The 5 most common golf injuries and how to avoid them

Just like with any sport, it can be easy to sustain a golf injury if you don’t take steps to stop them from happening. Prioritising your strength and stability and conducting a thorough warm-up routine is paramount.

We narrow down the 5 most common golf injuries and explain how to give yourself the best chance of preventing them. Carrying out the steps we recommend will not only increase the likelihood that you’ll stay pain-free but also make you a better golfer.

Table of contents

• Lower back pain
• Golfer’s elbow
• Wrist injury
• Shoulder pain
• Knee pain

The 5 most common injuries from golf

Lower back pain

Injuries to the spine and lower back are the most common among amateur golfers. A study by TPI found that 28% of golfers experience back pain after every round of golf.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that improper swing technique is one of the chief causes of lower back pain among golfers. If your swing is too rough or forceful, it can not only lead to muscle strains but also put considerable pressure on the spine’s ligaments and discs. When you consider that spinal mobility decreases as we get older, it’s little wonder that lower back pain is a particularly common injury among senior golfers.

So, what can you do to avoid this unpleasant injury?

How to prevent back pain from golfing

You can take several preventative measures to lessen the risk of lower back pain when playing golf.

1. Warm up and down before playing

Warming up before a round increases the blood flow to your muscles and loosens them, making them less susceptible to tears. It also improves your flexibility, meaning your range of motion is less restricted during the swing.

Cooling down is equally important. It allows you to clear out the lactic acid that’s built up in your system while you’ve been playing, which is important as lactic acid build-up can result in muscular pain and fatigue. It also reduces Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), which can significantly reduce your range of motion and cause severe stiffness.

2. Focus on your swing technique

Even with thorough warm-up and cool-down routines, you still risk injuring your spine and lower back if your swing technique is incorrect. You want your swing to be smooth and controlled, not to hit the ball as hard as possible and overexert your back.

Balance is another important factor – you can give yourself optimal balance by bending your knees and keeping your feet shoulder-width apart. Weight distribution is also important, as is hip rotation.

3. Work on your upper-body strength away from the course

Core strength is vital if you want to not only maximise your performance on the golf course but also avoid persistent injuries further down the line. That’s why being a gym member and following a tailored workout programme that targets the lower back will give you a distinct advantage when trying to lessen the risk of injury. If you’re not a gym member, there are still plenty of exercises you can do at home to strengthen your lower back.

Golfer’s elbow

When an injury is named after a specific sport, it’s clearly a common issue for players of that sport. Golfer’s elbow is a form of tendonitis that causes inflammation in the tendons that surround your elbow.

When you get golfer’s elbow, you’ll most likely experience:

• Tenderness and pain on the inside of your elbow
• Trouble swinging a golf club
• Difficulty when lifting or bending your arm
• Discomfort during twisting movements
• Trouble making a fist

Depending on its severity, the pain caused by this injury can also spread to your hands and wrists.
Due to the technique involved in playing golf, you can see why this injury affects golfers in particular.

How to prevent golfer's elbow

Some of the steps to avoid golfer’s elbow are self-explanatory, while some require doing your research and preparation before taking to the course. Here’s how to prevent golfer’s elbow.

1. Strengthen your forearm muscles

As with every tip in this article, optimising your strength in the areas of the body that you use to play golf is essential for avoiding injury. Therefore, you need to strengthen and stretch the flexors in your forearm by carrying out various stretching exercises before and after taking to the course. 

You can perform these exercises without equipment or using light dumbbells if you have them to hand. You can even practise squeezing a tennis ball 10 to 15 times to improve your grip strength.

2. Practise your grip

If you grip your club too strongly, it can lead to golfer’s elbow. That’s why it’s important to learn how to hold a golf club properly. On a scale of one to 10, your grip pressure should be a five or six.

3. Choose your equipment carefully

Switching to graphite iron shafts can often alleviate or avoid elbow pain. If you use older golfing irons, you might therefore want to consider replacing them. You may also want to invest in an elbow compression sleeve. This prevents the wrist’s extensor muscles from contracting fully and reduces the strain on the elbow’s tendons.

Wrist injury

Golf-related wrist injuries come in various forms and are more prevalent than some may realise. Most of these injuries were reported to have occurred in the leading wrist, in the ulnar (or little finger) side of the wrist.

This type of injury is typically caused by poorly fitting golf clubs and improper swing technique, among other factors (we covered both of these issues in the previous section).

Wrist sprains are another common injury caused by playing golf. All that needs to happen is for you to strike a rock or tree root and you could be the latest victim of this painful injury. Let’s look at how you can help to avoid golf-related wrist pain altogether.

