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A rather tardy Happy New Year to you! My apologies for my lengthy absence in posting here on Ladies on the Tee. I would like to bring you up to date with what has transpired since we last connected.

Bear with me if you will and let me go back in time a bit before I get to the more recent events. Many of you have been with me since the launch of LOTT over two years ago. I thank you so much for your loyalty!! The intent of this blog initially was to bring a higher awareness of the benefits of golf networking to women in business. I saw very early on that this blog needed to be much more encompassing. The goal was refocused to striving to get more women worldwide involved in the game for whatever reason not just business.

My personal introduction to the game was an accident. It was in 1995 and I was rehabbing my right shoulder after surgery. My passion sport then was tennis. I am a former Tennis Head Professional and absolutely loved playing, teaching and competing. While in the surgical recovery process before being released to play tennis again, I was asked to play in a golf scramble. Prior to that I may have held a golf club 2 or 3 times in my life. The game of golf was not on my radar!!

Well, that scramble opened my eyes to a sport I knew would be part of my future. I had great success that day, mostly due to the fact that I could not take a full swing or swing hard for that matter due to my shoulder limitations. The game seemed simple to me then and I was hooked. What was all of the fuss about control and hitting the ball where you wanted it to go?? Seemed easy to me.

What a simpleton, I was!!

Once I started to heal and regain strength, I started trying to power the ball and lost my tempos and timing very quickly. Now the true challenges of the game were apparent to me. I was hooked even more…How could I NOT hit a little white ball where I wanted it to go when it was just lying on the ground completely still? After all I spent years on the tennis court redirecting shots that were coming at me from all different angles, speeds and various court surfaces. The golf ball is sitting STILL for goodness sakes.

What a love-hate relationship I, like millions of others, have with this game of golf!! When my tennis playing days ended a few years ago I devoted my time, energy and business focus on golf. While I don’t play golf at the same level I played tennis (I am still a ‘newbie’ to the game since I didn’t start playing regularly until I was in my 40s), I view golf as my new passion sport. I played as often as I could but stayed away from most of the competitive golf on purpose. I wanted to thoroughly enjoy the game on my terms.

Things were going along nicely until this past season. I was struggling to just walk normally with pain in my left leg and hip. It finally got to the point that I had to quit playing because my hip would give out and I could barely play 9 holes. In 2010, I only played 6 rounds of golf. How sad is that?

Well, as things would turn out I found out that I had severe damage and tons of arthritis in my left hip. After many medical consults the recommended course of action was to have a complete hip replacement. I was lucky! A few years ago most surgeons were reluctant to do a replacement for people (especially women) under the age of 60. That was primarily due to the fact that the replacement life span was 15-20 years max… less if you were extremely active.

Today, technology has advanced in so many ways. The parts used in my replacement (ceramic ball and polyethylene socket) have an estimated 40 year life span…which I still hope to outlive!! Additionally, the new anterior procedure is much less invasive than going in through the rear (literally). It requires an incision of maybe 4 inches on the upper thigh versus a 10-12 incision in the gluteus maximus (a..k.a butt)!! Much less trauma to the muscles, tendons and nerves. Heck! I was home the next day even though I was scheduled for a 2-3 hospital stay.

So, I got a new hip for Christmas! A friend of mine casually pointed out that I was obviously confused. The song is “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas’, not ‘hip’!! Even so, I am so glad I had the surgery. This is primarily why I have been absent. It was hard to sit for any lengthy period of time in the early rehab stages so I wasn’t at my computer much. PLUS, I was on pain meds for a while and I was really trying to protect you from who knows what I might have posted. I am sure it would have been entertaining but also fodder for future blackmail

Now you have it! I am happy to be back ‘in the saddle’ or should that be ‘in the golf cart’?? The real ‘story’ here is that I am looking forward to a renewed vitality on the golf course and playing without that persistent pain. I am also hoping that by telling you my story a couple of things will happen. One, if you aren’t a ‘youngster’ don’t think it’s too late to get started playing golf. This is a game that will last a lifetime and I do plan on playing the rest of my lifetime. No better time than the present to join in the fun! Two, if you are having serious joint pain and it is taking away from either your ability to play or your enjoyment of the game while you are playing, go have it CHECKED OUT! The new medical technologies are simply amazing and continue to improve daily. You owe it to yourself!!!

Finally… I look forward to ‘seeing’ you on the links this spring!!

Thanks for visiting Ladies on the Tee at www.sherrytabb.com. This season I would like to feature YOUR stories so please feel free to send them to me at [email protected].

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