how to prepare yourself for a good round of golf

1. Study the Course. Many times a golf tournament will be played at a course that you are completely unfamiliar with. ...
2. Arrive Early (but not too early) The last thing you want to do is feel like you are rushed before a round. ...
3. Get the Speed of the Greens. This is a big one, and it ties into the last section. ...
4. Expect the Unexpected. Tournament golf is not like your normal weekend round with your buddies. It is a completely different animal.
5. Don’t Forget to Have Fun. Here is the good news. Nothing is really on the line for you in a golf tournament. ...

Full Answer

How do I prepare for a golf round?

Spend 5-10 mins before each round, imagining yourself hitting the shots you’d like to in the round. E.g. See yourself on the first tee, shaking hands with your playing partners, going through your routine and confidently striking your drive down the middle of the fairway.

How do professional golfers prepare for competition?

Most good players prepare for competition by playing practice rounds, developing a strategy for best managing the course, identifying clubs they will need, and practicing particular shots they will likely use. Great players do even more. They prepare their mindset as well.

How do I get better at putting in golf?

This includes committing to the club, target, and type of shot then going behind the ball to visualize the shot and taking a smooth full practice swing to feel the shot. Now hit your shot using the same smooth tempo. Warm up your focus for putting in much the same way.

What are your process goals for golf?

Here, for instance, is a set of process goals for a round of golf. If you follow them, you'll give yourself your best chance to find out how well you can play in that particular round: • I will trust myself and my swing on every shot.

How do you mentally prepare for a round of golf?

1:097:31Golf Psychology: 4 Preround Mental Preparation Strategies - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipIn terms of your mental game you want to have a game plan or a strategy for how you're gonna playMoreIn terms of your mental game you want to have a game plan or a strategy for how you're gonna play the golf course. You want to treat the warm-up is just a warm-up.

How do I increase my stamina for golf?

CARDIO: Endurance and cardio-specific exercises such as cycling, walking, swimming or running, for about thirty minutes per day should be added to your training regimen. If you are older, just get out and move your legs, take a brisk walk, stay active and you will be able to translate that energy to the golf course.

How do I calm my nerves before golf?

5 Tips for Calming Your Nerves on the Golf CourseChew Gum. There have been a number of studies done on the effects of chewing gum on the brain. ... Take Deep Breaths. The next thing you can do to calm your nerves is to take some deep breaths. ... Visualize Success. ... Live in the Moment. ... Get Excited.

How do you stay loose during a round of golf?

Standing Shoulder Stretch: Standing with your legs shoulder-width apart, bend from the waist and place both hands on the grip of your golf club. Lean forward, keeping your back flat, until you feel the stretch in your shoulders. Hold for 10 seconds repeating the motion three times.

What exercises help your golf swing?

1:0610:23Home golf workout: Exercises to improve your golf swing - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipOkay down and push up. As low as you can there. And push up okay and i would start by doing aboutMoreOkay down and push up. As low as you can there. And push up okay and i would start by doing about eight to ten repetitions on each side.

How do you not get tired while playing golf?

Let's dive in!Objectively Evaluate Your Golf Play.Focus on Your Mental Golf Game.Focus on Your Physical Golf Game.Take Care of Yourself Before Golfing.Stay Hydrated During Golfing.Stretch and Warm-Up Before Golfing.Late-Round Golf Fatigue During Play.

How do you stay mentally strong in golf?

The best mental golf tips for your golf gameDon't be over-ambitious & focus on the step you're making. ... Work out a strategy and envision success. ... Make pre-round warm-up a habit. ... Take your pre-round warm-up for what it is. ... Start warming up by putting. ... Warming up your body as well as your mind.More items...•

How do I stop getting angry at golf?

2:148:39DEAL WITH YOUR ANGER ON THE GOLF COURSE - YouTubeYouTubeStart of suggested clipEnd of suggested clipLook at that slice it into the trees. Now a lot of people when they do they get upset yeah meMoreLook at that slice it into the trees. Now a lot of people when they do they get upset yeah me included. But. If you get upset to the point where almost slamming the club into the ground or cursing.

What do pro golfers drink while playing?

Isotonic drinks include Lucozade, Gatorade and Powerade. You can also find electrolytes in fresh fruit, a nutrition bar or a sandwich. After you have completed the round, there is obviously one beverage that most golfers will choose: an ice cold beer.

Why do I get so nervous playing golf?

1. Stay loose and focus on swing tempo. When you're playing a round and start to feel nervous, everything becomes quicker and you tighten up without even realizing it. This tightness causes tension in your muscles, which causes you to hit the golf ball poorly.

