Part of Golf injuries: where they land and what the rates mean

Golf elbow pain: which side it is on, and what that means

Golf elbow pain is more often tennis elbow than golfer's elbow, which catches almost everyone out. A 2022 review of upper body injuries in golfers reports lateral elbow pain, the kind usually called tennis elbow, as about five times more common than medial elbow pain in amateur golfers, and that figure is the review's own statement rather than a prevalence we could trace to a readable primary study (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). So the first thing to settle is the side, not the name. The same review describes the pattern in a right-handed golfer as pain on the inner side of the trail elbow, the right one, and pain on the outer side of the lead elbow, the left one. If your pain is on the inside, follow our golfer's elbow program, and if it is on the outside, the tennis elbow program, and both set their own exercises and doses, which your physio will adjust. This page gives you no dose: it sorts out which program is yours, what in the swing and the kit loads each side, and when elbow pain is not a tendon problem at all.

Warning signs, and when to get help

The condition named after golf is not the one most golfers get

Start with the thing that decides everything else on this page. The condition that carries the sport's name, medial epicondylitis, sits on the inner side of the elbow. The one golfers are reported to get more often sits on the outer side and carries tennis in its name.

A 2022 review of upper body injuries in golfers puts it plainly: despite medial epicondylitis often being referred to as golfer's elbow, lateral elbow pain has been reported as about five times more common than medial elbow pain in amateur golfers (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). One caveat belongs with that number, and we would rather give it to you than hide it. The figure is the review's own statement of what an earlier paper found, and the primary sources it credits have no readable full text available to us, so treat the direction as the part worth acting on and the exact multiple as less certain than it sounds.

The direction is enough to act on. If your pain is on the outside of your elbow, the fact that you got it playing golf does not make it golfer's elbow, and the program that treats it is the one written for the outer side.

Which side of the elbow hurts?

Two bony bumps sit at the bottom of your upper arm bone, one on each side of the elbow. Find them with the arm bent and the palm up, then press each one gently and compare.

Tenderness on the inner bump, the one nearer your body, with pain when you grip hard, bend the wrist forward against resistance or turn a stiff door handle, points to the inner-side tendon problem most people call golfer's elbow. Tenderness on the outer bump, with pain lifting a full kettle palm down, straightening the arm fully, or shaking hands, points to the outer-side problem called tennis elbow. The first often hurts most through impact. The second often hurts most away from the course entirely, which is why people fail to connect it with golf at all.

Now add the side of the body, because golf is asymmetrical and the consensus statement on reporting golf injuries asks for both the injured side and the golfer's handedness to be recorded (Murray and colleagues, 2020). In a right-handed golfer, the 2022 review describes medial pain as typically sitting in the right elbow, the trail arm, and lateral pain in the left, the lead arm (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). Left-handed golfers should read that the other way round. So a right-hander with pain on the outside of the left elbow has the most typical golf elbow presentation there is, and it is not golfer's elbow.

Does the swing, the grip or the mat cause golf elbow pain?

Four parts of the published mechanism are inside a golfer's control this week, which is more than most pages give you.

Start with the grip. The 2022 review reports that at ball impact, lateral or medial elbow pain can occur if the grip is too tight or the elbows are held too tightly or are overextended, and that grips which are too slippery change the force generated in the forearm muscles, because a hand that is losing its hold squeezes harder (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). Worn grips are cheap to replace and sit behind a surprising amount of forearm work.

Then the divot. The same review associates medial epicondylitis with sudden forceful resistance during the swing and with strokes requiring large divots. A fat shot and a heavy strike are the same event as far as the inner tendon is concerned.

Third, what you are hitting off. There is no study on mats, so this is reasoning rather than evidence: a mat does not let the club take a divot, so the force returns up the shaft rather than into the turf. Last is the muscle work itself, which is why volume matters more than technique here. Just before impact there is a burst of wrist flexor activity, which is a large, fast demand on exactly the muscles that attach to the inner bump, repeated on every full swing you take.

That is why a range session is usually the culprit rather than a round. Eighteen holes gives you 60 to 120 full swings spread over four hours. A bucket of balls gives you the same number in well under an hour, on a mat, with no walk in between.

