{"id":13108,"date":"2012-08-03T01:56:21","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T23:56:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/08\/golf-back-pain-no-barrier-for-goosen-at-firestone\/"},"modified":"2012-08-03T01:56:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-02T23:56:21","slug":"golf-back-pain-no-barrier-for-goosen-at-firestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/golf-back-pain-no-barrier-for-goosen-at-firestone\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf-Back pain no barrier for Goosen at Firestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Mark Lamport-Stokes<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

AKRON, Ohio<\/span> Aug 2 (Reuters) – Plagued by back problems
\nsince midway through last year, South African Retief Goosen
\ndefied the pain barrier to surge into contention for the
\nWGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The twice former U.S. Open champion thrived on the slick
\ngreens at Firestone Country Club, shooting a three-under-par 67
\nin pursuit of a maiden victory in one of the elite World Golf
\nChampionships (WGC) events.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Goosen, who has consulted several back specialists since
\nbeing troubled by two bulging disks, mixed six birdies with one
\nbogey and a double-bogey to put himself in the hunt for a first
\nPGA Tour victory in three years.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I like this golf course,” the 43-year-old told reporters
\nafter finishing one stroke off the early clubhouse lead. “For
\nsome reason I putt better on quicker greens. I feel I can make a
\nbetter stroke when I just have to stroke it and not hit it.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“The greens are perfect here. If you hit it on the right
\nline, it’s good. But they’re also very tricky. There’s a lot of
\nbreak on them, so it’s hard to get the right lines, as well.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Asked to assess his overall health, Goosen replied: “About
\nfive out of 10. My physio is doing a good job keeping me on the
\ncourse at the moment and I am in discussions with a number of
\ndoctors to see what options there are with the back.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“At the moment, we’ve just got to keep grinding away and
\nplay well. I am struggling to keep the muscles from firing down
\nin the lower back. It’s been a struggle for the last year.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Goosen, whose most recent PGA Tour victory came at the 2009
\nTransitions Championship, had to withdraw from the British Open
\nand PGA Championship last season before taking a few months off
\ntowards the end of the year.
\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mark Lamport-Stokes AKRON, Ohio Aug 2 (Reuters) – Plagued by back problems since midway through last year, South African Retief Goosen defied the pain barrier to surge into contention for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational on Thursday. The twice former U.S. Open champion thrived on the slick greens at Firestone Country Club, shooting a three-under-par 67 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-13108","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13108\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}