If you have followed the PGA Tour over the last two decades, you have likely asked yourself at some point: Whatever happened to Ryan Moore? One minute he was a Ryder Cup hero with one of golf's most distinct swings, and the next, he practically vanished from Sunday leaderboards. This article clears up the mystery, explaining the specific and rare injury that forced him away from the game, the powerful lessons we can all learn from his struggle, and where the accomplished golfer is today.
To understand what happened to Ryan Moore, you have to first appreciate who he was as a player. He wasn’t a product of a cookie-cutter swing academy. His action was unique, self-taught, and endlessly effective. It was compact, featured a noticeable bow in his left wrist at the top, and relied heavily on a powerful body rotation rather than flashy hand and arm action. He was, in many ways, the ultimate anti-guru golfer.
From a coaching perspective, Ryan’s swing was a masterclass in one core principle: the body is the engine. As a golf coach, I always stress that the swing is a "rotational action of the golf club that moves around the body in a circle-like manner, mainly powered from your body’s rotation." Ryan Moore was the living embodiment of this. He proved you don't need a classic-looking swing if you can master the fundamentals of turning your torso powerfully and repeatedly. By keeping his hands quiet and letting his body's turn do the work, he built a swing that was incredibly repeatable under pressure.
This self-made, unorthodox style didn't just work - it dominated. His amateur career is legendary:
He turned pro in 2005 and quickly found success, racking up five PGA TOUR victories between 2009 and 2016. He was a machine, consistently inside the top 100 of the world rankings and a staple on leaderboards.
The absolute apex of his career came in 2016. After finishing runner-up to Rory McIlroy in the Tour Championship, Davis Love III made Moore his final captain's pick for the Ryder Cup at Hazeltine. It was a pressure cooker, and Moore delivered.
He went 2-1-0, but his legacy was solidified in his Sunday singles match against Lee Westwood. Moore was 2-down with three holes to play. A European point seemed imminent. Instead, Moore birdied 16, eagled 17 after a stunning approach shot, and won the 18th hole with a par to win the match. More importantly, his point was the one that clinched the Ryder Cup for Team USA.
At that moment, Ryan Moore seemed destined for even greater heights. He was a Ryder Cup hero, a proven winner, and in the prime of his career. And then, slowly, things began to change.
Moore’s disappearance wasn’t sudden, but a gradual retreat born from a persistent and debilitating injury. Fans watching from home just saw him playing less and missing more cuts. What was happening behind the scenes was a frustrating battle with a part of the body most golfers never even think about: the connection point between the ribs and the spine.
Moore was diagnosed with a costovertebral joint sprain, something sometimes called costotransverse joint dysfunction. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but we can simplify it.
Think about where your ribs connect to your spine in your mid-back (the thoracic region). There are small, specific joints there that allow for slight movement when you breathe and twist. A costovertebral joint sprain is when the ligaments and tissues around one of these "rib-spine hinges" get stretched, inflamed, or irritated. In severe cases, it can feel like a rib has "popped out."
For a golfer, such an injury is catastrophic. The golf swing is a violent, twisting motion that puts enormous strain precisely on this area. Moore described the pain as sharp and severe, making it impossible to take a pain-free breath, let alone perform a full-power backswing. Every attempt to rotate his body caused a flair-up. He simply couldn’t perform the fundamental movement that his entire career was built on.
He tried to play through it, taking time off for rest and rehab, but the issue was structural and chronic. He eventually had to step away completely, using a Major Medical Extension on the PGA Tour to preserve his playing status while he tried to heal.
While Moore’s injury is specific and relatively uncommon, his story offers some profound and practical lessons for every amateur golfer. As a coach, this is what I want you to take away from what happened to him.
Over the last decade, there's been a massive push in golf instruction toward generating extreme "separation" an - turning the hips while keeping the shoulders back an - and creating a lot of lateral side-bend to produce power. While this can lead to high swing speeds, it puts incredible stress on the obliques, lats, and especially the thoracic spine and rib cage.
Ryan Moore’s powerful rotation, which served him so well, eventually pushed his anatomy to its breaking point. For average golfers who don’t have pro-level conditioning, aggressively chasing that 'ideal' rotated look can be a fast track to injury. The lesson is to build a swing that works with your body's natural range of motion, not one that fights against it.
When we talk about the setup in golf, we usually focus on consistency. We want to "lean over with the upper body so that your arms hang naturally," with your "bottom stuck backwards." This isn't just for looks, it's to put your body in a powerful and stable position from which to rotate.
A poor setup forces compensations. If you’re too upright, you might dip down violently in the downswing. If you’re too hunched over, you might fire a quick, jerky rotation with your upper body. These compensations often create inefficient pressures on places like the lower back or thoracic spine. A balanced, athletic setup allows your body to turn more freely, a bit as the entire torso unit, which reduces strain on any single joint.
Golfers are conditioned to be tough. We play in the rain, the heat, and often through minor aches. But there’s a massive difference between general muscle soreness after a long day of walking and a sharp, localized, repeatable pain.
Moore’s injury wasn’t a dull ache, it was a targeted, sharp pain that activated with a specific movement. This is your body's check engine light. It's not a suggestion, it's a command to stop. If you experience a sudden, sharp pain in your back, ribcage, wrist, or elbow when you swing, do not 'play through it.' That's how a nagging issue becomes a chronic, long-term problem that can take you out of the game entirely.
Ryan Moore has not officially retired from golf, but his days as a full-time touring professional appear to be over. He has used up his medical extension and has played only sparingly over the last couple of seasons, often in events closer to his home in Las Vegas.
In interviews, he’s been candid about his condition, explaining that his primary focus is now on his long-term health and his family. He can play casually now and then without severe pain, but the grind and intensity required to compete at the PGA TOUR level is something his body can no longer sustain day after day.
His story is a sober reminder that a professional athlete’s career is fragile, and it can be derailed not by a loss of skill, but by the physical limits of the human body.
Ryan Moore's story is a sober reminder of how fragile a golf career can be, with a rare costovertebral joint injury sidelining one of the most consistent and unique players of his generation. His journey highlights the immense physical stress of the modern golf swing and the danger of pushing the body beyond its natural limits, an important lesson for all of us who love this game.
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