Article - April 14, 2008 - Annapolis Capital 

Annapolis chiropractor helps keep PGA swings in line

By Diane M. Rey

Ray Infanti will have some of the best seats in the house for the Dick's Sporting Good Open on the Fourth of July, but technically he'll be working.

The 41-year-old Annapolis chiropractor will be following the tee shots of golfers like Bernhard Langer, Tom Watson, former University of Maryland golf team coach Fred Funk and other giants of the game from his up-close and unique vantage point as a chiropractor for the event at the En-Joie Golf Club in Endicott, N.Y. The tournament is part of the PGA Champions seniors tour.
Prior to the holiday, Mr. Infanti also will be working June 27-29 at the Commerce Bank Championship at Eisenhower Park in East Meadow, N.Y., for the 50-and-over tour. The year-long Champions Tour began in January.

"I never dreamed that I'd be asked to be a part of this," Mr. Infanti said last week from his desk at Chiro 1st Chiropractic on Holiday Court in Annapolis, which he's owned since 1995.

His office is filled with illustrations of the human anatomy, life-sized models of the spine, and photographs of his young son. It's beyond a large rehabilitation room that looks like it belongs in a gym. There are dumbbells, exercise balls, stationary bikes, strengthening equipment and a separate area with a practice tee and net where Mr. Infanti uses a computerized vest to analyze what's off with a golfer's swing.

More than 30 patients had already come into the office by lunchtime on a busy morning. Mr. Infanti popped in and out of examination rooms. In between, he managed to talk about his upcoming dream job with the Professional Golfers' Association of America.

At the tour events, he'll be working out of two tractor-trailers that function as state-of-the-art mobile treatment stations. A team of medical professionals will be on hand to support the players' health care needs, including doctors, physical therapists, and massage therapists.

Mr. Infanti, an avid golfer himself, is one of only three new chiropractors added to the team this year, he said.

A resident of Park Place on Westgate Circle, he grew up in Brick Township on the Jersey shore. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Rutgers University and is a graduate of the Los Angeles College of Chiropractic.

A football injury in high school put him on the path to his career, and despite his professional demeanor, he lights up like a schoolboy when he talks about working with star athletes and top professionals in sports medicine.

"I can bring that (knowledge) back and incorporate it into my own practice to benefit my own patients," he said.

This won't be his first experience working on the professional golf circuit. Through a casual conversation he had at a tournament with the caddie for women's pro golfer Annika Sorenstam, he landed a job working some tournaments last summer for the Duramed Futures Tour, the official developmental tour of the LPGA.

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