Knee Injury/Recovery and Golf (Worst Round Ever)

[JDennis]

I apologize a head of time if this is the wrong place to ask this. Yesterday a buddy and I were out golfing and it was a fantastic round. On the 16th hole I went to hit a shot and my right knee popped twice and I collapsed.  I looked down and at first I thought my leg broke, there was a indention on the left side of my knee and a huge bulge out to the right. I grabbed it and realized it was my knee cap and ended up popping it back over to the left.  Some golfers on the course and my buddy lifted me in to the cart and my buddy took my to the ER.  I ended up dislocating my knee cap and when I collapsed it severely sprained my ankle.  

 

I have never had a injury other than a twisted ankle or ever had any knee issue or pain. This was completely out of the Blue.  Any body else have this kind of injury?  What is the general recovery time? How will this affect my ability to play golf in the future? Any strength builging excercises or stretches once I can move my leg? Any tips or advice would be appreciated.  

 

I play golf at least twice a week and year round (indoor league in winters). At 41, I have many golf years left.

[Ferguson]

Medical advice - you've come to the right place.

 

ask @Duct Tape

[LegendJeff]

JD, 

 

Sorry to hear that happened to you, that must be painful and scary. I've had some knee issues from golf that I thought would surely sidelined me from the sport, but over the last few years I have strengthened the knees and modified my clubs to graphite shafts but my recommendation for you is to check out Knees Over Toes guy on YouTube. He has overcome unimaginable knee issues (tears, dislocations, multiple surgeries, etc) and has some of the most bulletproof legs in the world now. Here's an inspirational video from his channel that will give you an idea of what is possible with some unconventional training. I've adopted many exercises from his program and got my slant board from Amazon for ~$60. 

 

 

 

Edited May 24, 2021 by LegendJeff

[farmer]

Have you been to an orthopedist?

[JeffreySpicoli]

Waiting for someone to recommend hemp extract or CBD oil.

 

🍿

[Hawkeye77]

Sorry you are hurt - see a doctor!

[caniac6]

Rub some dirt on it, and get back out there!

[phizzy30]

1 hour ago, caniac6 said:

Rub some dirt on it, and get back out there!

That's what coach used to say all the time back in high school, lol.  I have knee problems.  My knee hasn't dislocated but have structural damage to the meniscus and patella.  Seems like you went to the ER so that's good.  Just remember to buy a high quality knee brace.  If the injury is serious enough, you may need something medical grade.  I can tell you that knee injuries suck and will pretty much be with you for the rest of your life. 

[caniac6]

35 minutes ago, phizzy30 said:

That's what coach used to say all the time back in high school, lol.  I have knee problems.  My knee hasn't dislocated but have structural damage to the meniscus and patella.  Seems like you went to the ER so that's good.  Just remember to buy a high quality knee brace.  If the injury is serious enough, you may need something medical grade.  I can tell you that knee injuries suck and will pretty much be with you for the rest of your life. 

We have a nephew that was being heavily scouted by pro scouts as a pitcher. Blew out a knee playing football, and that ended it for baseball, too.

[Mike_C]

1 hour ago, caniac6 said:

Rub some dirt on it, and get back out there!

Our coach said, "tape it up and suck it up"

[SNIPERBBB]

Looks like you'll be out for a month or so depending on how bad it was and if surgery was needed.  Reoccurrence of the injury is common. Do your rehab.

[phizzy30]

4 hours ago, SNIPERBBB said:

Looks like you'll be out for a month or so depending on how bad it was and if surgery was needed.  Reoccurrence of the injury is common. Do your rehab.

Rehab is the second most important thing besides giving the affected area enough down time.  Do exactly the exercises the physio states.  Either not doing them or overdoing them are both detrimental for recovery and mobility. 

[Mike_C]

Here is a serious response.  I didn't have the same type of injury, but did hurt my right knee pretty bad playing backyard football in high school.  I loved football and golf as a kid, but the sports were both in the fall when I grew up, I picked golf as the safer sport after seeing all the nagging injuries my older brother had playing football.