How to avoid common golf wrist injuries

1. Work on strength and conditioning

You may find this message a little repetitive now, but we can’t emphasise enough the importance of stretching every vulnerable part of your body before and after playing golf.

As the ulnar side of the wrist is a particularly vulnerable area, you can protect it by carrying out a range of stretches.

2. Refine your technique

Again, this is another pointer we’ve alluded to already, but good technique is so important, especially if you’re hitting a ball out of the rough. If even Tiger Woods can get it wrong sometimes, you can too. If you need to be subtle to avoid a sprain, then so be it.

You might want to get further instruction from a professional coach if you’re looking to refine your swing technique – possibly because you’re new to golf or haven’t played in a while.

3. Graphite is your friend

We mentioned clubs with graphite shafts above, and they provide a multitude of benefits in terms of avoiding injury. For example, when you strike the ball, graphite absorbs the resulting vibration better than steel. This reduces the amount of stress placed on your wrists and, in turn, lessens the likelihood of a serious injury in this area.

Shoulder pain

No golf injury is pleasant, but this one is perhaps the most unpleasant of them all. You use your shoulder to lift and lower your arm, so if you get a bad injury in this area, you’ll know about it.

Shoulder injuries when playing golf tend to be restricted to the lead shoulder, which is the left shoulder if you’re a right-handed golfer. Whichever is your lead shoulder, it’s vulnerable to injury due to the external rotation involved in the backswing.

That’s why the rotator cuff – the group of muscles and tendons surrounding the shoulder joint – can tear when playing golf. The intense and repetitive motions involved in a golf swing place a great deal of stress on the rotator cuff.

Other common golf-related shoulder injuries include osteoarthritis (particularly among older golfers) and shoulder impingement, and joint instability.

Whichever form of shoulder pain you look at, it severely restricts not only your ability to play golf, but also to perform daily tasks.

How to avoid shoulder injuries in golf

The tips for avoiding a shoulder injury are similar to those above. Here’s a quick rundown of how these tips apply to this specific part of the body.

1. Use the correct club

In this context, we mean you need to use the right club for your height. This will help you hit the ball consistently and reduce the risk of injury.

2. Use the right technique

To protect the shoulder, you need to turn the body away correctly and fully on the backswing. You also need to keep your feet shoulder-width apart and make sure your spine is straight.

Knee pain

Knee pain is one of the most common types of lower-body golf injuries.

Such an injury is often caused by restricted rotation of the hip at the beginning of a swing. If your hip is restricted in rotation due to weak stabiliser muscles, your body may over-rely on the knee to rotate when you swing for the ball. Over time, you’re placing repetitive and excessive stress on the knee’s joints, which could lead to painful injuries further down the line. This is why older golfers are more vulnerable to knee pain than younger golfers.

The most common form of knee injury among golfers is a meniscal tear. This injury is caused by a sudden twisting movement when placing stress on the knee. When you suffer this injury, you’ll experience a clicking sensation in the knee when bending or squatting. Other common knee injuries among golfers include osteoarthritis, torn ligaments, and soft tissue damage.

How to avoid knee pain after golfing

Avoiding knee pain once again boils down to your flexibility, strength, technique, and body mechanics. If you don’t address these key areas, you could be susceptible to knee pain when playing golf.

1. Carry out knee and hip-strengthening exercises

Weak knees and poor hip rotation due to weak stabilisers are the chief causes of knee pain, as we’ve covered above. With that in mind, there are some knee and hip-strengthening exercises you can perform at home every so often to minimise the chances of you suffering a nasty injury.

2. Practise your body mechanics

As with the other injuries mentioned in this blog, knee injuries are also caused by poor body mechanics. Having a sound understanding of the correct body position is therefore vital.

For example:

• Turn your feet out slightly when swinging to restrict how much you pivot, especially on your lead leg. Doing this will reduce the amount of stress you place on your knee.
• Maintain an upright stance to reduce the amount of bending in the knees when swinging the club, as this will decrease the potential for knee pain.

Specialist golf insurance through Insure4Sport

Of course, it’s not just injury you need to think about when you’re on the golf course. There’s also the risk of your equipment being stolen, or of you injuring another golfer with a wayward shot.

That’s why you may want to consider specialist golf insurance. Specialist golf insurance through Insure4Spot includes Public Liability and Equipment cover to help provide financial protection for you and your equipment.

Find out more about specialist golf insurance through Insure4Sport and get an online quote today.