1/23/23

As we enter 2023, I reflect back on my early December 2022 entry. In that pre-surgery entry, I offered my general approach to working on my game during the “off season” over the years.  Winter weather, in areas of the country where golf can’t be played comfortably, requires a different approach to playing in warm weather venues. In my mind, the cold winter season is directly connected to success in the warmer spring and summer seasons. For committed golfers (maybe committed is a mental condition?) our “fix” needs feeding whenever and wherever. In my last entry, I offered some tips on how I make it through the Mid-Atlantic winter and continue to try to improve my game. This off-season, I was challenged more than usual. I tore the ACL and medial meniscus in my left knee in 1980. So, for the last forty-plus years, I have “hobbled” around the best that I could.  In reality, I did just about what I wanted to do physically over the last forty-plus years but was not 100%.  Alas, as I entered my mid-sixties, my knee became more and more problematic. In 2022, doctors told me that I had about 3-5 years of “serviceable” use of my left knee.  The reality was that although I was able to continue to play golf and reasonably do whatever I wanted, the window for my knee continuing to be “serviceable” was shrinking. Doctors predicted that if I did not do anything about my injury that I would be walking with a cane by age 70. As an active, former athlete, that option was not a desirable one. So, I made the decision to get my left knee replaced in December 2022. Understand, my orthopedic surgeon wanted me to get the surgery done in the spring of 2022. However, what real golfer decides to miss the whole golf season to recover???  Surgery in December made more sense to me than surgery in May. So, on December 13, 2022, I had my left knee completely replaced. It’s been six weeks since that surgery. I will share what I have learned from this part of my life/golf journey.

We don’t recover as quickly or completely in our sixties as we did in our twenties. My first post-surgery thought, once I was coherent, was how can I push myself to recover much quicker than expected so that I can “get back in the game” as soon as possible. Here’s the reality. A knee replacement is a major surgery!! Time is the most important variable in recovery (patience and perseverance are close seconds), especially if we’re over the age of fifty. For the surgery I had, the general recovery time is about three months. I was thinking, as a former athlete with a relatively high pain tolerance, that I could recover fully in half that time. That thinking was like being 280 yards from the green on a par 5 after my drive and assuming that an eagle putt was imminent. Yes, it’s possible, but in my sixties, it’s not likely or the smartest play! If I were playing the par 5 like I was playing my physical well-being, I would just lay up to around 100 yards on my second shot and try to hit one close on my third shot for a good putt at birdie. Well, as you might imagine, I went for the metaphorical green right after surgery and fell short.  After about four weeks, I decided to go to the range and hit balls. Not a good idea!! My body was not ready to meet my mental expectations.  Pain and an inablitity to take a proper swing ruled the day! Once I processed my over-reach (a painful process, physically and emotionally), I took “my medicine,” “dropped,” and tried to play my situation more intelligently and methodically, as I should have originally. Being a mature golfer isn’t just a matter of chronical age. You must process your experiences and learn from them realistically. So, I got back on my daily knee rehab routines and waited patiently for my body to recover as it should, not as I hoped. The range and playing would have to wait. Chipping and putting were possible, though. I needed to be satisfied with that! So, I sit here today trying to be a patient patient and secondarily, an patient golfer. “For everything, there is a season.” Again, it has been reaffirmed to me that golf imitates life! If you have the wherewithal to play 18 holes well strategically, your chances of living life well strategically are pretty high!

I’ll check back in the next month or so to let you know how my journey has progressed. The realistic goal (affirmed by my doctor) is to be close to fully recovered in early March. To repeat from my last entry, my “golf jones” is real!  Even in the winter months and under these unusual physical challenges, I try to “play the course as I find it” and get great inspiration/motivation from the possibility of having another opportunity to “feed my addiction” by overcoming my challenges and playing the game that I love. However, “all things in moderation.”