My year ended short

Thanks to the miracles of modern science, my year has taken quite a turn. 

Last week at Greensboro, I continued to play despite my sore elbow. I was trying to move up the money list and perhaps make it into the FedEx Cup playoffs. But a conversation with Scott McCarron changed all that. 

Scott was telling me about how he injured his elbow a couple of years ago and tried to play through it. He had all sorts of therapy on it to help him get through each week and finally when the pain was too much, he went and had an MRI. That showed that he’d torn the ligament right off the elbow and needed to have surgery. As a result of that, he missed an entire year.

With that information, I went to have my own MRI on Thursday after my round and the result showed a slight tear of the ligament in my right arm. After consulting a number of people, it was clear that I needed to shut things down and try a non-surgical approach to recovery. That means lots of rest and therapy, and then a reassessment in a couple of months. 

So I’m pretty much certain that my season is over. Most of the professionals I’ve talked to have said it will take me at least two months without hitting any balls to get better. 

Of course the competitor in me thinks that maybe in six weeks or so it might be better and I might be able to try something at the end of the year. At the same time, if I did that I’d be going in without hitting a ball or even swinging a club for six or seven weeks so that’s not really an option.

There’s also the possibility of maybe playing something overseas in November or December – I just don’t want to completely close off my options for this year, still I’m about 99 per cent the season is over. 

In some respects, the injury is a bit of a double-edged sword. There’s frustration because I want to play. On the other hand, at least now I have some answers as to what’s been going on for the last part of the season. I thought it was just tendonitis and something I could play through. Now I know why I was experiencing the pain I was. In some respects, what was worse than the pain of hitting a shot was the anticipation of that pain. When I would swing, I would sort of flinch at the ball or not go down after it. Those things create bad habits and now when I get back to playing, I won’t have those -- I’ll be starting fresh. 

I’m not really sure how long the injury has been with me. Certainly it was at the British Open where I started to feel the severe pain, but even before that I had some soreness in my arm to the point where I would ice it at night. That usually took care of things and I was good to go the next morning. 

I think everyone on Tour goes through things like that, little aches and pains that flare up throughout the season. But at the British Open, it started getting a lot worse and the icing wasn’t helping at all. At the RBC Canadian Open I started getting clicking and popping sounds in my arm and I knew something was wrong but I still thought it was just tendonitis. Now, with the MRI, I know the whole story.

The one thing this break will allow me to do is reassess where I am in my career. I haven’t looked at it in depth yet but I will over the next few months and see what I need to do to get back where I want to be. 

I remain positive – who doesn’t go through tough times? I’m not trying to sound too philosophical but that’s life. It’s not all roses all the time. You have to be able to fight through the bad times and keep an optimistic outlook. 

It’ll probably drive my family nuts for a while, me being around the house so much. I can’t go into the basement and work on my game or go to the range. I can’t even fly-fish as that would require me to use my arm. I’m already antsy and it’s only been a few days! 

I know this is short-term pain for long-term gain. In the end, I’ll be back, better than ever.

As always, thanks for your support. 

Mike