What you do, at least in Lisa Smego’s case, is insert eight screws and two rods. You fuse three vertebrae between F-1 and L-3 and do laminectomies from L-5 to L-1, basically the whole lumbar section.
So what was Smego doing playing competitive golf in the Washington State Senior Women’s Mid-Amateur tournament last week, 15 months after triple spinal fusion surgery? She couldn’t even bend to pick her golf ball out of the cup as recently as late May.
Bigger question: What business did she have winning it?
Smego, 54, of Olympia, trailed by two strokes after a first-day 79 last Friday in the winds of Walla Walla’s Wine Valley Golf Club, then smoked the field on Saturday with a closing 74 to win the tournament by 11 strokes.
“I got in a position, and I blew ’em away,” Smego said. “I didn’t really think I could do that. It’s gratifying that I could actually play that well. After that type of surgery, you just don’t know.”
Smego has every –osis you can name in her back: scoliosis, spinal stenosis, an –osis I couldn’t spell where the vertebrae slip forward and become unstable. She’s got severe arthritis. And degenerative disk disease.
The triple-fusion procedure is so complex and results so uncertain that two surgeons turned her down.
“It’s a daunting surgery if you’re an athlete,” Smego said. “It could be the end of any career, pretty much participating in any sport.”
Dr. Richard Wohns, whom Smego describes as “very progressive” and a pioneer in minimally invasive fusions, accepted the challenge. The surgery was performed in May 2009 at Saint Francis Medical Center in Federal Way.
“He said I had a ‘memorably bad spine,’ ” Smego said. “But he put the pieces back together pretty good.”
Skilled as he was, her surgeon couldn’t guarantee she would play golf again. Smego, however, was determined. “I have good people working with me,” she said.
She had all but written off the 2010 competitive golf season. But she worked with a personal trainer at Valley Athletic Club. And in January, she went to the practice range on a “shot count.” The number was 20.
She gradually built up strength and confidence, and by late June she was able to enter the Washington Senior Women’s Amateur at The Cedars at Dungeness in Sequim. She finished ninth, but was not happy to be 26 strokes behind the winner.
She also posted a round of 1-under par at The Home Course.
As she worked herself back, when she could take only a few full swings at a time, she spent much of her practice time chipping and putting.
It paid off in Walla Walla.
She wasn’t hitting greens, thanks to the stiff winds and hard green surfaces that weren’t holding much of anything.
“I got up and down four or five times from hard places,” Smego said.
Smego knew going in, based on the wind and the wicked pin placements, that the best putter would win the state mid-amateur. She had only two three-putts on the second day, and had 12 one-putt greens.
“I won the putting contest hand over foot,” she said.
Smego is no stranger to winning golf tournaments. She won the Washington Senior Open twice, was two-time Pacific Northwest Golf Association senior player of the year, among many other wins and honors – all as a power player.
Now, with a new swing built to accommodate her rebuilt back, and about one iron shorter than she used to be, she has changed the way she plays the game.
“It is kind of fun,” she said. “I’ve been the victim of people who have a better short game. Now I’m the better putter and short-game player.”
Triple spinal fusion surgery has a recommended recovery time of two years. Smego has jumped ahead of that schedule.
But she will honor it for the rest of this year … to the extent that she will avoid tournaments where she’d need to play 36 holes in a day.
Triple spinal fusion surgery – complicated, scary, and no promises. For Lisa Smego, so far, call it successful.
JOHNSON PAYS WAY, AND IT PAYS OFF
Jerry Johnson had a goal last week when he headed for Pendleton for the Oregon Senior Open: to earn some cash to put a dent in the bills he rang up in paying his own way for a week at the U.S. Senior Open at Sahalee.
The Ocean Shores resident, representing First Tee of Olympia, opened with rounds of 76 and 69. A tournament-low 64 in the final round didn’t get him a winner’s trophy, but it pushed him into a tie for third place – and a paycheck of $2,016.67.
For Johnson, who didn’t miss a putt under eight feet over the final 12 holes of his second round 72 at the U.S. Senior Open, it was not about putting at Pendleton as much as ball-striking.
He didn’t miss a green in regulation, and he could have gone even lower if he’d made more of his 15-foot birdie putts.
SALISH CLIFFS HIRES PEARSALL
Golf industry veteran Bob Pearsall has been named head superintendent for Salish Cliffs Golf Club near Shelton, which is scheduled to open in spring 2011.
Pearsall, 43, born and raised in Olympia, comes to Salish Cliffs from The Golf Club at Hawks Prairie in Lacey, where he was head superintendent beginning in 2004. Before that, Pearsall was superintendent at Indian Summer Golf and Country Club in Olympia for six years.
Olympia freelance writer Bart Potter can be reached at greygoatee06@comcast.net
