Richie Sambora is celebrating his birthday by golfing after a medical issue.

Months after undergoing surgery for fracturing his hand playing touch football, the musician is healing, PEOPLE has learned.

Following emergency surgery to rebreak and reset the hand, Sambora, 66, is healing well under the care of sports medicine experts who work with NFL superstars. Despite the "arduous, slow, and painful" process, a source tells PEOPLE the musician is focused on getting back into shape.

The source says that according to doctors, Sambora's healing rate is double what is expected for such an injury.

On his birthday this Friday, July 11, Sambora is enjoying "tender-paced golf" with friends at home in Princeville, Hawaii, as he takes a break from promoting his new release "Born to Rock" and celebrates his birthday.

"It’s a fun and happy anthem for those who were born to rock! Plain and simple," Sambora tells PEOPLE of his new song. "My birthday gift to you," he wrote on Instagram earlier on July 11, sharing the song.

After fracturing his hand in April, Sambora performed through the injury at the Unbridled Eve Derby Gala on May 2, days later.

"He caught a ball and some guy gave him a touch right into a curb. He was completely swollen, and fractured his hand in two places," the source told PEOPLE about the injury at the time. “He’ll undergo surgery next week."

The source said that Sambora "rocked the house" despite being in "so much pain." "When he told the doctor he was going to the Derby, the doctor said, ‘You’re out of your mind.’ But he said, ‘See ya! I’m going.’ That’s the kind of guy Richie is. He’s a man of his word.”

Sambora performed Bon Jovi's iconic tunes: "Livin’ on a Prayer," "It’s My Life," "I’ll Be There for You" and "Wanted Dead or Alive."

Before fracturing his hand, Sambora had been keeping busy. He released five new singles last year and performed at a Los Angeles wildfire benefit concert at the Rock for Responders Concert on the USS Iowa.

He told PEOPLE in January about other ways he was helping those affected by the devastating wildfires, such as matching the revenue he received from his April 2024 single "I Pray," which had a message that resonated at that moment.

"A couple of my fans were saying ‘I Pray’ would be so perfect for these fires now. I hadn’t listened to it in a couple of months and I went, ‘S---, I hit the nail on the head and I wasn’t even trying’, " he said at the time.

"The world is in pretty s--- shape at the moment, so sometimes I write as a reporter. I was basically praying for, and not even in a religious way… I got on my social media and went, ‘I will take all the money from the streams, match it, and put it toward the L.A. fires."