Golf: Persistent injuries stymie Tataurangi

New Zealand golfer Philip Tataurangi faces a long haul to rid himself of injuries that have seriously disrupted his campaign in the United States.

Tataurangi is playing again after a two-month break but it could be up to a year before he returns to full fitness.

"The recovery will take some time. He told me it could take up to a year before he's 100 per cent again," his coach, John Griffin, said yesterday.

Tataurangi returned home to Taupo last November with a shoulder injury after relinquishing his full playing rights on the United States PGA Tour.

Exhaustive tests in Auckland revealed he had difficulty properly gripping the club because of weakened muscles in his left shoulder blade.

He left New Zealand in February confident that a daily exercise routine would help him to overcome the problem while he contested a limited number of PGA events supplemented by appearances on the secondary Buy.com Tour.

However, the condition deteriorated to the stage where he was forced to withdraw after the opening round of the Tucson Open in February. He has since undergone further treatment, including a course of cortisone injections to ease the pain and inflammation.

Another battery of tests from doctors in his adopted home city of Dallas identified more areas of concern.

A new problem was found to originate from a swollen nerve in his neck. It is related to an elbow operation he underwent as an amateur in the early 1990s when doctors taped back a nerve.

"He's very happy with the progress that the injury is making now," said Griffin.

"There were a few areas where he'd lost quite a lot of strength. It had impacted quite severely on his swing. He had lost so much strength in his left arm that he was having trouble holding on to the club.

"When he got back over there in February he only had about 40 per cent of the strength that he should have had. That's just not enough when you are hitting the amount of golf balls over the period of time that he is."

Tataurangi made his comeback last week on the Buy.com Tour when rounds of 72 and 73 saw him miss the cut at the Shreyeport Open.

He hopes to play the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic in North Carolina on the PGA Tour this week before the Compaq Classic of New Orleans in a fortnight.

Between those tournaments he intends returning to the secondary tour for the South Carolina Classic.

- NZPA