Unique Golf PFX program helps put golfing long drive world champion back on top

Standing on the tee of a 2023 professional long drive golf tournament, Eddie Fernandes knew immediately that he was injured.

"It was just this sharp, stabbing pain."

"I tried to [swing my] driver and my right foot slipped in transition in the down swing, and I tore my adductor longus [muscle] off of my pelvis,” Fernandes said. “I knew it was something pretty significant because I'd never felt that before, ever in my life. It was just this sharp, stabbing pain.”

Nicknamed “Fast Eddie” after the main character in the movie “The Hustler,” Fernandes went on to win the tournament, but he soon realized his quest for a third long drive world championship in five years, would have to wait.

Fernandes sought medical help from Dr. John Ruder, a fellowship trained sports medicine surgeon at Rothman Orthopaedics at AdventHealth. After successful surgery and physical therapy, “Fast Eddie” looked around for a way to regain his dominating championship form.

That search led him to a unique AdventHealth program called Golf PFX. The program consists of a physical and movement screening along with a swing analysis, to help golfers learn how to move their bodies better for their swings. Improving flexibility, mobility and strength transfers into a better golf swing.

The program is not physical therapy, and is not covered by insurance, but it does use some of the same therapeutic principles to analyze how individual joints move.

“Everyone can benefit from it because everyone has unique problems. It’s not a cookie-cutter approach,” said Scott Sheppard, a physical therapist with AdventHealth Sports Med & Rehab, as well as a three-time Golf Digest Top 50 trainer. “Ultimately, we are trying to get them to feel whole again.”

"I couldn't be more thankful."

“Scott rehabbed me for six to eight weeks,” Fernandes said. Not long after his Golf PFX program was done, he won his third long drive world championship. “Scott understands movement of the golf swing. He understands movement of the body. I couldn't be more thankful. I feel awesome!”

"It's the most amazing feeling to get somebody back to something they're passionate about and to ultimately get them to feel whole again," said Shepard.

To see video showing how Scott Shepard and Golf PFX helped “Fast Eddie” Fernandes become a champion, again, click the video at the top of this article.