Hardly a week goes by without some report of injury to a prominent golfer. We are all familiar with the back problems of Seve Ballesteros, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Bernhard Langer and, most recently, Costantino Rocca. But what of the rank and file player? Should golf carry a government health warning?

When considering the issue of injuries in golf, the first point to be acknowledged is that, unlike most other sports, golfers can remain active participants well into their later years. This has led to the sport's more common injuries being well recognised.

For a start, it is widely acknowledged that most golfing injuries result largely from over-activity, poor swing mechanics and improper physical conditioning. And the most frequent injuries involve the wrist, back, elbow and shoulder.

The issue has been confronted in some detail by the world famous Steadman-Hawkins Sports Medicine Foundation, based in Colorado. And tournament organisers, such as the PGA European Tour, have found it appropriate to provide special, physiotherapy units at the various sites on their schedule, for the benefit of competitors.

Indeed physical conditioning has become a way of life on the US Seniors' Tour where participants, as a matter of routine, start their day at a tournament venue with a visit to the fitness caravan.

Interestingly, we don't see these facilities at either men's or women's amateur tournaments. Perhaps the belief is that only professionals play the game sufficiently often to be at serious risk. One suspects, however, that the more likely consideration is finance.

In the event, research shows that among professional golfers, more than 80 per cent suffer an average of two injuries during their careers. Each injury results in an average of 9.3 weeks away from tournament activity for men and 2.8 weeks for women.

The disparity between the sexes can be explained by the greater clubhead speed which men generate as a consequence of increased muscular violence in the back, among other things. But it has also been established that the prevalence and severity of injuries is similarly significant for amateurs.

In fact more than 50 per cent of amateurs will experience some type of injury, which will affect their golf. This discovery has led to a growing awareness of the treatment and prevention of injuries, aimed at ensuring a lifetime of golfing enjoyment.

Golfers experience a wide variety of injuries associated with swinging the club. Among amateurs, the most vulnerable area is the lower back, followed by the elbow, hand, wrist, shoulder and knee. A large majority of elbow problems occur on the left side for right-handed players.

In the case of professionals, however, the vulnerable areas are largely limited to the spine and the left wrist, probably due to superior swing mechanics and a higher level of fitness.

The golf swing can be divided into three stages - the take-away, the downswing and he follow-through - each of which places unique demands on the musculoskeletal system. Approximately 21 per cent of all injuries occur during the takeaway and the most common of these are to the back and wrist.

As might be expected, the downswing in which the clubhead accelerates from 0 to 100 mph (108 mph in the case of a professional such as Nick Faldo), is the most traumatic phase of the golf swing and accounts for 50 per cent of all injuries. These are mainly to the wrist, back and elbow.

Impact with an object other than the ball, like for instance a buried root or stone, may injure the wrist and elbow. Early in his career, Christy O'Connor Snr sustained such an injury when his club caught the hidden root of a tree. Though it clearly didn't seriously affect his later tournament play, the problem still recurred, painfully, from time to time.

On the downswing, wrist uncocking occurs at around hip level to maximise clubhead speed. An injury unique to this phase of the swing is a bone fracture in the left wrist. This is caused by a violent impulse transmitted through the grip of the club to the base of the hand and an associated violent muscular contraction of the forearm.

There are, of course, other golfing injuries which don't directly involve the swinging of a club, problems such as skin cancer and skin rashes. Then there are accidental injuries, as in being hit by a wayward ball. Remarkably, 27 per cent of sport-related head injuries are reportedly caused by golf. Three-quarters of these are to the forehead and face, including compound skull fractures. Most of them involve young children.

DEATH can also occur on a golf course as a result of being struck by a ball, by a club, by being stabbed by a broken club, struck by lightning or even from being attacked by a swarm of bees. Trevino's career was threatened when he was struck by lightning which led ultimately to back surgery.

In the light of two subsequent deaths of specatators at tournaments, the various golfing bodies in the US have taken steps to give early warning of lightning to spectators and players, even if it means suspending play with only a remote possibility of the area being hit.

But the most preventable problem is skin cancer, the danger of which has been heightened in recent years by the dramatic increase in the number of foreign golf holidays.

Among the most recent victims to publicly acknowledge the problem is Andy North, twice former winner of the US Open. As a general point, however, there is a growing awareness among golfers of the need to protect themselves from excessive sun exposure.

Experts have also studied that most frustrating of conditions - the putting yips. But they have been unable to throw any light on the condition.

They make a strong point, however, of warning against the dismantling of a golf ball. It seems that numerous cases have been documented regarding injuries to the eyelid, conjunctiva and orbit from the high-pressure liquid centre of a golf ball. Dismantling a ball has also resulted in injection of the high-pressure centre into the index finger.

For the most part, women experience the same injuries as men, though elbow injuries appear to be more of a problem for amateur females. Experts suggest that this may be attributed to biomechanical factors for women, associated with a greater elbow-carrying angle in the swing, though it was not confirmed among professionals.

Meanwhile, women professionals suffer from wrist injuries (31 per cent) while men are more commonly affected by problems of the lower back (25 per cent). Among older women, however, a higher incidence of osteoporosis contributes to vertebral compression fractures.

All older golfers may aggravate arthritic conditions through careless and over-spirited activity. They are also more susceptible to tendonitis of the elbow. Then there is the frustration of having to accept a loss of strength in the legs, torso and shoulders, leading to reduced clubhead speed and a consequent loss of distance.

In addition, insufficient muscular endurance makes it more difficult to keep the body steady and under control at address and throughout the swing, contributing to poorer timing and less power.

Correct swing mechanics are also crucial. Too many golfers with a questionable technique, insist on beating balls to the point where such practice becomes not only useless, but potentially dangerous.

Back-strain can be reduced by the simple process of shortening the backswing and follow-through, by avoiding lateral bending and by flexing the knees more when putting, picking up clubs or teeing-up the ball. Strain on the left shoulder can be avoided by not maintaining too straight a left arm during the backswing; a more upright stance will reduce neck problems and wrist injuries can be averted by strengthening the forearms.

Lower back injuries may be eliminated through the use of special exercises designed for the lower back and the stomach (We will deal with such remedial action in more detail next week).

Considerable thought should also be given to equipment. Many handicap golfers are dismissive of modern golf equipment, such as graphite shafts and titanium heads, on the grounds that "they'd be wasted on me. You'd have to be a good golfer to get any value out of that newfangled stuff."

In fact the opposite is the case. The poorer the golfer, the more help they need from equipment. I can remember O'Connor Snr in his heyday, conjuring up all sorts of scoring magic with a worn and none-too-salubrious set of clubs that would probably have been rejected by most amateurs.

Remember that by understanding the potential for injury and the simple precautions that can be taken to avoid them, golf can become the game of a lifetime. Which is one of the reasons the handicapping system was invented. Finally, there are the words of the celebrated broadcaster Alistair Cooke - "It is a wonderful tribute to the game or to the dottiness of the people who play it, that for some people somewhere, there is no such thing as an insurmountable obstacle, an unplayable course, the wrong time of the day or year."