Time with senior golfers quite an experience
FOX CHAPEL — Spending a week with 81 of the best senior golfers in the world at the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at Fox Chapel Golf Club has been quite an experience.
We have marveled at the way the Champions Tour players hit the ball. We marveled at the way they can do things with hybrid clubs that recreational golfers can only dream of. They hit them high and long and make them land softly on the green.
They are, for the most part, true gentlemen of the game, the second generation of great players who followed the path on the Champions Tour that was laid by the greatest players of all time like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.
But they’re all over 50 and those who are over that age know what happens when the numbers to start add up: things start to ache that never ached before. Muscles suddenly spasm and strain more quickly than they used to.
And guess what?
Three of those guys with the most significant back problems were on the leaderboard as the sun shone brightly on Fox Chapel Saturday.
Fred Couples, who threatened to run away with the third of fifth majors as the second round finished around 10 a.m. He’s had major back issues since he came out onto the PGA Tour and has managed to dodge surgery, but is always iffy at best when it comes to playing with much regularity.
John Huston is a more recent addition to the BBA (Back Backs of America) but he’s really struggled recently and there he is not taking a back step to Couples at all.
Fred Funk is another guy who has had protracted back problems and has really suffered in the last few weeks. He said earlier in the week he should have withdrawn in his last tournament and almost pulled out of the Constellation Energy on Wednesday during the middle of the pro-am.
The morale of this story? These guys are making a very difficult game look very easy week-in and week-out with bodies that aren’t supposed to be able to do that. And that make it look so effortless.
Couples has perhaps the most fluid swing the game has ever seen, unless you go back to the day of Sam Snead, who was pretty smooth in his day. Part of that swing is because of the way he swings naturally, the other part is making adjustments to make sure he’s able to swing another day.
Huston, who leads the Champions Tour in driving distance (Couples is second), suffered significantly enough at the Senior PGA Championship two weeks ago that he withdrew from the Senior PGA Championship in St. Louis.
“I’ve had the normal bad back we all get, but this is a bit more serious,” Huston said. “I used to heal a lot quicker, but that doesn’t happen anymore.”
He’s on a new regime of exercise and training that he’s hopeful is going to start showing benefits soon.
Funk has also struggled with back issues, but they have ramped up considerably as the season has gone forward and hit their worst at the Senior PGA Championship when he said he should have pulled out, but tried to play through it.
And then we got to Fox Chapel, in the middle of Wednesday’s nine-hole pro-am event, he almost pulled the plug again.
“I’ve really been fighting my back for a while and I had an MRI done and it’s not a structural problem, it’s a muscle spasm that won’t release,” he said. “I’m taking medicine and doing everything I can to get the thing to release. All I know is that right now, it’s pretty painful.”
Funk said pain has prevented him from fully extending on his follow-through, which obviously cuts down on the things he can do with the golf ball.
“It’s just one of those things we have to figure out,” Funk said.
And the amazing thing, they do week after week after week.
There was a particularly telling shot on the telecast Saturday. It should Couples and Huston, standing on the 17th tee, both stretching their backs.
If you have an interesting story about your club or course or an individual, let me know. Send you story ideas to mike.dudurich@gmail.com. Mike Dudurich is a freelance golf writer and also hosts The Golf Show on 93.7 The Fan Saturday mornings from 7-8.