Opinion & Analysis

Elbow and wrist pain: How to get rid of it

Published

13 years ago

Sep 23, 2013

It was the first stage of Q-school in 2000. I was playing very well on one of my favorite courses, the Bayonet Course on the former Fort Ord Army Base in Seaside, Calif., on the Monterey Peninsula.

They have since redesigned the course to make it more user friendly, but it used to be more difficult than its more famous neighbors, Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, by a wide margin. One year on four perfect 70-degree, wind-free, sunny days,the qualifying score was 305. A 76-76-76-77 would have gotten a golfer in a playoff that year to advance to the next stage of Q-school, but I digress.

My wrists hurt that year. When I say they hurt, I mean they hurt so bad I could barely shave and brush my teeth. I was swallowing pain killers and anti-inflammatories by the handful, and ironically I hit the ball well, but missed by two because of some putting woes. That year I lived up to the long driver stereotype, but again, I digress.

When I got home, I went to three hand specialists. The consensus: I had torn this and torn that and needed surgery on both wrists. The list of things that needed to be cut would have made a medical school cadaver wince.

My response was an equally long list of expletives to each doctor. A friend of my mother’s heard me whining both about the pain and the thought of losing my ability to hit it farther than everyone. She told me that her daughter was a chiropractor and could fix it.

As you can imagine, I was as dismissive as someone who was told they could rub deer urine on my chest to avoid a heart transplant. However, she was convincing and I was desperate so I visited Dr. Shannon Farrell in San Pedro, Calif.

I told her my sob story and she grabbed the arm of the wrist that I told her was the more painful (the right) and she started prodding the upper forearm. I told her that’s not where it hurt. She found a spot a few inches below and inside my elbow on the meat of the forearm pressed on it and said, “Does this hurt?”

I recoiled so hard I fell out of the chair. She then explained to me in layman’s terms that hitting so many golf ball will make those muscles constrict and pull on the attaching points creating pain in the wrist, elbow, or both.

It made sense, so I let her have at me. I won’t lie, I have few times in my life been in so much pain as she gave me the most brutal deep-tissue massage of my life. She bruised both my arms four to six inches above and below my elbow. This inspired me into nicknaming her “The Crazy Lady” as she laughed at me while I cried like a baby.

Only that first time was it that painful. I have it done once or twice a year and have been pain free in both wrists and elbows for 13 years.

Now realize I am a former (and hope to be future) world long-drive champion, so at nearly 150 mph in the old days and circa 135 mph now in my senior division years, I put more stress on those areas than than most, yet I’m pain free.

This got me thinking. In the era of lag, pulling the handle, ringing the bell, pulling the chain, death gripping, overactive hit impulses, etc., there are probably millions of golfers out there playing in pain with wrist bands, taped wrists, elbow braces, etc.

All of you with pain need to do two things. Find the nearest, meanest deep-tissue specialist and get tortured, and then read my other articles and learn to swing the club without pulling on the handle so hard.

For those of you in the Southern California area, go see Dr. Farrell. She is the best at what she does and all of my clients I have sent to her are now pain free. The ones who didn’t listen still have the morass of supportive devices and are in-taking a kidney-failing amount of pain medication.

I am headed to The Remax World Championships next week and I am pain free in the wrists and elbows thanks to Dr. Farrell. Now the mental pain I suffer from because I am an insane golfer, sadly she had no treatment for.

Addendum: I wrote this article before I competed in the Remax World Long Drive Championships. I finished 6th, and my longest balls were hit with swings where my body rotated efficiently. All of the ones where I pulled the handle too hard were heel shots (one would have been a shank if it was a 6 iron) and/or balls that spun too much…and they hurt my body more. Especially my elbows.

Coincidences? I think not.

Related Topics:

Up Next

The 10 best golf commercials of 2013

Don't Miss

NBA Hall-of-Famer Rick Barry wins RE/MAX Long Drive title

Monte Scheinblum

Monte Scheinblum is a former World Long Drive Champion and Web.com Tour player. For more insights and details on this article, as well as further instruction from Monte go to rebelliongolf.com

7 Comments

Sodak77

Sep 24, 2013 at 1:19 pm

Good article and a reminder that if you have pain in an area of your body that doesn’t have swelling then the source of the pain may very well be someplace else on your body.

At the end of my last two seasons of golf the back of my left hand (left-handed) absolutely killed. I never noticed any swelling in my left-hand but had a hard time gripping anything. Didn’t matter how much I stretched or massaged my hand/wrist the problem only went away when I stopped playing golf for a few months.

After a lot of digging on-line as to what might be the cause I read some articles that pointed to either the shoulder or elbow being the root cause. Doing some isolation strength tests I quickly discovered the issue being in my elbow. Between the massage and reverse wrist curls I have been completely pain free this year.

Reply Report comment
DJ

Sep 24, 2013 at 10:09 am

I’ve battled tendinitis in my forearms and elbows as well as wrist pains from the age 18 to now 26, last winter I started visiting an A.R.T. Chiropractor (specialize in soft tissue/muscle/tendon treatment). To my surprise it has been a pain free season.

