The U.S. Open will be hosted in Philadelphia and Tulsa Spine and Rehab doctors Sean O. Riley and physical therapist Ryan Smith will be on site as part of the tournament’s wellness and medical team. The duo has been invited the past three years before it was part of the U.S. Open.
Our function there is to treat players and caddies, some of the volunteers related to just general aches and pains.
In the past, it’s really been a great experience for them because they are working with touring professionals – not to mention people we see on TV. It’s neat to see the teams the players travel with and see that they have similar approach to what we have in our office – an integrated approach.
Sean and Ryan are traveling with chiropractors, physical therapists, “head doctors”, their swing coach and fitness instructor. It’s really neat just to be a part of that and to work closely with other health care professionals, the players and the caddies.
The U.S Open is not like weekend golf (and neither is the pain)
With professionals it’s a little bit of a different animal when compared to amateurs and those of us that just play on weekends. For the professional it is related to accumulative type practice and trauma. Those guys are hitting so many golf balls they take really, really good care of their bodies.
These guys are athletes – physically fit – you see how fit, how lean, how strong they are and they work really, really hard. That carries over to their golf swing but more importantly it keeps them healthy, injury free and they are able to go out there and compete week in and week out.
Thursday through Sundays is a typical tournament, if they make the cut, and they pack up and are hitting balls on the range of the next site on Monday or Tuesday getting ready. So it’s the volume that these guys are involved with. They recognize the importance of being fit. So we are there just dealing with general types of complaints, neck and low back pain. A lot of these guys have stiffness and some areas of flexibility and mobility. So it’s fun to be a resource for these guys and it’s quite a learning experience for us as well.
Being on-site we have limited equipment but our main one is our hands. The course has a great area set up for all the doctors the chiropractors and the physical therapists and we are able to treat the players and the caddies.
Dr. Sean specializes in manual therapy – using hit hands for manipulation and soft tissue techniques. His brain and hands are his two biggest tools.
If you’re a golfer and are experiencing some aches and pains, you need to check out the Swing – Fit Golf program and contact Dr. Sean Riley with any questions.
