Chuck, my only advice is to genuinely "enlist" your new physical therapist in your recovery. Get them on board with YOUR vision of what you expect from them. Involve them with your game. Make him/her part of your team. The last thing you want is a therapist who is just doing his or her job. Make your therapist feel as if they may be responsible for making you competitive again. Plant the seed that they win when you win. Make them see you as a 30 year old athlete, not a 70 year old senior to whom they can't relate.

I used this approach with my latest physical therapist. I let him know that I was a competitive player and that golf was my life. (I may have thrown the words, "highly competitive" in there to emphasize the point.) I made sure he understood, I'm not out there to just kick it around for fun. This is serious to me. I told him I was depending on him to get me back to, or even better than I was before. Over the course of my PT, I could tell I was a favorite client of his. He seemed to take on my case as a challenge. With me, it wasn't, "do three sets of 15," and then he walked away to go work with another client until I was standing there waiting for my next exercise. No, he had his assistant check on the other clients while he stayed right there with me. Pushing me.

In the end, I think he was as proud of his accomplishment of getting me ready to compete again, as I was satisfied with the program he created for me. On the last day, he handed me three pages of golf-specific exercises and stretches he thought I should do before every round. He went to the TPI site for guidance! I truly believed that he felt like I was his personal sports project and he enjoyed making my body competitive again. THAT'S what you need in a physical therapist, in my opinion.

Don't let them treat you like you aren't any more important than the next guy. Get them involved and on your team. Good luck and hope to see you back out there on the course soon. Don't give up on 2020.

As many of you know I had bad surgery in February and it corrected the issue with my left leg. After the surgery I entered PT at the institute, but when the pandemic hit they stopped seeing patients and gave me exercises to do at home. The only contact I had with them at that point was by phone or video. The results did not meet my satisfaction and additional pain occurred in my hips. After assurance that they would have me back stronger than ever with my golf game, I decided enough is enough. I was able to get an appointment with my primary care physician today about another issue and he recommended another therapist that is seeing patients and I have an appointment on Monday at 10 am. My wife has used her and highly recommends her. Said she is the best. Am looking forward to getting rid of this pain and enjoying golf again. If it ain't working change it.......