How do I keep my arms soft in the golf swing?

The best way to keep your arms relaxed in the downswing is to put your big muscles in charge of moving the club toward the target. That means rotating aggressively to the left with your lower body and your torso. Of course, you can't turn left without first turning to the right.

How do you stay in a golf moment?

A good technique for staying in the present in golf, and one that is used for exactly the same purpose in meditation, is to focus on breathing. When you feel your focus drifting to the past or future, notice your breathing and focus on what you see (the ball and the target).

1. Know the time it takes for you

Some golfers need very little time. Others need more. It’s not a one size fits all: If you feel rushed to the first tee, plan to add time to your warm up plan. Determine how much time you need, and prioritize that when scheduling your day.

2. Find the order that works for you

The majority of golfers start with their shortest clubs and work their way through their bag until they finish with their driver. But there are some golfers who start with their driver and work their way back to their shorter clubs. Tom Watson, for example, starts every warm up with a hybrid.

4. Warm up both short game shots

You should always warm up two different kinds of short game shots: chips and pitches. I like to warm up my pitch shots first, before my fill swing warm up. I start with a few pitches with my most lofted wedge, which I know will force me to get my club down to the ground, which reinforces a good habit.

5. React to your ball flight

Other than the obvious — warming up your body before you go play — your warm up sessions should have a very specific goal. Every day is different in golf, and I like to say you have to re-learn it every day. It’s a good attitude you have to stay realistic.

6. Read the elements

Your warm up session will also help give you a sense of how particular elements will effect your golf ball, particularly the warm or cold. The wind will also have a huge and obvious effect on your golf ball. Make sure to make these discoveries before you play, rather than learning from your mistakes during it.

7. Putt, putt, putt

You should always try to stroke a few putts before you play to get a sense for the speed of the greens that day. I would say a good rule of thumb is to practice a variety of longer putts, and stay on the green until you hit the first putt of each of those putts close.

8. Determine your go-to clubs from the start

Your warm up sessions can also tell you which clubs are going to be your best that day. Some days, your fairway woods are the start. Others, your shorter clubs. Know this in advance, and you’ll be more at ease on the course.

Why do we need a pre round mental routine?

Like a daily morning routine to start any day off well, your pre round mental routine will help you establish your goals, get you focused on the good things that are possible for the day and have you feeling like you are prepared for anything that comes your way.

How to do a mental game warm up?

Here are my suggestions for a mental game warm-up that can be done in less that 20 minutes. 1. Breathe and Relax. Start with 8-10 minutes of focused, deep belly breathing using the breathing exercises that we discussed in Module 4 of the mental game training program.

How to calm your mind when you are not focusing?

If your mind wanders and you find yourself no longer focusing on your breathing , gently bring your attention back to it. After a minute or so of deep breathing, return your breath to normal.

Do you start a golf game on the first tee?

The game doesn’t start on the first tee. By the time you get to hit that first shot, you should already be in your best competitive mindset and ready to play. You don’t want to wait until you’re several holes into your round to find it. This is what a pre round mental routine can help you with.

How to prepare for a golf tournament?

Start your pre-round preparation by fueling your body for a good performance. Be sure to drink plenty of water – it’s proven that being dehydrated lowers performance and if you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated.

How to play golf in a warm up?

Trust is one of the key thoughts of the day. Play a few holes in your mind, changing clubs from long to short. As soon as you hit one quality shot with one club, put it back in the bag and move onto the next one . This means your last shot with each club is a good one!

How to warm up your short game?

To warm up your short game, try to play as many different shots as you can from a variety of different lies. This will not only get the creative juices flowing, but it will get you familiar with the type of grass you’re about to play. Get into the habit of visualizing and picking landing spots for each shot.

How to keep your energy level up during a round?

Eat just enough to be neither hungry or full and keep it healthy (avoid starchy and sugary foods which will raise insulin and make you crash). Pack healthy snacks like fruit and nuts to maintain your energy levels (to stay focused) throughout your round.

How to play golf with no expectations?

1) Have no expectations and set the goal of “process” not “outcome”. Do not “expect” to play well. Good golf is about embracing the possibilities and not expecting anything with regards to the final outcome. Expectations create pressure and that’s certainly something you could do without. Chasing a score, typically has the opposite effect.

How to get familiar with the greens?

