Rocco Mediate said that he was desperate to talk to Woods because he genuinely thinks he can help fix his lower-back problems. Mediate is best known for giving Tiger arguably the toughest battle of his career in a major, forcing him to make an incredible putt on the 72nd hole and then battling him for another 19 holes in a playoff the following day.
"It was a simple prediction to see what would happen to Tiger” - “The way he moves the club has destroyed one of the most in-shape people on earth. But I can assure you one thing. I can make him understand what it will take to get the stress off the body. I can’t compare anything else to this man, but one thing I can tell you is that I came back from back surgery that was supposed to be the end of my golf life.”
Yes, everyone has an opinion about Tiger, but if in some far off galaxy Tiger decided to reach out to me for help, I would immediately send him Rocco’s way, because Rocco is the one guy who has navigated a way around this. As he alluded to in the quote above, Rocco ran into serious back trouble in 1994 that almost ended his career. He completely overhauled his swing and despite needing other back surgeries at various points after that, he enjoyed a long six-win career on the PGA Tour and is still playing on the Champions Tour.
How did he do it? It’s pretty unconventional, but it makes a lot of sense for golfers with serious back problems, like Tiger. Rocco and coach Jimmy Ballard lay out part of the fix in this video.
To put in relatively simply: The conventional way of swinging a golf club is to rely on generating lots of torque between your upper and lower body on your backswing. The idea is for golfers to stay pretty centered, turn a lot with your upper body and resist it with your lower body. Then, like a coiled spring, you unwind all that energy into the ball...
Tiger has always done it well, too. It’s one of the reasons he hits the ball so far, but it’s also what’s causing his back problems. Look at how tight and coiled his lower back and hips are (which is where he’s been having all his injury problems). His spine is twisted and compressed.
Rocco doesn’t bother with all the twisting and coiling because he knows his lower back can’t handle it. It’s going to happen a little naturally, but instead Mediate works on avoiding torque by not turning his upper body as much. Rather than staying centered, twisting and compressing, Rocco keeps his spine straight and uses lots of lateral left-to-right movement.
Doing this would be a big change for Tiger, especially mentally: He’d need to accept that he’s not what he was and never will be again. He’ll have to accept that retirement is fast approaching, that his back is frail, and that doing this will mean he’ll never be able to hit the ball like he used to. But this might also mean he’ll be able to play a little longer, and if he’s serious about giving himself a last chance, this could be all that’s left.