 

Anyway, I got chop blocked in a friendly backyard game, loud pop and instant pain.  It swelled up pretty good and I couldn't bend it.  My dad was a doctor, I went home and said, "Dad, I think I hurt my knee", he looked around the newspaper and said, "sure looks like you did", and went back to reading the paper,  well,  the Cobbler's children have no shoes.

 

It was near the end of the high school golf season, I couldn't bend my knee, and could barely walk on it, never got crutches.   I missed our next match, then tried to play the one after about 7-10 days after the injury.  Only 9 holes, walked it, could hit the ball but didn't trust it, had much harder time walking.  I still remember to this day 3 putting from 10 feet on the last hole to shoot a nice even 50, by far the highest score I have ever recorded in competition.  Anyway, in the next few days it loosened up and felt much better.  Our next match was regionals, I went out and shot 74 on a windy day and was medalist by one shot over a kid who I think won the state tournament the year before, all of our team played well and we won were low team also and went on the the state finals, our school had never advanced to the finals before.

 

The knee stayed OK for a couple months, but I reinjured it playing basketball that winter. A couple of weeks of really stiff an swollen knee, and then back to about the way it was, sort of permanently swollen/stiff, but livable for the next couple plus decades. 

 

Fast forward 28 years, I coached my son's soccer team, and one day goofing around did something to that knee, no pain but something was different.  The next day at work I sat down and couldn't get up, my knee locked.  I had a torn my meniscus all these years ago, and somehow it finally shifted and was getting in the way of the joint.  I soon after had arthroscopic surgery, which went very well, on crutches only a couple of days, rehab for a few weeks, and I was golfing about a month later.  It has felt much better than it did all those years where the tear was just sitting in there. 

 

I know it's not the same, but you can come back pretty well these days from knee injuries, especially if you do your rehab as the guys above said. 

 

 

[BirdieDoc]

Agreed to go see your doc. Quick surgery if you only tore the inner ligament. Notice I said quick. Not easy. 

 

Need an MRI to confirm it. Likely injured cartilage too if it completely dislocated.

 

Good luck! Don't push it back too quickly. 

[BeerPerHole]

I'm guessing you should get the knee evaluated for stability. Also guessing there's ligament damage that should be addressed. I've learned about this stuff the hard way... Good luck with it. 

[JDennis]

Little update. Few days ago went to the ortho. Didn't give my a MRI but according to the xrays everything is back where it needs to be. Being the first time happening he wants to avoid surgery and basically gave me excercises to do. Also told me to start walking on it, don't use braces when walking (limits range of motion which would be bad as its healing), also told me to ditch the crutches. Figures I could go back to golfing the end of the month.  There is no way this accurate. My knee is still swollen twice the size of the good one, I have ditched one crutch for the most part, but need the second for stability.  Been doing the excercises the best I can.  

 

Doc was fairly certain I tore the ligaments but only wants to do surgery if it happens again. It seems to be going a lot slower than I thought or hoped it would. 

 

Anyone with knee issues have any advice on a swing change to keep from twisting so much?  Thanks for the advice and info given so far.

[BraxtonFullerton]

Hey @JDennis, that sucks about your follow-up. I tore my ACL in Dec '17, surgery in Mar '18, back on the course Oct '18. It was still very tender and hard to put enough weight on it to get a full swing... had a couple pops & clicks that got me real worried...

My ortho basically recommended the same things yours has, at first. You want to keep your leg as strong as possible (think of it as pre-hab) while the affected area heals and returns to normal. If you start changing your gait, using a crutch, or a brace, your muscles and ligaments aren't going to settle back to where they were.

As for not wanting to do surgery for torn ligament(s)... I'm a little perplexed on that, are you older where your recovery chances are less than ideal?

You really shouldn't be entertaining playing golf at all until you have a clearer picture as to what's happened. Golf, while not high impact, still requires lower body strength and stability; twisting can do more damage... If you do go back out there though, for swing advice: club up, swing much much easier to take pressure off your legs.

