Can You Play Golf With a Spinal Fusion?

Spinal fusion surgery does not always spell the end of a golfer's career. Many players have returned to the links after the operation, although the recovery process from the operation -- which permanently connects two or more vertebrae in the spine -- is lengthy. A bone graft gives the surgeon extra bone to place between the vertebrae. Screws or rods then hold the grafts in place. After a number of months, the vertebrae grow together and fuse. If the surgery and recovery go well, your surgeon will help you plan a return to the golf course.

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Post-Surgery

Don't even think about picking up a golf club during the first 12 weeks after spinal fusion, an operation designed to improve the spine's stability or correct a deformity and reduce pain caused by either condition. Doctors allow only walking as a means of exercise in this time period. As spinal surgeon Dr. Mark R. McLaughlin writes at the SpineUniverse website, doctors limit your range of motion during the first three months following the operation in order to let the vertebrae heal and begin to fuse. The metallic rods and screws in your back are strong, but bone cells must form around the hardware to make the surgery a success. For the first two to three months, you might wear a brace to minimize motion and give the bones a better opportunity to fuse.

Back in Action

At 12 to 16 weeks, if your recovery proceeds well, your doctor will encourage you to begin light stretching of the abs and low back. Some surgeons allow you to lightly swing short irons at the driving range 20 weeks after surgery, assuming your X-rays look good. A warm-up and cool down, part of the daily maintenance exercises for your repaired back, remain essential when you begin to hit balls, . By 24 weeks, swing mid-irons and, at 28 weeks, get out the long irons and woods -- but only on the driving range. And, if you experience any flare ups of pain, put the clubs away and see your back surgeon.

Driving Range to Golf Course

After 28 weeks, ask about playing an easy nine holes, as long as you avoid fatigue and shots out of thick rough or from awkward lies. Dr. McLaughlin considers a return to the fairways and greens "feasible and encouraged by most sports medicine spine surgeons, provided that the proper recovery period has passed and the patient's pre-operative symptoms have improved."

Inspiration

Let Lisa Smego serve as a role model for your return to golf after spinal fusion surgery. Fifteen months after triple fusion surgery, Smego won the 2010 Washington State Women's Mid-Amateur. Smego, 54 at the time, lapped the field by 11 strokes in the 36-hole event. Prior to surgery, Smego's back condition proved so severe that two surgeons even declined to operate on her. She had surgery in May and didn't return to the driving range until January. After that, her recovery progressed quickly and, by August of that year, she returned to action at the Mid-Amateur, battling windy conditions to shoot 79-74 and take home the trophy.