Let it never be said that golfers are not athletes. Let it also never be said golfers are not subject to freak injuries like everyone else.
That's what happened to David Toms, who has been battling the onset of back and hip trouble since the U.S. Open. The injury was tweaked while doing something rather mundane.
"I think I said I was tying my shoes," Toms said Friday at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational. "I was bending over in my closet."
Toms has received a couple of opinions on what is actually wrong with him based on an MRI. He might have a torn labrum - a popular injury among golfers these days, it seems - or chronic bursitis. He is yet to see a specialist for a more certain diagnosis, knowing off-season surgery is a possibility.
"At 45, you really don't want to get cut on if you don't have to," he said. "I tend to make it around the golf course okay, especially when I pace myself during the week and during the year. Right now I'm just going to go with it."
Fortunately for Toms, it doesn't really impact his golf swing. He is 5 under through two rounds at Firestone and trails Jim Furyk by a half-dozen shots.
Perhaps the time off since the U.S. Open to nurse the injury was a good thing. It rejuvenated his interest in competing, particularly timely for a return to the PGA Championship, which he won in 2001.
"Unfortunately it kept me out for a little while, but I needed a break probably in a way from the game," he said. "I wasn't quite enjoying it the way I should have and probably put too much pressure on myself to perform at that time before when I was off."
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