SWAFFORD RETURNS FROM HIP SURGERY, NOW AWAITING HIS TURN

Sidelined to start this season after undergoing hip surgery in February, Swafford is now healthy and ready to resume his LIV Golf career. But for the remainder of the 2023 League schedule, that will be as a reserve.

This week’s LIV Golf Greenbrier is his first appearance in that role, as he joined Andy Ogletree and Wade Ormsby as the three reserves onsite at The Old White course. With only one hitting spot available once all the active players arrive, the three must share. Swafford didn’t mind.

“It’s good to be back in the atmosphere of a LIV event,” he said, his smile offering further proof.

Swafford is a LIV original member, having played all eight tournaments during the inaugural 2022 Invitational Series. His right hip began bothering him last summer, and an MRI confirmed that the issue was serious. Physical therapy and rehab gave him an opportunity to play through the pain, but his game was impacted, as he failed to produce a point during the regular season.

He felt better after LIV’s extended offseason and thus teed it up for two Asian Tour starts in the Middle East before the 2023 LIV season. But in his second tournament, International Series Oman, the injury intensified, and he was forced to withdraw. After consulting with his doctor, there was only one conclusion – surgery. Estimated time to recover: 4-6 months.

“I didn’t want to play hurt,” Swafford said. “I didn’t want to actually end up hurting my back and make it a career-ending deal. So, I just went ahead and did what I thought was best.”

Swafford’s last seven starts during the 2022 LIV season was as a member of Niblicks GC, which was rebranded by captain Bubba Watson as RangeGoats GC this season. Swafford was set to be part of the lineup but now had to inform Watson of his unavailability for 2023. The RangeGoats brought in Thomas Pieters to fill the lineup spot.

Watson, who joined LIV Golf during the middle of last year as a non-playing captain while recovering from knee surgery, was obviously sympathetic. “Him coming off his injury, he was feeling it for me,” Swafford said.

The surgery took place in late February, followed by four weeks on crutches. Since starting rehab, Swafford has been ahead of schedule. He was chipping and putting six weeks after surgery and was released to hit drivers at the three-month mark.

“I might’ve hit ‘em a couple of days earlier than that,” Swafford laughed. “I was feeling good. The golf part was the easy part. Hitting balls was the easy part. It was obviously walking and building stamina back up that was needed.”

He also watched the LIV Golf broadcasts, cheering for former teammates and friends. That includes Talor Gooch, who was the Torque GC captain at the inaugural 2022 London tournament and drafted Swafford for the team that week. Gooch then jumped to the 4Aces before the next event in Portland, and then joined the RangeGoats for 2023. The two figured to be reunited as teammates this year had Swafford not been sidelined.

Instead, Swafford has been happy to see Gooch climb to the top of the Individual points standings with a LIV-record three wins this season.

“It’s been really impressive,” Swafford said of Gooch. “Kind of inspiring. Just kind of pushed me along through this rehab to get back out and get with him and play.”

Swafford maintains a maintenance program and realizes that it’ll be another six months before the doctors can declare him completely healed. He’ll be a reserve when given the opportunity and also plans to play the upcoming International Series events in England at Close House and Scotland at St Andrews Bay later this month.

“I’m got the itch to get back,” Swafford said. “I’m starting to play good golf, hitting it good. You get to the point where you’re ready to go.”

Watson felt the same way just a few months ago. He’s stayed in touch with Swafford and made him the RangeGoats’ top reserve option this week at Greenbrier.

“It’s really nice to see him out here,” Watson said. “He’s worked hard. It’s kind of like me last year, right? You’re working hard to a goal and for him to get here to this point where he is able to walk pain-free and hit balls pain-free, that’s huge.”

While it was an injury that knocked out Swafford, ironically it will likely only be someone else’s injury that allows him to hit a meaningful shot in a LIV tournament this year.

“Hopefully for his sake, he has a chance to play,” Watson said. “But for the other person’s sake, hopefully he doesn’t, you know what I’m saying? It’s a fine line. It’s like a young quarterback waiting in the wings in case of injury. You don’t wish it on anybody, but you want the chance to prove yourself. It’s a tough situation but It’s very exciting to see him back. I’m very thankful he’s back and able to walk and play golf.”

For now, Swafford will bide his time, fill in as needed, work on his game and show that he’s back to playing the kind of golf that produced a tour victory in January of 2022 in Southern California, just a few months before he joined LIV.

And because there’s no guarantee of which team he'll play for, Swafford will network, letting captains and players know he’s ready to go for 2023.

“Selling myself to a couple of captains,” he laughed. “We’ll see what happens.”