Physical Therapist Keeps Pro-Golfers on the Green
School of Health Sciences DPT Alumnus Marc Wahl Helps PGA Tour Pros to Make the Cut
My name's Marc Wahl. I'm here in Atlanta for the Tour championship to support a couple of players that have made it to this portion of the PGA Tour's culmination. This is the final event of the year where they crown their season champion. So my role here as a physical therapist is to support these two players that have gotten this far.
If you can't play, you see me, and you'll play. My niche would be being able to identify injury risk. This is all I do. There's a lot of responsibility on motion and movement, and where motion stops and where it starts.
Guys that I have are usually guys that had injury problems their entire career. They're in the game. They're in the race. You can't pull them off the course and change their motor and give them new tires. I don't try to change it. I manage it for these players. I do things really quickly, so I'm kind of a firefighter. What they want from me is they want me to help manage their problems so they can go out and practice again the next day, and practice again the next day, and get better, and get better.
Brant Snedeker, PGA Golfer: He's kept me in tournaments where I might have had to pull out before. He's got my body to be able to withstand 32 weeks on the road a year, and all the stuff I put it through. He's been unbelievable for me. He's probably the one guy on my team over the last five years who's probably over-delivered on everything he's promised me to do. And very few people in life do that. And Marc is only able to do that because he's passionate about what he does.
Marc Wahl, DPT, Touro Alum: It's hard to know when did I learn this, and when did I learn that, and when did I imagine this, but there's someplace between, and it's like an art and a science. So the science is somewhere in the back doing what it wants to do, and then I just let myself go. I think what Touro instilled in me was that it's my responsibility to learn. Sometimes I open my eyes, and I can't believe I'm working with literally the best players in the world, and then they consider me a very important part of their team, and it's surreal at times.
Every day, physical therapist Marc Wahl, DPT, OCS, CertMDT, makes sure that some of the top-rated golf players in the world can play their best.
“I can’t believe I’m working with literally the best golf players in the world,” said Wahl, a graduate of Touro College School of Health Sciences (SHS) Doctorate of Physical Therapy Program (’98). “And they consider me a very important part of their team.”
For over a decade, Wahl has been working exclusively for the professional golfers on the PGA tour. He has worked at more than 250 tour events and more than 42 players. His current clients include acclaimed golfers Jimmy Walker, JB Holmes, Sean O’Hair, Brooks Koepka, and Brandt Snedeker. In the video above, he describes his work during the PGA Tour Championship, the final event of the tour, where he supported two of his players.
Wahl described his time at Touro as an integral part of his success. “Touro instilled in me that it was my responsibility to keep on learning,” explained Wahl. He combines his knowledge with a deep-seated passion, likening the field to both a science and an art.
Wahl’s role is both to ensure that his players don’t injure themselves and helping them back to the tee when an injury occurs, a role he compares to that of a firefighter. “My niche is identifying injury risk,” he said. “There’s a lot of responsibility on motions and movement and where it starts and stops. The guys I work with are those that have had injury problems their entire career, but they’re still in the game. They’re in the race. You can’t pull them off the course and I don’t try to change them. They want me to manage their problems so they can go out and practice again the next day and get better.”
“If you can’t play, you’ll see me and you’ll play,” said Wahl.
Wahl’s skill and dedication have been noticed by his clients.
“Wahl has kept me in tournaments where I might have had to pull out,” said PGA Tour golfer Brandt Snedeker. “He kept my body able to withstand 32 weeks on the road and what I put it through. He’s unbelievable. He’s probably the one guy on my team who’s over-delivered on everything he promised me. Very few people in life do that. And Marc is only able to do that because he’s passionate about what he does.”
