Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the frequency of sports injury among Korean junior elite golf players. The survey was made through the questionnaire which consist of eight categories and 280 valid answers were used to perform frequency analysis. The results indicated that 197 out of 280 participants experienced golf injuries (30%: during a game, 70%: during a practice) and 70% of them also experienced injuries within a year. The frequency analysis for the site of injury has shown that back was the most vulnerable area for all players(33%), followed by the right wrist, left shoulder and elbow for male players. Among female players, left wrist was the second weak site of injury, followed by the right wrist, right thoracic spine, and left shoulder. A few of them also have shown abnormal symptoms of ruptured lumbar disk, scoliosis, and lordosis and these injuries might be caused by the lack of flexibility and the fatigue due to over-practice. High frequency of wrist injury also demonstrated that excessive chopping or punching shot and poor environmental course conditions may cause this injury to be common. Overall, lack of warm up time, lack of strength and flexibility, and excessive amount of practice were the major reasons of injury for the junior elite golfers in Korea. The study also proved that these young Korean golfers actually had more chances to be faced with the injury than average. Thus, it is necessary to develop systematic and scientific methods of training, and prevention, treatment of these injuries with medical professionals.