I am a bit worried about my prognosis here, as my anecdotal data is all over the map. My wife had a shoulder issue (ultimately a tendon issue) that took surgery and literally 2 years off the tennis court to resolve (and it is resolved). A childhood friend decided not to go down the surgical path in his case and he spent 3 years playing tennis left handed before he got full use of his right arm back. He is even back in the gym doing weight work although now using lower weights/higher reps.
The guy behind the desk at our golf club took 18 months away from the game to solve his problems. Then there is my neighbor who is also a golfer and he got a cortisone shot a full year ago and 'is thinking that maybe he should get another one before long' (he is being treated by a shoulder specialist).
I don't play much golf any more so am more worried about the cycling. I suspect that riding this year's Tour de Moore (local century) is out and that now that riding weather is about perfect I will be stuck riding indoors. OTOH, I had serious wrist pain a few years ago where toward the end of a ride I could pretty much not shift (mechanical ultegra RD in one case and Chorus in the other) due to wrist pain. Better padding in my riding gloves and that disappeared. We never found the source of that problem definitively but added carpal tunnel syndrome to my list of structural deficiencies to be addressed when/if those symptoms become problematic. So maybe better padding or possibly a fit tweak to my bikes ...
I have had this 'issue' for over 10 years. It was like #5 on my list of "things that hurt now that did not hurt when I was younger'. As I told my doctor long ago, as long as I don't need to throw a baseball lefthanded, this has virtually no effect on my quality of life. The planks moved that up to #1 in a big hurry (for very mysterious reasons my spinal stenosis symptoms are close to gone for now). We'll see where this goes and it is 'use my best judgment' between now and my doctor's appointment.
dave
ps. My view of my shoulder showing up when the spinal stenosis symptoms disappeared is the 'conservation of pain principle' where at some age the total daily pain that you experience is a constant no matter what you do. Or then there is a friend's symphony metaphor where your pain is like a symphony where each performance has a different 'featured soloist' (shoulder in my case right now) but the entire symphony is always available and on-call.