Describing the Warm-up Habits of Recreational Golfers and the Associated Injury Risk

The purpose of this research was to investigate the warm-up habits of golfers and determine whether warm-up behaviors are associated with injury risk. A total of 304 golfers who visited a university health system based golf fitness laboratory over the age of 18 years were invited to participate in this study. Golfers had to have a registered golf handicap and play golf on a regular basis over the previous 12 months (on average at least once/week) to be eligible for the study. Recruitment for this study took place at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club between December 2005 – May 2006. All golfers completed a questionnaire concerning warm-up attitudes and behaviors and injury status. A small percentage of golfers were shown to perform an appropriate warm-up prior to play (18.1%) or practice (16.8%), and an even smaller percentage of injured golfers performed an appropriate warm-up (9.6% play; 10.6% practice). Chi-square analysis showed that the golfers’ warm-up behaviors both prior to play (p<0.001) and practice (p<0.05) were significantly associated with their injury status. Odds ratio analysis showed that golfers who did not perform an appropriate warm-up prior to golf play or practice were more likely to report sustaining a golfing injury in the previous 12 months than those who did perform an appropriate warm-up (1.3 times more likely prior to play; 1.2 times more likely prior to practice). This study has highlighted that most golfers do not perform an appropriate warm-up prior to golf play or practice, and golfers who did not warm-up were at an increased risk of sustaining an injury compared to those who did warm-up. The golfers’ warm-up behaviors both prior to play and prior to practice were significantly associated with injury status. A very small percentage of golfers performed an appropriate warm-up prior to play and prior to practice and those golfers had a significantly reduced injury risk than those who did not warm-up. Golf professionals, coaches, and physicians, should emphasize the importance of undertaking all three recommend components of a warm-up program to golfers. Finally, previous research has shown that a warm-up only need take seven to eight minutes to improve performance so perhaps this warm-up should be undertaken by all golfers to potentially help reduce their injury risk and improve their performance.