The golfer’s back: five minutes before, during and after a round that change the back nine

Ask a group of weekend golfers what hurts after eighteen holes and most of them will point to the same place: the lower back. It is rarely a dramatic injury. It is a stiffness that shows up on the back nine, a tightness when you bend to pull the ball out of the cup on the 16th, a morning after that feels older than it should. The good news is that most of it comes from habits, not from the swing itself, and five minutes placed at the right moments of the day change how the last holes feel. This guide explains where the load comes from and what those five minutes look like.

One thing first. This is general advice for golfers who feel stiff or sore, not a treatment plan. If you have pain that is sharp, that spreads down a leg or that keeps you awake, skip to the section on when to stop and see someone.

Why golf is hard on the lower back

The golf swing asks the body to rotate hard, bend to the side and extend, all at once and at speed. In 1990, a team led by Timothy Hosea measured the forces on the lumbar spine of amateur and professional golfers hitting a 5-iron. The compressive load on the lower back reached roughly eight times body weight during the downswing. That is a lot of force for a movement most amateurs repeat a hundred times a round, plus the practice swings, plus the range balls before.

The body copes well with that load when it is warm, when the hips and upper back turn freely, and when the effort is spread over a sensible number of swings. It copes badly when a golfer climbs out of a car after forty minutes of driving, walks to the first tee and makes a full-speed swing with a cold back. It also copes badly with the small movements nobody thinks about: bending with straight legs to tee up, lifting a loaded bag out of a trunk at an awkward angle, sitting slumped in a cart between shots.

Research on amateur golfers keeps finding the same pattern. A survey of Australian amateurs by Andrew McHardy and colleagues found the lower back was the most common site of golf injury, about a quarter of the injuries reported over a year. Reviews of the literature give a wide range, but the lower back tops the list in nearly all of them.

There is a mechanical reason behind many of those cases. When the hips are stiff, often from long days at a desk, the rotation the swing needs has to come from somewhere, and the lower back is asked to twist more than it is built to. The lumbar spine is designed mainly for bending forward and back, with only a few degrees of rotation at each level. The upper back and the hips are the joints meant to turn. Most of the five minutes below go to keeping those two areas moving, so the lower back does not have to make up the difference.

Minute by minute: the five minutes before the first tee

This is not a replacement for a full warm-up, which our twenty-minute warm-up covers in detail. It is the minimum for the days when you arrive late and the starter is already calling your group. Use a club as your only prop.

• Minute one: walk and swing the arms. Walk briskly around the putting green or the parking lot, letting the arms swing loosely across the body. The goal is simply to raise your temperature a little.
• Minute two: hip hinge with the club. Hold a club vertically against your back so it touches the back of the head, the upper back and the tailbone. Push the hips back and tip forward from the hips while keeping all three points in contact, then stand up. Ten slow repetitions. This is the bending pattern you want for the whole round.
• Minute three: upper-back turns. Place the club across your shoulders behind the neck, take your golf posture and turn the shoulders back and through, slowly, letting the hips follow a little. Ten each way. Most of the rotation should come from the upper back, not from twisting at the waist.
• Minute four: hips and legs. Take a long step forward into a lunge, back knee toward the ground, and push the hips gently forward until you feel a stretch at the front of the back leg. Hold a couple of breaths each side, twice. Then a few slow bodyweight squats, holding the club out in front for balance.
• Minute five: build the swing. Make swings with no ball, starting at hip height and growing to three-quarter and then full length, about ten in all. Let the tempo rise gradually. Your first full-speed swing of the day should not be your opening tee shot.

Every movement should feel easy. Stretching into pain before a round does not buy you anything, and a stretch held for a long time can make the muscles feel sluggish for the first few holes. Short, active movements are what you are after.

The five minutes you spread across the round

The second set of minutes does not happen in one block. It is scattered through the round in small pieces that add up.

Bend with your knees and hips, not your back. The most repeated movement of a round is not the swing. It is bending down: to tee up, to fix a pitch mark, to pick the ball out of the hole. Use the golfer’s pick-up (one hand on the putter or a club for support, one leg lifting behind you as you tip forward like a see-saw), or simply bend your knees. Over eighteen holes, that is dozens of lifts done well instead of badly.

Stand up in the cart. If you ride, step out and walk to the ball rather than waiting in the seat until the last second, and make two or three easy practice swings before you hit. A back that has just spent five minutes folded in a cart seat is a cold back again.

Use the turn. Between the 9th green and the 10th tee, repeat minutes two and three of the pre-round routine. It takes less time than ordering a hot dog and it catches the stiffness before it settles in, which is exactly when most golfers notice their back for the first time.

Drink water. Dehydration and fatigue make everything feel stiffer late in a round. Our guide to food, water and the back nine slump has the details.

