This week in Bamberger In shorta three-part mini-series over three days that explores different aspects of a phrase that no golfer wants to say, but most golfers eventually will: I can’t play today – my back is out. This series draws nuggets and insights from a recent interview with GOLF.com Dr. Tom LaFountainPGA Tour director of chiropractic services, who for the past 27 years and counting has seen up close some of the most famous backs in golf.
Today, Part I: Explosive swing + explosive bags = explosive back
Tomorrow, Part II: JT and the Bad Back Band
Saturday, Part III: Your Back, Your Choice
***
Part I: Explosive Swings + Explosive Bags = Explosive Backs
When Tom LaFountain first entered the tournament as a chiropractor in the late 1990s, after years of caring for Olympic athletes, he was amazed to see Tom Watson, Jay Haas and Bernhard Langer still plays regularly. As they entered their late 40s, each looked forward to turning 50, hitting the Champions Tour while still playing in a few Tour events and generally moving on. And they did.
That trio, among many other pros with household names, loved golf, loved to compete, and had bodies to spare. Yes, many of these Tour players went to replace parts at 40,000 miles, and 80 and 100. Many of them had weeks here and there when they were on the sidelines for rest and recovery. But they never experienced the end of their careers back issues. They all had the ability and the willingness to take something off their swing speed as needed, swing a little in a different way, save their backs, live in golf another week. Mid-tournament WD wasn’t a thing. Most weeks, there were none. For one thing, quitting showed weakness. For another, the players did not come so much NO cash a check.
At first, LaFountain noticed that 85 percent of the players who entered Touring Fitness Trailer with pain he had problems with his lower back. Over the past 27 years, this percentage has not changed. What has changed, LaFountain says, is the number of players in embarrassment, or worse. The issues are deeper. It used to be muscles and joints. Now it’s muscles, joints – and discs. And LaFountain knows why: The swing has changed.
“The swing is a lot faster, there’s more torque and spin, there’s a lot more pressure on the lower back,” he said in a recent interview. “There’s an arms race for distance that didn’t exist before. Look at a guy like Jimmy Fuyrk. He’d say, ‘Yeah, there’s guys who hit it 320, but I max 280, 290. So I’ll figure it out from there.’ And he played forever.” That mindset is dead, LaFountain said. Last rites were read from the various Trackman boxes up and down the tour’s driving lines.
Of the three lifers mentioned at the top here, Tom Watson had a body that wouldn’t give up, Jay Haas had a uniquely straight, tension-free movement, and Bernhard Langer lived in the gym, lifting some light weights—and stretching more. At 52, he looked 32. He hadn’t gained five pounds. He played so much that his body didn’t know what it was like NO to play.
As it turned out, all three had pro careers that were still remarkably productive into their 40s. The same is true of an older generation of professionals, among them Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Hale Irwin, Billy Casper, Chi Chi Rodriguez. (You can go on and on from there.) You can create a similar list of younger players, including Fred Funk, Colin Montgomerie and Tom Lehman. And, even younger, Zach Johnson, Henrik Stenson, Stewart Cink, all in their early 50s, and Phil Mickelson and Furyk, both 55.
They’re the bottom of the line, LaFountain says. Rory McIlroy, 36, who withdrew from the Bay Hill event a few weeks ago, with a tweaked back, is already saying there is no chance he will continue to play professional golf in his 50s. Tiger Woods, who is 50 years old, barely played as of 2020. According to LaFountain, a career that goes on and on, in the Watson-Haas-Langer tradition, is not even an aspiration. “They want to succeed now“They’re playing for so much money and distance is so important that they’ll move as much as possible to make as much money in as short a period of time as possible and set up for the rest of their lives. The temptation to make more now they compromise career length to make money now.”
In 1995, the year before Woods turned pro, the total purse for the PGA Tour season was $66 million. Greg Norman was the top money maker, earning $1.6 million. In 2025, the total purse was $565 million. Scottie Scheffler made $19.5 million, just on the course. Lee Hodges finished 94th on the money list and earned $1.6 million. The mentality, LaFountain said, is to make it as long as you can. That is, do as much as you can in the shortest possible time.
“That’s especially true for overseas players,” LaFountain said. “Their families are thousands of miles away, their friends, the lives they know best. It can be lonely, playing here. But (outside of an LIV invite) there’s nowhere else in the world they can make this kind of money. If they win, great. But if they don’t, they’re still making great money.” The closer you get to the green after a shot, on every par-4 and par-5 hole you play, the more money you’ll make. This means swing TOUGHthe lower body wraps against the upper body.
Something has to give.
Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com
;)
