Global Golf Post - August 15, 2011

Clockwise from the top: Rory McIlroy,
Michelle Wie and Phil Mickelson now share
something in common ... a past wrist injury.

JOHNS CREEK, GEORGIA | A collec-
tive gasp went out in the golf world on
Thursday when Rory McIlroy injured his
right wrist hitting a poplar root in the
rough on the third hole of his opening
round. Perhaps it was the invincibility of
youth or a failure to understand New-
ton’s first law of motion, but McIlroy
knew the root was there. It was the size
of a large rattlesnake and only a few
inches in front of his ball.
According to the U.S. Open champ, “I
thought if I could make contact with the
ball and just let the club go, I might get
away with it. In hindsight, it would have
been better to chip out sideways.”
In hindsight, it also could have been
a lot worse. Phil Mickelson injured his
wrist hitting out of high rough at the
2007 U.S. Open and missed three cuts
in a row, including the U.S. and British
Opens. Mickelson was effectively out of
contention until the fall.
But he, too, was lucky. Michelle Wie
suffered a wrist injury after hitting a
shot from a cart path in 2006 and did
not fully recover until 2009. Trevor Im-
melman attempted to play with a wrist
he injured not long after his 2008
Masters win. It took almost three years
for him to get back to full strength, and
he still hasn’t regained the confidence
he lost during that period.
“The confidence is the toughest
thing,” Immelman said. “The injury can
be completely healed but until you do
the things that you once did enough
times to feel comfortable, it’s difficult to
feel like you’re there.”
“I thought if I could make
contact with the ball
and just let the club go, I
might get away with it. In
hindsight, it would have
been better to chip out
sideways.” - Rory McIlroy
According to studies of 225 profes-
sional golfers by the Hughston Sports
Medicine clinic, 34 percent suffered
some incidence of wrist and hand inju-
ry, most involving soft tissue, cartilage,
bone, nerve and vascular structures.
Those injuries ranged in severity from
moderately painful to devastating.