The bag: carry, push or ride

Walking is good for the back. A heavy bag on one shoulder, less so. If you carry, use both straps so the load sits evenly, and take out what you do not use: the extra dozen balls, the second rain jacket, the water bottles you could refill on the course. A few pounds removed matter on a 6,500-yard course, which becomes close to five miles of walking once you add the paths from green to tee.

For many golfers with a sensitive back, a push cart is the best of both worlds. You keep the walk, which keeps the back warm and moving, and you lose the asymmetric load. Our comparison of electric caddies, push carts and carrying looks at the options. Whatever you choose, lift the bag out of the trunk with a bent knee and the bag close to your body, not with a straight-legged reach across the bumper.

Swing habits that spare the back

You do not need a new swing to protect your back, but a few adjustments help, and most coaches agree on them.

• Let the hips turn. Restricting the hips to create more “coil” puts the twist straight into the lower back. If your flexibility is limited, let the hips turn more in the backswing and allow the lead heel to lift slightly if it wants to.
• Flare the feet a little. Turning both toes out by a few degrees makes it easier for the hips to rotate back and through.
• Finish tall. The old “reverse C” finish, with the back arched and the head behind the hips, is hard on the spine. A balanced finish, standing tall over the lead leg with the chest facing the target, is kinder and just as effective.
• Shorten the backswing. A three-quarter backswing with a good strike often goes nearly as far as a full one with a poor strike, and it asks less of the spine.

If you want to change anything bigger, do it with a PGA professional who knows your physical limits. Our guide to getting value from golf lessons explains how to raise the subject in a first session.

Practice without paying for it the next day

The range is where many back problems start, because it removes the natural breaks of a round. On the course, you swing once every few minutes. On the range, you can hit a hundred balls in forty minutes, and the driver bucket is the worst of it.

Set a budget: fifty balls is plenty for most sessions, with a break every fifteen or twenty. Warm up with wedges and short irons before reaching for the longer clubs. Spend part of the session on chipping and putting, which barely load the back at all. Our guide to making a range session count shows how to get more from fewer balls. Hitting off hard mats also sends more shock through the body on a heavy strike than hitting off grass, so prefer grass when you have the choice.

Five minutes after the round

The last five minutes are the ones almost everybody skips. Before you get back in the car, walk for a couple of minutes instead of heading straight to the parking lot. Then repeat the hip stretch from the lunge, add a gentle knee-to-chest stretch if you can lie down at home, and a slow side bend each way standing up. The aim is to leave the course loose, not to sit for an hour in a car seat with a back that has just finished working hard.

On the days between rounds, the things that help most are ordinary ones: walking, staying active, and some basic strength work for the hips and trunk. Exercises such as bridges, side planks and bird dogs are standard in back-care programs, and a physical therapist can tell you which suit you.

When to stop and see someone

Ordinary stiffness after golf usually settles within a day or two. Stop playing and get it checked if:

• the pain spreads down one or both legs, especially below the knee, or comes with numbness or tingling;
• a leg feels weak, or your foot catches on the ground;
• the pain wakes you at night or does not ease with rest;
• the pain started with a fall or a sudden, sharp movement;
• it lasts more than a few weeks despite rest and gentle activity.

Numbness around the groin or buttocks, or any new problem controlling the bladder or bowels, is a medical emergency: go to an emergency room straight away.

Where U.S. golfers can get their back checked

In the United States, you do not always need a doctor’s referral to start with a physical therapist. According to the American Physical Therapy Association, patients in all 50 states and the District of Columbia now have some form of direct access to physical therapist services. In a majority of states it is provisional, with limits on the number of visits or on the time before a physician must be involved, so check your state’s rules. Also check your insurance plan: some plans still require a referral to pay, even where the law does not.

Many physical therapists and sports medicine clinics work with golfers and will look at your swing positions as well as your back. When you call, ask whether the therapist treats golfers regularly and whether the first visit includes a movement screen of the hips and upper back, not only the painful spot. Some PGA professionals also work in tandem with fitness trainers who hold golf-specific certifications, which is useful if the problem is linked to how you move in the swing.

On the course itself, a few practical things are worth knowing. Most public courses allow push carts, and many rent them. If walking with a bag is what keeps you off the course, ask the pro shop: a cart or push cart on a quiet afternoon nine is a better option than not playing. Golf is a sport people keep playing into their 70s and 80s, and a back that is looked after is usually what makes that possible.

The five minutes, on one card

• Before the round: brisk walk, hip hinge with a club, upper-back turns, lunge stretch and squats, practice swings that build from half to full.
• During the round: bend with the knees, stand up out of the cart, repeat the hinge and turns at the turn, drink water.
• The bag: two straps, lighter load, or a push cart; lift from the trunk with bent knees.
• At the range: fifty balls, breaks, wedges first, grass over mats.
• After the round: walk, stretch the hips, and do not sit straight down for an hour.

None of this takes more than five minutes at any one time. Done every round, it is usually the difference between a back nine you enjoy and one you just get through.