Reply Report comment
- BK
  
  Sep 24, 2013 at 10:58 am
  
  DJ, I’ve been suffering from tennis elbow since the beginning of the year and already have gone through 2 rounds of cortisone shots, so I’m really desperate and very interested in finding out more about this A.R.T treatment.
  
  Is this more of a massage technique or an adjustment? And how long did the treatment last?
  
  Thanks in advance.
  
  Reply Report comment
  - DJ
    
    Oct 1, 2013 at 10:52 am
    
    I would say its equivalent to a painful massage. My doctor used what looked like a credit card but was made of metal and moved it up down across (my forearm, bicep, wrist, palm, and top of hand) while applying a decent amount of pressure. The first few times actually resulted in bruising, but from his detail it was breaking apart the scar tissue that was limiting my tendons movements and allowing more oxygen and blood supply to the muscles/tendons. Along with using the credit card thing, there were movements that we would go through each week.
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Release_Technique
    
    Reply Report comment
Brad Wood

Sep 23, 2013 at 10:40 pm

My MD’s have all said bone spurs and arthritis. I’ll have to check this out.
Good article by the way.

Reply Report comment
Brenton

Sep 23, 2013 at 6:35 pm

Very good article. Another thing to consider is acupuncture.
Acupuncture is really good at relieving tension in both your muscles and nerves. Nerve tension will cause muscle contraction.
I didn’t care much for that kind of stuff until I eventually tried it and it improved my body and my golf dramatically. I picked up considerable distance and have no pain or discomfort no matter how much I play. food for thought

Reply Report comment
- cadman88
  
  Sep 23, 2013 at 10:44 pm
  
  I have to add in on this one.. my wife goes every two weeks for a massage and I’ve gone a couple times in the past. Over the last 4 weeks my elbow and wrist have really been darn sore from a season of golfing 3 times a week. I did go to my wife’s massage person to work on the tendon in my forearm.. unknown to me my wife had already told her I was a wimp so not to work the muscle too hard.. I will say that it did not get rid of the pain 100%, but man it did give me relief from what I’d call constant cramping in my forearm… sounds like I need a return trip to really let her work on it..
  
  Reply Report comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Opinion & Analysis

AVL: My U.S. Amateur local qualifying experience

Published

6 days ago

Jun 5, 2026

Andrew Von Lossow

This past Monday, I played in the U.S. Amateur local qualifier at Rock Creek Country Club in Portland, Oregon. A full tee sheet from 7:30 a.m. to 1:55 p.m., the top 11 scores would make it to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying.

I teed off at 10:48 a.m.. With the 7:30 am tee time, you can get a feel for the leaders’ pace, and they were off and running on the challenging setup at Rock Creek.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by GolfWRX (@golfwrx)

Getting to the highlight of the round on the par five 17th, a drive up the left side and 212 yards left to the front hole location. I took out a 5-iron with plans of middle of the green. The ball ended up 8 feet left of the hole, pin high. A slight downhill putt dropped in for an eagle 3 on the 17th. With the cut line looking to be anywhere from -2 to even par. This was the boost I had been waiting for all day.

With making par from the trees on 18, it was time to wait for a potential playoff with a posted score of one under par 71.

Three hours later, it was playoff time. 8 players for 6 spots. I made par on the playoff hole, which was good enough to advance to the U.S. Amateur final qualifying in July. USGA qualifiers sure deliver on all of the emotions in golf!

Club Junkie

Building my 2026 gamer WITB: Ranking the contenders and new putter projects – Club Junkie Podcast

Published

1 week ago

Jun 4, 2026

GolfWRX Staff

The annual What’s In The Bag build is underway, and on this episode of Club Junkie, Brian breaks down the clubs currently leading the race for a spot in his 2026 gamer setup. From drivers and fairway woods to irons, wedges, and shafts, he ranks the equipment that’s performing best and explains what’s separating the front runners from the rest of the field.

Brian also heads into the workshop to discuss several putter projects currently on the bench. From head options and shaft choices to build ideas and testing plans, he shares what he’s working on and which putters could become serious contenders for the bag this season.

If you’re a gear junkie who loves equipment testing, club building, and the never-ending pursuit of the perfect setup, this episode is for you.

Follow Club Junkie:
Instagram: @clubjunkiepod
TikTok: @clubjunkiepod
Threads: @clubjunkiepod
X: @ClubJunkiePod

Club Junkie

Tour Edge Exotics mini driver review + TaylorMade Spider ZT Max first look – Club Junkie

Published

2 weeks ago

May 28, 2026

Brian Knudson

On this episode of Club Junkie, I put the new Tour Edge Exotics Mini Driver to the test and break down the performance, forgiveness, distance, and where it fits compared to a traditional driver or strong fairway wood. If you have been curious about adding a mini driver to the bag, this one is worth a look.

I also dive into the new TaylorMade Spider ZT Max putter that was recently spotted and discuss the growing zero torque putter trend. Plus, there is a closer look at the new Project X Titan Yellow shaft showing up on the PGA Tour and what makes it different from other profiles currently out there.