By JEFF KEATING

MAYBE you aren’t finishing your swing as completely as you used to. Maybe you walk away from the 18th green with a variety of aches and pains, or wake up the next day with more soreness than you’re used to. Maybe you just don’t feel ... well, exactly right on the links.

You might need a dose of Golf WELL.

Golf WELL, part of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center’s “Get Well ... Stay Well” series of programs, has a little something for everyone who golfs. For those with nagging problems of the back, shoulders, wrists, elbows, knees or other areas, it offers analysis, physical therapy and exercise regimens to tune up those body parts and keep the aches away.

For those in generally good health — and wanting to stay that way — that same analysis can yield a stretching and strengthening program that helps keep nagging injuries from developing. Marti Kunishima, Golf WELL physical therapist, says the program started informally in summer 2007 and now comprises about 40 percent of her weekly workload.

Golf WELL’s clients initially were regular physical therapy patients who either played the game or wanted to get back to it, and Kunishima began spending more and more of her time developing exercise programs specifically designed to help them get back to golfing.

Kunishima, who is certified by the Titleist Performance Institute, analyzes her clients’ golf posture and swing to identify musculoskeletal problems or anticipate where they might develop. Golfers enrolled in the program get a thorough injury screening, visual swing assessment, proper posture instruction, home exercise, pre-play stretches and follow-ups with their club pros as needed.

Much of the program is Internet- based. Clients receive e-mails about what to do next in their program and can consult a Web site to see demonstrations of exercises and stretches. “Every golfer would get something out of this,” Kunishima said, adding “Until you do the program, you can’t understand the benefits of it.”

Milt Walker of Chino Hills, a flooring contractor who golfs three or four times a week, said he sought out Golf WELL in July. After several years of competitive bodybuilding, the 48-year-old said he was having “flexibility issues” — he was having trouble following through, and his swing had become shorter and choppier. After considering yoga and Pilates, he was referred to Golf WELL, where Kunishima set up a series of workouts for him following a 90-minute evaluation. Walker says the workout changes a bit with every sixth e-mail, so “they’re getting a bit more advanced now.”

The work seems to have paid off: the 9-handicapper says that number is down a couple of strokes since he started the program.

“I’d recommend it to anyone who golfs,” he said. “It’s all about what you need your body to do to hit the ball right, and we’re all interested in that.”

Kunishima — a 26 handicap who plays at Vellano Country Club with her husband and kids — says her family does the workouts and has noticed the difference. Other golfers will, too, she says.

“Telling people it’s physical therapy doesn’t explain it very well,” she said. “But when I say, ‘Hey, I could help you turn farther on your backswing,’ they’re all over it. Golfers are obsessed with getting better.”

Golf WELL is offered through Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center’s physical therapy and rehabilitation department, (909) 865-9810 or online at www.pvhmc.org.

Jeff Keating is executive director
of public affairs at
Western University of Health Sciences
in Pomona.