When is elbow pain not a tendon problem?

Three other problems turn up in golfers, and each one goes somewhere different.

A nerve is the commonest alternative on the inner side. The 2022 review reports ulnar neuritis found in association with medial epicondylitis in 20 percent of cases, so an inner elbow that also sends tingling into the ring and little fingers is a different conversation (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). Golfer's elbow or a trapped nerve at the elbow separates the two.

A ligament is the one to think about if the pain arrived suddenly on the inner side with a pop, particularly in someone who also throws. Golfer's elbow or a UCL injury covers it, and the same-day line about a pop on the inside of the elbow is in the warning list below.

Catching or locking points somewhere else again. The review notes that catching or locking suggests osteoarthritis or loose bodies in the joint rather than a tendon, and that is an assessment rather than a loading program. Pain that travels from the neck down the arm, or tingling brought on by turning your head, also belongs on the same-day list below, because the problem may not be at the elbow at all.

Where the programs are, and where the golf-specific help is

Pick the program by the side. Inner side goes to the golfer's elbow program, which carries the staged exercises, the dose and the progressions. Outer side goes to the tennis elbow program. Neither is restated here on purpose, because a tendon program only works if you follow one version of it.

The parts golfers ask about most have pages of their own. Gym, lifting and grip work with golfer's elbow is for the reader who is in the gym as well as on the course, and grip work is the overlap. Sleeping position and night pain with golfer's elbow is for the elbow that wakes you. If you also play a racket sport, playing pickleball and padel with tennis elbow is the one that deals with two sports loading the same tendon.

If your elbow hurts away from golf more than during it, elbow pain when lifting starts from the symptom instead of the sport. The rest of the sport, including where the elbow sits among golf's other complaints, is on the golf hub. If you have had elbow surgery or a ligament reconstruction, follow your surgical team's plan and ask them before starting anything here.

When to see a physio

Two weeks of the same elbow pain is the usual trigger, and the NHS uses a similar threshold for tennis elbow, advising a visit to the family doctor if pain is still there after at least two weeks of looking after it yourself (NHS, 2024). Grip pain in daily life is the other trigger worth acting on quickly, because a tendon that complains about a mug has moved past being a golf problem.

Bring the side, which hand you play with, your range and round count for the past fortnight, and what you hit off. A physiotherapist, or a physical therapist in the United States, will test the grip, load each tendon separately, check the nerve, and look at the shoulder and the neck before deciding what the elbow needs. Read the warning list below before your next session and follow the timing on each line.

Related exercise programs

Warning signs

Get emergency help now

Emergency: after a fall or a blow to the elbow, you heard a snap or a crack at the moment of the injury, the arm has changed shape or sits at an odd angle, a bone is showing through the skin, a cut is bleeding heavily, or the hand has gone numb or tingly or turns cold, pale or blue. Go to an emergency department or call emergency services straight away, and do not drive yourself.
Emergency: jaw, neck, shoulder or arm pain that comes with chest pain or tightness, sweating, feeling sick, feeling light-headed or being short of breath, or that comes on when you exert yourself, feel stressed or go out in the cold and does not ease within a few minutes of rest. Call emergency services straight away, as this can be a heart attack. If it eases quickly with rest and none of these happen, get medical advice the same day, and do not exercise again until you have been checked.
Emergency: chest pain or tightness, which may spread to your arm, neck or jaw, or shoulder or arm pain that comes with shortness of breath, sweating or feeling sick. This can be a heart attack. Call emergency services straight away.
Emergency: any sign of a stroke, even if it goes away. That means a face that droops on one side, an arm you cannot lift or keep up, slurred or muddled speech, weakness or numbness on one side of your body or face, sudden blurred vision, double vision or loss of sight, trouble swallowing, sudden dizziness with unsteadiness or falling over, a sudden severe headache, or a sudden fall where your legs give way but you do not black out (a drop attack). Call emergency services straight away. With neck pain, these can rarely come from a tear in an artery in the neck.
Emergency: your arm, hand or fingers turn cold, pale, blue or gray compared with the other side. Call emergency services or go to an emergency department straight away, and do not drive yourself. The blood supply to the arm may be blocked.

