{"id":437804,"date":"2026-03-16T20:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=437804"},"modified":"2026-03-16T20:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T20:41:15","slug":"rory-mcilroy-responds-to-tgl-back-injury-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/rory-mcilroy-responds-to-tgl-back-injury-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy Responds To TGL Back Injury Theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the first day of the Players Championship, fans took notice of a certain pattern that was developing among the Tour pros.\u00a0 Top names who are on both the TGL and the PGA have had back injuries, and fairly recently, too.\u00a0 These injuries range in severity from a sprain to needing medical attention.\u00a0 Due to this, there has been some theorizing among the fans to the point where the pros are hearing about it.\u00a0 Now, pros like Rory McIlroy have started sharing their own two cents on the TGL theories floating around.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Recent Injuries<\/span><\/h2>\n

There have been two major injuries that sparked this theorizing.\u00a0 The first was Rory McIlroy during the Arnold Palmer<\/a>.\u00a0 He threw out his back, and there were questions about whether he would even be able to play in the Players Championship.\u00a0 The second example is Collin Morikawa, just last Thursday,<\/a> as the Players was just getting started.\u00a0 They were not the only ones to experience back injuries recently, but they were the most recent.\u00a0 Other examples include Sahith Theegala, Billy Horschel, and Justin Thomas, all of whom have had injuries in just the past year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fans’ reasoning on why this is happening is due to another competitive layer in the TGL.\u00a0 The high-tech nature of the league means that players like McIlroy can see their ball speed instantly, creating an incentive to swing harder and faster to get that number higher.\u00a0 This would leave the players at a higher risk of twisting and straining their backs in order to get that high speed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy And Others Weigh In<\/span><\/h2>\n

The speed theory has made its way to the ears of the pros in question.\u00a0 Rory McIlroy was asked about it in an interview with the Palm Beach Pos<\/a>t.\u00a0 He was asked if the ball speed theory held any water.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTo put it solely on that is preposterous. No.\u201d\u00a0 McIlroy goes on to say, \u201cMy ball speed on Tour is way faster than it is in TGL.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

McIlroy, purely looking at the numbers, doesn\u2019t see any credence to the theory.\u00a0 The same theorizing got to Billy Horschel, and he felt the need to respond to it on his Twitter account.\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPlease stop! TGL had nothing to do with my injury. And I would suspect nothing to do with the other guys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the comments, Horschel clarifies that his theory on why there are so many back injuries is that it\u2019s just an occupational hazard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Injuries Will Continue<\/span><\/h2>\n

When it comes to the PGA or any sports league, injuries are a common occurrence.\u00a0 It would be easier to name all the players who haven\u2019t had any injuries related to the sport.\u00a0 In 2025 alone, there was already a rash of injuries and health issues<\/a> across the board.\u00a0 The same is true for years past.\u00a0 There is a theory from commentators like Brandel Chamblee that it has more to do with how modern swings work.\u00a0 As interesting a theory as it was, players like McIlroy don\u2019t see a connection between the TGL and their back injuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Doug Engle\/Florida Times-Union \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the first day of the Players Championship, fans took notice of a certain pattern that was developing among the Tour pros.\u00a0 Top names who are on both the TGL and the PGA have had back injuries, and fairly recently, too.\u00a0 These injuries range in severity from a sprain to needing medical attention.\u00a0 Due to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":437805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19,207],"tags":[208,119,50,34,238,282],"class_list":["post-437804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","category-tgl","tag-billy-horschel","tag-collin-morikawa","tag-justin-thomas","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sahith-theegala","tag-the-players-championship"],"modified_by":"Taylor Craig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":437806,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437804\/revisions\/437806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/437805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}