Golfers should consider protection of their wrists and shoulders before they suffer any injuries, a major meeting on sports and exercise medicine heard at RCSI.

Physiotherapy and assessment in advance of injury can not only prevent harm, but even help golfers to improve their swing and play a better game.

The Annual Scientific Meeting of the Irish Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine was opened by Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney. Over 100 professionals in the field attended the event.

“Golf is in fact the most commonly played sport among men in Ireland, with 17% playing golf, compared to just 5% of women,” said Dr Pat O’Neill, Conference Chairman. “The conference includes lectures from specialists in upper limb nerves and tremors or the ‘yips’; diagnostic imaging; shoulder, wrist and hand injuries; physiotherapy and a series of 10 sports case studies. These practitioners are working with some of the world’s elite athletes, as well as sports organisations such as the GAA, IRFU and FAI."

“The link between sports and medicine is becoming increasingly high profile and better understood,” continued Dr O’Neill. “Hitherto, the focus has been on injury, when in fact prevention is even more important. Sports and exercise is also the key to solving major public health issues such as obesity and even cardiac disease.

“There is an enormous number of people engaged in golf – with as many as 350,000 members in 408 golf clubs it is the second largest membership sport in Ireland. Although not associated with catastrophic injuries, golf is an important sector for medical consideration. It is particularly timely that we turn our attention to these matters just days before the Ryder Cup, possibly the most exciting international sports event ever to take place in Ireland, and on the weekend of the biggest sporting event on the national calendar, the GAA football final.”

The Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine was set up jointly by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and RCSI in 2002. It is among the first such joint faculties in Europe and has 480 Fellows and Members in Ireland and overseas. It is responsible for education and training in sports and exercise medicine, supports research and promotes health and safety in all aspects of sports and exercise as well as participation in sport to improve the health and well-being in the population as a whole.