Our wrists endure a lot of stress and punishment from playing golf, they help us swing the club through thick grass, plugged bunker lies, and hour-long grind sessions on the range. Our golf professionals at Magnolia Point Golf Club are amazed that more golfers don’t suffer from hand injuries. In reality though, many golfers do suffer from wrist injuries, and they are fairly common and take a while to heal.
The forces that you apply to your hand while playing golf can cause soft-tissue inflammation, sprains, nerve damage, or fractures to the eight miniscule carpals of the joint. The most susceptible to injury is the hamate bone on the pinky side of your glove hand at the wrist.
In order to prevent these injuries while playing golf, use these wrist safety tips from the Green Cove Springs golf course.
Get fitted.
Grips come in four diameters and you can use tape to make different degrees of thickness. Unfortunately, many golfers don’t realize this and simply use the standard grips that come with the clubs. If your grips are too small, the usual tendency is to hold it in the palms or hold it too tightly, and both of these put unnecessary stress on the wrist.
Check the grip.
Holding your club too high across the palm of your hand puts the club in a weaker position at impact and increases the risk of injury. Re-position your grip on the club in the last three fingers of the glove hand instead. This will stabilize the club at impact and limits the stress to the wrist.
Check your divot holes.
Hit a shot off the turf and notice the markings. If your divot hole is deep and point to left of your target, your angle of attack is steep and not wrist friendly. When playing golf, shallow your approach on the ball by trying to take a thinner slice of turf.