Golf Physio Screening – What It Is, Who It Helps, and Where to Get One in Caloundra

November 28, 2025

If you play golf around Caloundra or anywhere on the Sunshine Coast and feel like your body is holding you back, a golf physio screening can help answer whether it’s your swing or your body that needs attention.

Maybe your back tightens up halfway through the front nine.
Maybe your elbow nags for days after a bucket of balls.
Maybe you’ve chased “one more lesson” but the ball still does whatever it wants.

A proper golf physio screening is where we stop guessing.

Sam looks at how your body moves, how your swing loads it, and what that means for injury risk or pain, consistency, and clubhead speed. A growing body of research links trunk and hip strength, mobility and sequencing to both low back pain and performance in golfers (Edwards et al., 2020; Ehlert, 2021; Brennan et al., 2024). 

What Actually Happens in a Golf Physio Screening with Sam Taylor at Caloundra Sportscare?

Think of it as a structured, golf-specific conversation and movement assessment. 

 1. A Proper Chat about Your Golf

First, you sit down with Sam and talk golf. He’ll ask about:

  • Where and how often you play – for example, Caloundra Golf Club, Pelican Waters, or other Sunshine Coast and Queensland courses (and any golf trips or competitions interstate or overseas).

  • What’s holding you back right now – pain, stiffness, fatigue, loss of distance, inconsistency, or fear of re-injury.

  • Your injury and medical history – spine, hips, shoulders, elbows, knees, previous surgeries or long-standing issues.

  • Your real-world constraints – work hours, family, travel, and how much time you actually have for training between rounds.

This gives Sam the context he needs. A “tight hip” means something totally different in a 65-year-old playing twice a week at Caloundra, compared with a junior golfer chasing state squads and spending hours on the range.

The goal of this first stage is simple: understand your story, not just your symptoms.

2. Measure What Actually Matters for Your Golf

Next, Sam runs a structured, golf-specific screen at Caloundra Sportscare clinic. Think of it as a simple five-step process:

  • Measure available joint range of motion and your body’s mobility

  • Test proprioception and balance

  • Check motor control in golf-relevant positions

  • Assess key muscle strength

  • Finish with basic power and speed tests

For the strength, balance and power components, Sam uses VALD performance technology (e.g. force plates and movement analysis tools) to measure things precisely – not just “feel”. That means you get objective numbers on asymmetries, rate of force development and control that can be re-tested over time to track real progress.

Sam may also observe a few swings, but often clients will send through a video of their swing before their screen.

3. Understanding and Connecting Your Test Results to On-Course Results

This is where Sam takes everything from your golf screen and links it directly to the shots that hurt, the positions you struggle with, and the performance goals you care about most.

Drawing on current golf biomechanics and strength & conditioning research, plus years of working closely with golfers and coaches on the Sunshine Coast, Sam filters out the noise and focuses on the 2–3 findings that will genuinely move the needle for your game:

  • Which joint ranges of motion actually need improving

  • Which muscle groups you need to build strength or power in

  • Which “odd” findings look different but aren’t truly a problem

These priorities become the bridge between your test results in the clinic and the changes you see on your scorecard.

That way, every minute you spend in the gym or at home is aimed at what will most improve both your pain and your performance, not just ticking boxes on a rehab sheet.

4. Walk Out with a Clear, Golf-Specific Action Plan

Once Sam has narrowed things down to the 2–3 key priorities, the final step is turning that insight into a practical plan you can actually follow.

By the end of the session you’ll have:

  • Your top 2–3 focus areas for your body, written down in plain language

  • Exactly what that means for your pain and injury risk on course

  • What it means for your distance, control and consistency

  • A short list of targeted exercises (usually 3–6) with clear sets, reps and frequency

  • A simple progression plan for the next few weeks – when to add load, speed or volume

Sam then checks that this plan fits around your life – work, family, tee times and any current gym routine – so it’s realistic for a golfer living and playing around Caloundra and the Sunshine Coast.

No 40-exercise spreadsheet. No generic “do more stretching”.
Just a clear, staged golf physio plan you can plug into your week straight away, designed to change how you feel and how you score.

Who Gets the Most Out of a golf physio screening? 

– Yes, a golf screening isn’t just tour pros.

Some of the golfers who benefit most are:

  1. Golfers with persistent pain
    Back, hip, elbow or shoulder pain that keeps flaring with golf, even though imaging and “generic rehab” haven’t really changed the story.

  2. Golfers who feel “stuck” with performance
    You’ve had lessons, your coach is solid, but your suffering a speed, control or consistency plateau. Often, the bottleneck is physical capacity rather than swing theory.

  3. Professional and high-performance golfers chasing gains
    Touring pros and elite amateurs looking for objective data on mobility, strength and power to guide S&C, manage tournament load and find the next 1–2% in speed, control and resilience.

  4. Golfers returning from injury or surgery
    Particularly knee, back, neck, hip, or shoulder – we want to know what load you can handle, how to progress, and how to avoid the “boom–bust” cycle.

  5. Juniors and competitive amateurs on the Sunshine Coast
    For juniors, we’re often juggling growth, high training loads and school sport. A screening helps prioritise what to work on now versus “future projects.”

  6. Masters / senior golfers around Caloundra
    Many want to keep playing, travel for golf trips and avoid long layoffs. Here, the emphasis is often on pain, endurance and smart load management rather than chasing 190-metre carries at all costs.

How to Book a Golf Physio Screening at Caloundra Sportscare?

A golf physio screening is a great place to start if:

  • you’re playing with pain that keeps flaring,
  • stuck with distance or consistency despite coaching,
  • or coming back from injury and unsure how hard to push.

Whether you’re a club or social golfer, a high-performance or elite amateur planning a big season, a PGA pro, or a coach who wants players screened in a way that supports your program, you can book a one-on-one golf physio assessment with Sam and you’ll recieve a tailormade plan around your body, your swing and your goals.

Your body’s strengths and limitations show up in the way you move and swing the club

Sam Taylor – Golf Physio

References

Brennan, A., Murray, A., Mountjoy, M., Hellstrom, J., Coughlan, D., Wells, J., Brearley, S., Ehlert, A., Jarvis, P., Turner, A., & Bishop, C. (2024). Associations between physical characteristics and golf clubhead speed: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Medicine, 54, 1553–1577. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-024-02004-5

Edwards, N., Dickin, C., & Wang, H. (2020). Low back pain and golf: A review of biomechanical risk factors. Sports Medicine and Health Science, 2(1), 10–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smhs.2020.03.002

Ehlert, A. (2021). The correlations between physical attributes and golf clubhead speed: A systematic review with quantitative analyses. European Journal of Sport Science, 21(10), 1351–1363. https://doi.org/10.1080/17461391.2020.1829081