starting this process in the middle of winter gave me time to recover by spring.
4. Don’t be scared
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't freaking out ahead of my first-ever surgery and even now I'm more careful doing certain things around the house or on the course. It's difficult not to be tentative when you're coming back from a major injury. But at some point, you’ve got to trust that your knee—or whatever body part you’ve had repaired—will be able to hold up.
In fact, Dr. Nicholas gave me the green light to start speed training again fairly quickly. And by the time I went on my annual buddies golf trip in July, I was hitting the golf ball longer than ever before.
In a weird way, going to PT kickstarted me into working out on my own like I (finally) had a couple years prior. Again, everyone’s situation is different. I can’t stress enough that you have to listen to your doctor throughout this process. But if your doctor is telling you to try doing something, go for it.
"Even though some people don't think of golf as a sport, to play it well and play it right involves a really significant torque and twist on the body," Dr. Nicholas says. "You have to be actually healed to play a lot of it. But remember, half of golf is chipping and putting. So, you can start doing that early."
Again, this guy gets it. Thanks, Doc.
5. Don’t get discouraged
There were definitely times I felt bummed out about the progress—or lack of progress—I felt I was making. When I started using my Peloton again, it was like I was a complete beginner. Same with my speed training as my off-season gains were virtually wiped away. And when I returned to the range wearing a sleeve on my knee, I felt weak in addition to rusty.
But I quickly realized that I was getting back to previous levels faster, especially with my speed training. When I got to the same-numbered program session I had previously injured myself doing, I was a couple mph faster than before. I was patient returning to the course when I got back out there in May after my final post-op checkup with Dr. Nicholas. And in honor of my big comeback, video editor Mason Leverington and I made a parody of the video Anthony Kim posted when he made his long-awaited return to the game.
But my desire to get back to the course and compete with my friends again was no joke and that fueled me. Crazy enough, on June 10, less than four months after surgery, I struck an 8-iron on the 15th hole at Oak Hill during a Coaches vs. Cancer golf outing that found the bottom of the cup for my first-ever hole-in-one. (Finally!) In fact, you may have seen it on SportsCenter. (Woo!)
Quite a turn of events from wondering how much I'd even get to play this year. The following month, I came up just short of winning and keeping our beloved green jacket on my annual buddies golf trip, but I had impressed my friends with my new-found length. Plus, my knee held up great for five straight days of golf. A few weeks later, I won the green belt on another buddies trip at Turning Stone.
"When you don't want to get out of bed and you don't want to do these things in order to get better, motivation is probably half of it," Dr. Nicholas says. "You've got to get up and do it. So the job of the doctor is to motivate the patient, and then the other job is to identify who's not motivated and try to find different ways to push them."
Despite a major setback, it really has been the golf year of my dreams. Again, I’m not trying to be the hero of my own story here. And I realize there are far more serious injuries out there. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how this year turned out, and I wanted to provide some words of encouragement to other middle-aged weekend golfers battling back from injuries—or even someone like 24-year-old PGA Tour star Ludvig Aberg, who was diagnosed with the same injury. We're now meniscus brothers for life, Ludvig!
There are still days when my right knee is a little sore or feels like it's not quite moving like the left one. In fact, Dr. Nicholas told me there’s a chance it will never feel quite the same as it did, but most days I can’t tell. He also told me there's a chance I tear the part of the meniscus he repaired.
But, of course, there's also always a chance that I could tear something else. Heck, I'm getting old. Should I suffer a similar injury, though, I'll at least know what to expect and that it doesn't mean my golf game has to suffer for the long term. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen. But if it does, I hope it happens again during the winter.