This simple swing will protect your back (and won’t cost you miles)

This is the final installment in a three-part series Bamberger In short series that explores different aspects of a phrase that no golfer wants to say, but most golfers will eventually: 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 some of the most famous backs in golf history up close and personal.

Part I: Exploding bags, exploding backs | Part II: JT and the Bad Back Band

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By age 35, people, on average, lose 1 percent of their flexibility each year, says Dr. Tom LaFountain, the PGA Tour’s director of chiropractic services. This is true if you are Tommy Fleetwoodwho is 35, or Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey, who turned 35 in 2010, the year he won three times on what was then called the Nationwide Tour. Gainey, now 50, has kept himself flexible enough to become a successful player on the Champions Tour. One guess is that Fleetwood will return to greater Birkdale, England, by the time he reaches the half-century mark.

LaFountain knows the true dynamics of his relationships with the PGA Tour players who come to see him and his peers: They’re not looking for career longevity advice. They are looking for something that will allow them to move without pain now.

For the rest of us, LaFountain has some practical and simple advice, especially for golfers on the other side of 35: Let the front heel come up at the top of the backswing. Ben Hogan did and so did Jack Nicklaus. John Daly and Phil Mickelson, same. It’s the thing Brandel Chamblee has been preaching for half a decade now. For years, in the pre-Tiger era, golfers were given a powerful front heel image that allowed for a longer, looser swing, creating more downswing speed, taking pressure off the back.

The image comes from the era when golf shoes still had traditional spikesand this was the image: At the top of the swing, the front heel was slightly off the ground. There were now, at the top of your back bend, four small holes in the ground where your spikes had been. After raising your hands as high as they can go, start the downhill by driving your front heel down so that the spikes go back where they came from, filling in those little holes again.

“You can’t talk to Tour players about something like that,” LaFountain said. “They have entire teams dedicated to their swing mechanics. But I work with a lot of elite amateurs, young players, and very good club players. And if they have back problems, I try that with them, and they always report that the heel lift relieves pressure on the back and doesn’t result in any loss of distance.”

In addition, LaFountain offers this advice: Go online and search for exercise programs dedicated to improving flexibility and core strength. He is a fan of the various programs offered by TPI, the Titleist Performance Institutebut he is not pushing those programs on anyone in particular because what works for one person may not work for another.

“Really, there’s a lot of good,” he said. “You try one and if you like it, if you’re getting the most out of it, stick with it, and if you’re not, try something else. There’s no one size fits all.”

At some point in your reading, you will come across the phrase chest strength. Just another way of saying, “Back is good.” To Tiger Woods, Justin Thomas, Tom LaFountain or any golfer reading this: It’s a worthy goal.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael.Bamberger@Golf.com