From the PGA Tour to Your Back Nine: Why Pro Golfers Swear by Chiropractic Care

If you watch a PGA Tour event, you are seeing a sport completely dominated by sports medicine. The repetitive, explosive twist of a modern golf swing puts an incredible amount of rotational stress on the lower back, hips, and shoulders.

Because of this, the vast majority of professional golfers use chiropractic care as a core part of their routine. The PGA Tour even travels with dedicated, mobile Player Performance Centers (essentially semi-trailers loaded with fitness and medical gear) staffed by physical therapists, athletic trainers, and chiropractors.

Some of the most high-profile pro golfers who actively utilize and advocate for chiropractic care include:

1. Tiger Woods

Tiger was one of the earliest and most vocal superstars to champion chiropractic. He used it throughout his career to manage severe back issues, maintain spinal alignment during his high-velocity swing, and recover from multiple surgeries.

"I’ve been going to chiropractors for as long as I can remember. It’s as important to my training as practicing my swing." — Tiger Woods

2. Jordan Spieth

Spieth has traveled on tour with a dedicated personal chiropractor, Dr. Troy Van Biezen, since his high school days. Spieth utilizes regular adjustments specifically for structural balance, keeping his hips highly mobile, and preventing the "sway" that can creep into a swing when the lower back gets tight.

3. Scottie Scheffler & Rory McIlroy

Both of these modern giants lean heavily into a team-based medical approach. They utilize chiropractic adjustments combined with Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) movement screenings before and after rounds to maintain flawless biomechanics and explosive driving power.

4. Phil Mickelson & Dustin Johnson

Both Mickelson and Johnson have been long-time clients of Dr. Tom LaFountain, the Director of Chiropractic Services for the PGA Tour. For power hitters like "DJ," spinal adjustments are heavily focused on muscle sequencing—making sure the hips, core, and thoracic spine fire in the exact micro-second order required to generate 120+ mph clubhead speed without tearing up the lower back.

5. Zach Johnson

Golf is literally a family affair here—Zach Johnson’s father is a Doctor of Chiropractic. Johnson grew up using adjustments to stay fluid and has maintained that routine throughout his successful, multi-major-winning PGA career.

What Tour Chiropractors Actually Do

It's worth noting that "PGA Tour chiropractic" looks a bit different than standard clinic care. Tour clinicians like Dr. Van Biezen or Dr. Shane Lawlor (who works with Shane Lowry and Padraig Harrington) rarely just "crack a back" and send the player to the first tee. They blend three main modalities:

• Active Release Techniques (ART): Intense soft-tissue manipulation to break up scar tissue and muscle adhesions caused by thousands of repetitive swings.
• Joint Mobilization: Restoring full range of motion specifically to the hips and thoracic (mid-back) spine. If these two areas freeze up, the lumbar spine (lower back) is forced to rotate—which it isn't designed to do, leading to herniated discs.
• Neuromuscular Warm-ups: Waking up the nervous system 1 to 2 hours before a tee time so the player's brain and muscles communicate perfectly on the downswing.

In addition to standard chiropractic care and massage therapy, our office has introduced Shockwave and High Intensity Laser Therapy to our treatment options in order to enhance your healing and recovery time.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (aka ESWT, Shocwave, Stemwave, Softshock) is highly effective for treating chronic, overuse golf injuries by using acoustic sound waves to jumpstart the body's natural healing response. Because of the repetitive, powerful, and asymmetric rotations produced by the golf swing, specific joints and tendons bear an uneven amount of stress. Shockwave therapy can treat and heal these types of soft tissue conditions by delivering acoustic (sound wave) pulses into the soft tissues in order to simulate micro-trauma, resulting in a breakdown of weak and brittle scar tissue, increase localized blood circulation and create new blood vessels, and stimulate collagen production to rebuild tissue strength.

In most cases, the ultimate benefit is that it requires zero surgical downtime and allows for modified loading, meaning you can often continue practicing your short game or swinging with an adjusted grip during your treatment protocol instead of shutting down for six weeks.

Common Golf Injuries Treated with Shockwave

• Golfer's Elbow (Medial Epicondylitis): Resolves pain and inflammation on the inner side of the elbow where the flexor tendons attach.
• Lower Back Pain: Alleviates lumbar strain and deep tissue tension caused by aggressive torso twisting during the swing.
• Rotator Cuff Injuries: Breaks down scar tissue and restores shoulder strength or flexibility after repetitive overhead movements.
• Plantar Fasciitis: Heals chronic heel and foot pain resulting from walking long distances or transferring weight across the feet.

What to Expect During a Session

1. Application: The practitioner applies a coupling gel to the skin over the injured area to help transmit the sound waves. 
2. Sensation: A handheld wand delivers acoustic pulses that feel like a fast, rhythmic tapping or a "little jackhammer".
3. Discomfort: The treatment can be mildly uncomfortable or tender over sensitive areas, but the sensation resolves immediately after the device is turned off.
4. Timeline: A typical protocol involves 3 to 6 sessions lasting 5 to 20 minutes each for acute conditions. Chronic conditions may require 12 or more sessions.Sessions can be performed 1 to 3 times per week.  While initial pain relief can occur in 1 to 2 visits, full tissue remodeling takes 10 to 15 weeks.

Important Safety and Medical Precautions

• Avoid NSAIDs: You must pause anti-inflammatory medications (like ibuprofen) because they block the beneficial healing response that the shockwaves are trying to trigger.
• Steroid Injections: You cannot receive shockwave therapy if you have had a cortisone injection in the target area within the last 6 weeks. 
• Contraindications: Do not use shockwave if you are pregnant, wear a pacemaker, have a blood clotting disorder, or take oral blood thinners. 
• Insurance Notice: ESWT is rarely covered by standard commercial insurance or Medicare for musculoskeletal conditions, so expect to pay out-of-pocket per session.

We have been using these therapies in our practice for over a year now and with some pretty dramatic and amazing results for a variety of conditions. I can testify that as a result of adjusting people for over 35 years now that I have developed arthritic type pain in both of my wrists. I have been treating myself with them and have been able to continue to work and play multiple rounds of golf per week with minimal pain and no restriction of mobility in my wrists and hands.

If you are experiencing any discomfort or limitation of activities, you owe it to yourself to have a consultation to see if it may be of benefit to you.