Unless you play golf for a living, you probably don’t give much thought to how you prep for a round of golf, but what you do in the hours before going to play 18 holes has a huge impact on your round. I know that no matter what level you are at, everyone wants a great score. If you roll out of bed and eat a doughnut with some coffee and head out the door, you are really not setting yourself up for success. Your round really starts as soon as your feet hit the floor in the morning. Here are some of the steps I make sure I always do to prepare myself for playing the best round possible on that given day.
- Eat a healthy, delicious, well-rounded breakfast. This can be hard if you’re not a breakfast person. Do your best to make sure you get some protein, carbs, and fats. Try to stay away from the sugars. Your body is going to draw on whatever you eat for breakfast to fuel those first holes. I also say eat a “delicious” breakfast because you do want to eat something that makes you happy when it hits your taste buds! My favorite pre-round breakfast is toast with eggs, avocado, and maybe even some bacon if I have time. Stay tuned for our later blog post elaborating on the importance of nutrition with golf
- Stretch at home and at the course. I always make sure before I leave the house that my body is feeling limber and ready to work. Especially if it is cold outside, you want to make sure you do a lot of stretching. Stretch again once you get to the range just to make sure you have worked out any left over tightness. The main areas I focus on when stretching are my hips and shoulders. This helps relieve any tightness that would prevent me from rotating properly and throwing off timing in the swing.
- Have a go-to warm-up routine and stick to it every time. If you like to hit range balls, then chip, then putt before you go to the tee, then do that every time. It keeps your mind relaxed because you don’t have to ask yourself “what now?”. Having a back up routine is also good in case you happen to be running late, or the range is all full. Pick one thing in your warm up you could go without. If the range is the most important to get in those warm up swings, then don’t stress about missing out on chipping and putting.
- For the over-achievers, meditation. This is for major bonus points. One thing I have incorporated into my warm-up this past year is a quick five minute meditation to get my mind right. The app Simple Habit has a ton of quick meditations that will put you in a relaxed state of mind, and I have played my best tournaments when I have incorporated it into my warm-up. I use headphones and give myself a few extra minutes to sit in my car and do a meditation.
Now that you are all prepped like a pro and you are about to step onto the first tee, you can put those mental game tips from our last blog post to good use!
-Whitney Hickman