[JDennis]

3 hours ago, BraxtonFullerton said:

Hey @JDennis, that sucks about your follow-up. I tore my ACL in Dec '17, surgery in Mar '18, back on the course Oct '18. It was still very tender and hard to put enough weight on it to get a full swing... had a couple pops & clicks that got me real worried...

My ortho basically recommended the same things yours has, at first. You want to keep your leg as strong as possible (think of it as pre-hab) while the affected area heals and returns to normal. If you start changing your gait, using a crutch, or a brace, your muscles and ligaments aren't going to settle back to where they were.

As for not wanting to do surgery for torn ligament(s)... I'm a little perplexed on that, are you older where your recovery chances are less than ideal?

You really shouldn't be entertaining playing golf at all until you have a clearer picture as to what's happened. Golf, while not high impact, still requires lower body strength and stability; twisting can do more damage... If you do go back out there though, for swing advice: club up, swing much much easier to take pressure off your legs.

 

 

I don't know about the torn ligaments either. I just turned 41 and am pretty healthy so maybe he thinks the strengthening of everything might be all I need. I have no idea. 

 

I plan on easing back in to golf and definitely not going to rush it.  I have a pretty quick transition and a long swing, so might have to work on a slower one and shorter swing to ease the rotation on my knee. Been thinking I might need to go down to a Stiff on my driver shaft and ditch the PX iron shafts for something a little more lively with a slower transition.  Heck I might even try some MMT shafts (opinions welcome). Just sucks because this year I finally found my holy grail driver shaft in my Tensei 1k 60TX and my 3w shaft in the AV raw blue 75TX.  

 

That's why I have been curious with the knee issue golfers and possibly changing stuff up. Not playing is killing me. 2 + times a week to not playing for two weeks and many more sucks....

[tatertot]

On 6/5/2021 at 9:20 AM, JDennis said:

Little update. Few days ago went to the ortho. Didn't give my a MRI but according to the xrays everything is back where it needs to be. Being the first time happening he wants to avoid surgery and basically gave me excercises to do. Also told me to start walking on it, don't use braces when walking (limits range of motion which would be bad as its healing), also told me to ditch the crutches. Figures I could go back to golfing the end of the month.  There is no way this accurate. My knee is still swollen twice the size of the good one, I have ditched one crutch for the most part, but need the second for stability.  Been doing the excercises the best I can.  

 

Doc was fairly certain I tore the ligaments but only wants to do surgery if it happens again. It seems to be going a lot slower than I thought or hoped it would. 

 

Anyone with knee issues have any advice on a swing change to keep from twisting so much?  Thanks for the advice and info given so far.

I would get a second opinion ...

 

I lifted heavy and played A LOT of basketball in high school and all the way through my 30s ... had major knee pain playing golf constantly, walking 18 holes was painful, and so was my swing. When I was 37, I tore my patella tendon and broke my left kneecap. Surgery to staple the tendon together and a metal plate to put the kneecap back together. In bed for 2 weeks, couldn't bend my knee for a month. Two months after surgery, with rehab, I was back on the course, but very weak. That was 10 years ago next month. Never really played basketball again. Changed the way I lifted. And my knees have never felt better or been stronger - golf wise. 

 

At your age, you can strengthen your knee and make it better for golf. And your doc might be right about no surgery ... but if I were you, I would get a second opinion to verify. At this point, any lost time is too valuable to risk.

[liliansh]

I'm so sorry. Knee injuries are pretty severe and should be treated as soon as possible. Unfortunately, I went through something like that. I have practiced dancing for more than 15 years. I went through a lot of falls and pain. I also fell on my knees, and it swelled just like in your case. Fortunately, it was not so bad to get to the operation, but so far, I have to wear knee braces to reduce my pain and keep my knee stable. I also wear braces for my ankles. It is vital to wear them because due to them, and your pain will pass. I recommend. With them, you will be able to continue playing golf.










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the link: https://remaininthegame.ca/product-category/orthopedic-bracing-support/knee-brace-support-splint/

Edited November 10, 2021 by liliansh