Get help today

Same day: the pain started with a fall or a blow to the elbow, and the pain is severe, the elbow is swollen or bruised, or you cannot bend or straighten the arm. Go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day.
Same day: a sudden pop or snap at the front of your elbow, sudden sharp pain there, or the muscle at the front of your upper arm bunches up or changes shape. Stop and go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day, even if you can still bend the elbow, as this can be a torn biceps tendon.
Same day: you throw, and you heard a pop or felt a sudden snap on the inside of the elbow, followed by pain, a throw you could not finish, or an elbow that feels loose or unstable. Stop throwing straight away and get the elbow checked the same day, because the ligament on the inner side of the elbow (ulnar collateral ligament) may be injured, and in a thrower who is still growing the same pop can be a piece of bone pulled off the inside of the elbow. If the thrower is a child or teenager, go to an urgent care center or emergency department the same day, because that needs an X-ray.
Same day: the elbow is hot, red and swollen, or you have elbow pain with a high temperature or feel hot, cold or shivery. Get medical advice the same day, and go to an emergency department if you feel very unwell. This can be a sign of infection in the joint, which needs treatment quickly. If you have a very high or very low temperature, shivering you cannot control, you are breathing very fast or finding it hard to breathe, you are confused or your speech is slurred, your skin, lips or tongue look blue, gray, pale or blotchy (on brown or black skin this can be easier to see on the palms of the hands or soles of the feet), or you have a rash that does not fade when you press it, call emergency services, as this can be sepsis.
Same day: your wrist or fingers will not lift properly, for example the fingers droop at the knuckles or the wrist drops when you hold your arm out in front of you. Get medical advice the same day. If the weakness is getting worse by the hour, go to an emergency department.
Same day: pain spreads from your neck down the arm, or turning or tilting your neck brings on the tingling in your hand. The problem may be in the neck rather than the elbow. If a doctor or physio has not checked it yet, get medical advice the same day.
Same day: pins and needles in your arm or hand that do not go away after you stop, or part of your arm or hand goes numb. Get medical advice the same day. If one side of your face or body suddenly goes numb or weak, or your speech becomes slurred or muddled, call emergency services, even if it goes away.
Same day: the pain is there at night or at rest and keeps getting worse. If you are being treated for cancer now, contact your cancer team the same day.

Book an appointment

Within a few days: your hand is getting weaker, you keep dropping things, your fingers feel clumsy, or the web of muscle between your thumb and index finger, or the little finger side of your palm, looks thinner or hollow compared with your other hand. This can mean the nerve behind the elbow is being squeezed. See a doctor within a few days. If the weakness is getting worse from day to day, get medical advice the same day.
Within a few days: the elbow locks, catches or keeps giving way in everyday use, without a pop from throwing. Stop the exercises that bring it on and see a physio or doctor within a few days rather than pushing on.
Within a day or two: the pain is there at night or at rest and keeps getting worse. If you have had cancer, now or in the past, or are losing weight without trying, see your doctor sooner, within a day or two, and mention it. This applies even if the pain is not getting worse.
Within a few days: the pain is there at night or at rest and keeps getting worse. See your doctor within a few days.

Common questions

Why does my elbow hurt after golf?

Because the forearm does a lot of fast, forceful work in the last few inches before impact, and then absorbs whatever the ground gives back. A 2022 review describes a burst of wrist flexor activity just before impact, and reports that lateral or medial elbow pain can follow if the grip is too tight or the elbows are held too tightly or are overextended through the shot. The same review associates medial pain with sudden forceful resistance during the swing and with strokes that take large divots, and notes that grips which are too slippery change the force the forearm muscles have to produce (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). In a UK survey of 303 golfers, the elbow was one of the two highest-incidence sites alongside the lower back (Williams and colleagues, 2025). If the pain arrived during a week of heavy range work on a mat, that is the first thing to change.

Is it golfer's elbow or tennis elbow?

