Golf Related Injury

Seo, Kyung Mook

Abstract

Golf has become an increasingly popular sport worldwide. In a survey done by the National Statistical Office of Korea in 2004, it is shown that 3.3% of Koreans who are 15 or older which is about 1.27 million people have played golf. Unfortunately, despite the rising popularity of golf, the research on the prevention and treatment of golf related injury was quite lacking in Korea. In terms of sports injuries, golf is considered to have a medium-class injury potential, with most injuries resulting from overuse but other causes such as lack of flexibility, unbalanced muscles, failures in condition management, inadequate stretching and warm-up/cool-down exercises are also possible. Furthermore, many golfers tend to force themselves in more exercises and rounds even when not fully recovered from the initial injury, risking secondary injuries. The prevalence of golf-related injuries varies much among researchers, but even with the average of 50%, it can be assumed that about six hundred thousand Korean golfers are suffering from various pain and discomfort. It was the purpose of this review to understand the causes of injury, treatment and prevention of golf-related injuries.