Golf can be a game of millimetres. A club head that is angled a few millimetres off centre can result in a drive hooking out of bounds.

Millimetres in golf can be the difference between winning and losing in a playoff.

Can chiropractic care help improve your golf game?

Professional golfers will do everything they can to help them in their search for the perfect swing. One things that many professional golfers do to help them with their game is to see a chiropractor. In fact, about three quarters of professional golfers receive regular chiropractic care to help them play at their peak potential. 1

The group that got adjusted could hit the golf ball further

Chiropractors may not only help golfers to overcome injuries,(1) they may also help them with their swing.

A research study published in 2009 showed that chiropractic care helped golfers to hit the ball further which could make a big difference to a golfers score at the end of the day. 2

Researchers in Brazil performed a randomised controlled trial involving 43 golfers and looked at how far they could hit a ball over a four week study period. (2) They put the golfers into one of two groups. One was a control group who just did a basic stretching programme over the four weeks of study. The other group did the same stretching programme, but they also got adjusted be a chiropractor once a week for four weeks and the researchers looked at how far they could drive the ball before and after getting adjusted over the four weeks. The researchers collected a lot of data which, in general, showed the chiropractic group performed better than the control group throughout the study. But the most significant finding from the study was that at the last study session, the group that got adjusted could hit the ball 8 meters further after the adjustment, whereas the control group only improved by half a meter after the stretching session.

The group that got adjusted could hit the ball 8 meters further after the adjustment. This study suggests that chiropractic care, in association with muscle stretching, seems to improve the ability of golfers to drive the ball when compared with muscles stretching alone. Although this was only a small study, it may mean that chiropractic care really can help golfers to improve their game.

So, if you want to get the most of your golf game, take after the professionals and see a chiropractor, because it may help you with those millimetres that can make the difference between the perfect drive and fishing your ball out of the pond.

Disclaimer and References

This information is provided to educational purposes only. It is not intended to be professional advice of any kind. Whitetree Chiropractic Ltd encourages you to make your own health care decisions based on you own research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.

1. Dynamic Chiropractic 2008. 26(15). 2 Costa et al. J Chiropr Med 2009;8(4):163-70

With thanks to Dr Heidi Haavik