The Masters happened this weekend, and while Patrick Reed put on the green jacket, a different golfer was making headlines heading in to the first round of the major championship.
During Wednesday’s Par 3 contest, which is a traditional pastime ahead of the four-day tournament set to begin the next day, Tony Finau hit the shot of a lifetime at the seventh hole. Finau launched his tee shot just past the flag, and he and the crowd of onlookers watched in anticipation as the ball began its descent back towards the hole. The ball didn’t stop rolling until it dropped in the cup, and Finau took off running towards the pin in celebration as the crowd cheered him on.
Finau’s moment of glory took a literal turn for the worst as he jumped up while running and celebrating. As he landed, his left ankle dislocated, and he went down to a knee as the crowd collectively gasped. However, almost as soon as the ankle had dislocated, Finau was able to reset his ankle in the proper place. He stood up and continued walking with a barely noticeable limp. You can see the shot, the dislocation and the quick thinking actions of Finau in the video below.
Par 3 contest went well for @tonyfinaugolf pic.twitter.com/yObys3hNVZ
— MF Tilt (@MF_Tilt) April 5, 2018
A Closer Look At Finau’s Ankle
The celebration looked innocent enough, so what happened to Finau’s ankle? According to Dr. Silverman, the same forces that contributed to the dislocation led to him being able to get the ankle back in the correct place.
“The only reason why Finau was able to do what he did is because he has ankle instability. Normal ankle joints don’t pop out like that, and they don’t go back in so easily. After Finau dislocated his ankle, he did exactly the right thing.
See, the longer a joint is dislocated, the more damage it sustains. By getting it back in the right place, Finau was able to minimize the damage to the joint and ankle ligaments. That being said, he needs to get his ankle ligaments fixed. That’s a ridiculously lax joint. If he doesn’t have those ligaments addressed he will develop arthritis and/or suffer tendon tearing.
Interestingly, if you watch Finau carefully while he’s celebrating, you can see that he is very flexible everywhere. He almost looks floppy. He is one of those patients we call “hypoermobile.” Another popular name for the condition is double jointed. There are several special considerations when fixing hypermobile patients to prevent a recurrence of injury.
Hopefully Finau looks into his surgical options, and I’m glad that the injury didn’t prevent him from playing in the biggest golf tournament of the year. In fact, he was actually in second place after Thursday’s round, which is even more impressive considering he was likely battling ankle discomfort. He finished in a tie for 10th place.”
