Johnny: "just burning a hole through my L-5 with the pain running down into my lower legs."

Sheesh, Hogan got his by a bus and I don't think he was this much of a mess.

Bill Fields writing about Johnny Miller's cameo at the Legend's of Golf: 

Sixty might be the new 40, but Miller, who turns 60 April 29, feels his age. Before he started getting cortisone shots, his right elbow had been so painful he was reduced to swinging one-handed in corporate outings. "I was pretty good at that, but that isn't very impressive," he said. "It's nice to be healed enough that I can at least play with [my] kids. I didn't realize how much I missed at least having the option of playing versus not being able to play whether I [wanted to or not]. I'm grateful for that."

But his knees still ache, and he can feel a slipped disc from his back to his shins. "My back is totally killing me right now," Miller said after the first round, "just burning a hole through my L-5 with the pain running down into my lower legs." Said his wife, Linda, "I think if his body would let him, he would like to play more. It's shot."

Miller's back was so tight when he woke up Friday morning he thought he was going to have to withdraw, but 10 hot towels and 1 1/2 Lortabs for the pain and a driver loaded with 12 strips of lead tape--"It was already F-0, and I probably made it about a G," he said, "so it would do all the work and I wouldn't have to use my body that much"--got him through the day.

Uh, I'm trying not to envision Johnny wrapped in 10 hot towels.

Comments

[Hawkeye]

That's what excessive leg drive through the downswing and a pronounced reverse-C finish will do for you! Sharp iron play for a few years, but...

[NRH]

Dear Johnny:
12 strips of lead tape wouldn't keep my W2 from flying off my desk in the slightest of breezes.
All the best,
Hale Irwin

P.S. However, the craft of applying lead tape by sight/feel is better than the indignity of asking to borrow an Allen wrench from Fred Funk while Doyle, Thorpe and Quigley prove that it is impossible to peg the range picker employing the Reverse C.

[TEPaul]

It's interesting to me how the various physiques and body types of the old stars give out in various ways or tend to endure for some reason. Watson and his swing doesn't look much different to me than it did thirty years ago while physically Nicklaus and Watson have been a mess for years.

[TEPaul]

It's interesting to me how the various physiques and body types of the old stars give out in various ways or tend to endure for some reason. Watson and his swing doesn't look much different to me than it did thirty years ago, Irwin too, while physically Nicklaus and Watson have been a mess for years.

[Jack]

Eight zillion passes at the ball plus fifty extra pounds does it every time.

[JR]

Those of us well-acquainted with L5 know that being hit by a bus couldn't affect your golf too much more. However, three years after a neurosurgeon installed more titanium in my back than a 460cc driver, golf is fun again with the assistance of strategically administered pharmaceuticals.