Dubai Desert Classic: Fred Couples reveals how he almost quit golf - FOXSports.com
Fred Couples could endure a painful back and still play golf, but he knew he was in major trouble when he could not sleep because of it.
Following the Masters last year in April, the 1994 Masters and 1995 Dubai Desert Classic champion was so devastated, he actually thought of quitting the game for good.
The 52-year-old Couples, who is playing the Omega Dubai Desert Classic this week and is two-under par 214 after three rounds, revealed: "Last year, I wasn't feeling great when I played, and after Augusta I wasn't sleeping. My back was throbbing, and like everyone else, tried a lot of things, been all over the United States.
"I was pretty much going to quit playing because I just couldn't sleep at night. A bad back is not much fun, but not sleeping is no bargain. And so I quit playing for a while."
It was at that low point of his illustrious career, someone suggested the Orthokine Therapy and gave him the name of Dr Peter Wehling in Dusseldorf, Germany.
The Orthokine Therapy is a unique way to treat osteoarthritis and back pain biologicaly, without the use of any foreign substances. It uses individual autologous proteins derived from the patients blood, then applied as a medication. This kind of therapy is a complete autologous form of treatment.
"A friend told me about him, so I went. And they take your blood...it's this treatment of working with the blood and it's not allowed in America, yet. And when I left there after just five sessions of 30 minutes each, I never felt that good.
"Vijay Singh went after me. There have been a lot of my friends who have gone since I went and 90 percent of them have come back not just happy, but it's weird because it's almost like you see someone cure cancer.
"And then I had a recurrence of the pain around Christmas. But the therapy is now in Los Angeles. And so that's where I went two weeks ago."
Couples said the best thing about the treatment was that there was no invasive methods used, and the beauty of it lied in it's simplicity and how quickly it showed effect.
"It's a pretty simple treatment. It's five days. And you can go do whatever you want after you're done. So, I would go around and walk and shop around in LA and then I'd go back the next morning.
"The doctor tried it on knees and was very successful and then he started doing the backs, but it's a lot touchier in your back. In your knee he just puts his needle in and shoots it. But for the back, like I had nine specific spots identified for me after I went into a CAT scan. They mark your back and it's precise on how deep you go and all that stuff, but for him it was almost... like nonchalant.
"He's really popular. I mean before I went there, my agent was calling him and he wouldn't give him one name of any other sportsman he has worked with. It's not really his style. Then when I got there, I'm looking at these walls, and Kobe Bryant has been here and LeBron James, and several soccer players.
"You can go there, get your knee shot up and play the next day. The same goes with the back. When I left, he wanted me to start hitting balls Monday when I got home. It's not like a surgery and then take a month off and figure it out.
"And it's expensive. I mean besides flying over there, the treatment is expensive. There's no insurance. The guy is amazing. But I don't know what they do. And I don't really care as long as it works."