The side decides it, not the sport. Golfer's elbow is pain at the bony point on the inner side of the elbow, where the muscles that bend your wrist and grip attach, and it is usually tender right on that bump and worse when you grip hard or bend the wrist against resistance. Tennis elbow is the same idea on the outer side, at the tendon of the muscles that lift the wrist, and it is usually worse lifting a kettle or a laptop bag with the palm down. In a right-handed golfer, the inner side is typically the right, trail elbow and the outer side the left, lead elbow (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). Press gently on each bump and compare: whichever one makes you wince is the one to read about, and if both are sore, get it looked at rather than guessing.

Does hitting off a mat cause golf elbow pain?

There is no study on mats and golfers' elbows, so anyone who tells you yes is reasoning rather than reporting. What is published is the mechanism either side of it: a divot-taking stroke means the club meets resistance suddenly, and sudden forceful resistance during the swing is associated with medial elbow pain in the 2022 review (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). A mat does not let the club take a divot, so the force comes back up the shaft instead of into the turf, and a thin mat on concrete does that harder than a thick one. Club golfers report it often enough that it is worth testing yourself: swap two range sessions for grass, or halve the balls, and see what the elbow does over a fortnight.

Can I play golf with golfer's elbow?

Often yes, with the session trimmed, because tendons do better with reduced load than with none. Take the range session out before you take the round out, since a bucket of balls packs the same number of full swings as 18 holes into well under an hour, which asks far more of the tendon. Loosen the grip between shots, use the putter and the short clubs freely, and judge it by the next morning rather than during the round. The staged loading that actually rebuilds the tendon is on the golfer's elbow program for inner-side pain and the tennis elbow program for outer-side pain, and if gripping a mug has started to hurt, cut back further and book an assessment instead of pushing on.

Is my grip too tight?

Possibly, and it is one of the few things on this page you can change on the next shot. The 2022 review names a grip that is too tight, and elbows held too tightly or overextended, among the things that can bring on elbow pain at impact, and it also names grips that are too slippery, which make you squeeze harder to keep hold (Creighton, Cheng and Press, 2022). Nobody has run a trial on grip pressure and golfers' elbows, so treat this as practice advice. Checking your grips before you buy an elbow strap is sensible: worn, shiny grips get squeezed, and a hand that squeezes for four hours involves the same muscles that are sore.

Does golf cause golfer's elbow?

The name says so and the official patient information mostly does not. When we checked in November 2026, there was no golfer's elbow page on the NHS website at all, its tennis elbow page did not mention golf among the causes, naming computer work, manual tasks and leisure activities such as tennis or playing a musical instrument instead, and an NHS Borders physiotherapy leaflet for patients listed the causes as repetitive activities such as DIY, excessive gripping, weakened or tight forearm muscles and direct trauma, without naming a golf swing (NHS, 2024; NHS Borders, Right Decisions Scotland). That is worth knowing rather than treating as a contradiction: the condition is common in people who never play, and golf is one of many ways to load the tendon. It also means a golfer reading national advice will not find their sport in it, which is the gap this page fills.

References

Creighton A, Cheng J, Press J. Upper body injuries in golfers. Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine. 2022;15(6):483-499. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12178-022-09787-y
Williams A, Murray A, Sorbie GG. Epidemiology of injuries in UK based golfers: a retrospective study. The Physician and Sportsmedicine. 2025;53(2):152-158. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913847.2024.2432859
Murray A, Junge A, Robinson PG, Bizzini M, et al. International consensus statement: methods for recording and reporting of epidemiological data on injuries and illnesses in golf. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2020;54(19):1136-1141. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2020-102380
NHS. Tennis elbow. Page last reviewed 31 May 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tennis-elbow/
NHS Borders Physiotherapy. Golfers elbow, a guide for patients. Right Decisions Scotland. Next review date 31 May 2026. https://rightdecisions.scot.nhs.uk/patient-information-leaflets/primary-community-services/physiotherapy/golfers-elbow-a-guide-for-patients
NHS. Chest pain. Page last reviewed 8 August 2023. https://www.nhs.uk/symptoms/chest-pain/
NHS. Symptoms of a stroke. Page last reviewed 12 September 2024. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stroke/symptoms/

Written and checked by the PocketPhysio editorial team. Last updated 2026-11-06.

This page is general education, not a diagnosis or a personal treatment plan. See a physiotherapist or doctor for advice about your own situation.