The First Sign Something Was Wrong

It’s October, 2024 and I was playing the Dunes Course at Monterey Peninsula with the Santa Clara University golf team.  I’d had a pretty good round playing with 18-year-olds striping their tee shots over 300 yards.

One of the kids says, “Mr. Bronson, I hope I can play as well as you when I’m 76 years old.”  A fabulous compliment, even if he’d had just outdriven me by 110 yards.

Then, out of nowhere, excruciating pain shot down my left leg.  I limped as I finished the round, assuming that this was just another flare up of my L-5 disk.  The usual post round dose of Tylenol had no effect.  There was no relief in sight, and I could hardly walk the next day.

The Diagnosis and A Stubborn Refusal to Quit

Two months later, after every pain relief remedy known to man, the verdict was in:  degenerative arthritis in both hips.  The cause?  Fifty years of basketball, and golf.  I don’t hike, bungee jump, or drive motorcycles–I’m not a risk taker–so I thought I might be spared of such injuries.  I was wrong.

By Thanksgiving, my annual round on Black Friday with my son was challenging.  I couldn’t turn my left hip into the swing, impacting distance and ball flight control.  Getting in and out of the golf cart was difficult and by the 11th hole, it was very painful.

The new year would bring no relief-the left hip would have to be replaced–a standard and straightforward solution–especially after consultation with the doctors that performed the procedure.  The only problem was my schedule-a business trip to China in February and a month of university activities in April.  Surgery would have to wait until May, but the pain could not be alleviated.  I needed a wheelchair to get through the airports, but I wasn’t ready to quit golf.

Adaptations and Small Wins

During this time, I had no upper body pain so swinging a golf club was not a problem.  Admittedly, it was difficult to get the club back enough to impact clubhead speed, and impossible for me to play from the regular tees.  I moved up a tee box–between 5,800 and 6,100 yards.  I gave up playing competitive golf completely.

The shots continued to go straight, but my driver was down to 190-200 yards and all the other clubs were two clubs worse than normal.  I had to hit a 3 wood on the Par 3, 9th hole on the Shore Course of 165 yards but it was hard to complain about the birdies from those shots.

My short game continued to amaze me as I holed out on four holes and ended the round with 21 putts one weekend.  On the signature 14th hole on the Dunes Course, I managed a 6 iron into an exciting right-to-left wind to miss the green on the left side, and proceeded to hole the chip shot.  It was getting a bit ridiculous, but in golf, the gods giveth and the gods taketh away.

The Last Practice Before the New Hip

On May 1, the day before surgery, I felt weird without trepidation as I was going to have this life-changing surgery and wasn’t worried.  I had never been operated on for any reason during the preceding 75 1/2 years of my life.  I headed to Cordevalle Golf Club to hit some practice balls. Not because I needed to practice, but because I needed one more connection with my game.  I found a lonely spot down at the end of the range and went through the bag as normal coupled with the pain I had gotten used to.

I really don’t know why I decided to do this, I thought, as the balls droned off the blades of the Titleist irons in a nice consistent pattern.  The ball flight and distance continued to be impacted by my inability to turn my left hip but the consistency of hitting the target was encouraging.

Vinnie, one of the newer assistants, came up to clean my clubs.  We traded stories about the history of Cordevalle, where I was one the original members from the inception of the club opening in 2000.  He complimented me and told me that the swing looked good, and I had to agree.  Yeah “hitting a few before surgery tomorrow.”

I was nearing the end of my session when I dunked a 48 degree wedge into the hole of the 75 yard green in front of us.  Vinnie quipped, “I think you should end on that one.”

He was right!