To get your feel warmed up, start by putting to the fringe from various distances and move on to putting to tees. This will narrow your focus and make the target of the hole seem bigger on the course. Finish by holing 10 1-2 ft putts (ones you can’t miss), to get the look and sound of the ball going in. It’s great for your confidence. Now when you’ve finished your putting warm-up you won’t have missed a single putt!

How to get better at golf?

Once you get to the course with your great attitude and begin warming up for the round, take a few minutes to warm up your mental routine as well. This will allow you to go to the first tee prepared to narrow your focus over the ball. Use these steps.

How to help yourself before a round?

Once you get good at distinguishing between thoughts that are outside or inside your control, you will be able to help yourself both before and during your rounds by using anxiety or any unsettled feeling as a “cue”.

How to use anxiety in golf?

Identifying particular situations where you will most benefit from using anxiety as a cue also tells you situations where you can start your golf mental game preparation in advance with imagery practice. Select the situations where you anticipate feeling the most anxious. Let’s use for example a particularly difficult hole on which you have had little success off the tee. Your anxious feelings as you approach the tee will be your cue. This cue is a reminder to stop worrying about where the ball might go and use your mental energy to: take a deep breath, commit to a definite target and club, visualize your shot and swing with a great tempo.

How to practice cue in competition?

Use guided imagery to practice using your cue in competition: Begin by putting yourself in a relaxed position, releasing all tension from your body. Mentally take yourself into a competitive round (past or future) creating such detail – seeing trees, feeling wind, playing shots— that you actually feel you are there.

How to hit a golf shot?

This includes committing to the club, target, and type of shot then going behind the ball to visualize the shot and taking a smooth full practice swing to feel the shot. Now hit your shot using the same smooth tempo.

How to feel better playing golf?

Following are simple steps. Put yourself in a relaxed position for a few moments before going to the course, or simply stay in bed a few extra minutes before preparing for the day. Take a few moments to assess how you feel. Compare this feeling to what you have felt on days when you have played your very best golf.

How does mental preparation help in golf?

Mental preparation for golf can look different from one player to the next, but the Tour champions benefit from emphasizing what they can control, using imagery, creating a competitive attitude, warming up their mental routine, and setting mental goals.

How to lower your score in golf without improving?

One of the quickest ways to lower your score without improving your technique is to be diligent in choosing the short game shot with the least risk. Typically, the less time the ball spends in the air or the smaller the stroke or swing you take, the less the chance for error. Reaching for your highest-lofted club every time can can translate ...

How does a golfer manage adversity?

The golfer who manages this adversity by staying calm and reacting in a more calculated way can often times get through a less than perfect round and still have success.

How many wedges do pro golfers carry?

There are so many great wedges to choose from these days. Many pro golfers carry up to four wedges in their golf bag, and this doesn’t even include lower-running bump-and-run shots that you’d hit with other clubs. All these options can be a bit overwhelming, especially since many of us don’t have enough practice time to truly have this distance control down to a science.

Why use a sand wedge?

Having a sand wedge that has a higher bounce angle will help to offset minor mistakes you might make like having the shaft leaning too far forward at impact or closing the face slightly. While as a teacher, I want to improve technique as much as possible for golfers who fit this profile, a sand wedge with greater “forgiveness”, can help to minimize the result of these mistakes.

Why are my golf scores low?

Low scores often come from golfers who play the smartest and know how to get the best result out of the skill they have, and that’s something we can all improve on.

When teeing off on the side of the tee opposite where the wind is coming, what?

When it’s windy, teeing off on the side of the tee opposite where the wind is coming can make a huge difference in your ball curving less. For example, if the wind is left-to-right and you tee off on the far right side of the tee box, you would automatically aim more left. Aiming more left would angle you more directly into the wind and ...

What order should you put your short game shots in?

Your short game shot selection should go in the following order: 1. Putt. 2. Chip. 3. Pitch/Flop. Putt whenever you can. Chip when you cannot putt, using whichever club will allow you to keep your stroke small while also carrying the trouble.

Who said golf is played on a five and a half inch course?

The great amateur Bobby Jones once famously said: “Golf is played mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course… the space between your ears.”. Golf is undoubtedly one of the most mentally challenging sports there is. It’s an individual pursuit and there’s nobody to help you on the fairways if, and when, things start to turn sour.

What to do when you play a bad shot?

If you play a bad shot that ends in a difficult spot, try to think of it as a new challenge. Don’t just wallow in the predicament; start from scratch. Remember, your objective is to get down in as few shots as possible from the current situation, whatever it is.

What to do when the ball doesn't drop into the hole?

If you’re having one of those days where the ball just doesn’t seem to want to drop into the hole, don’t bemoan your ill fortune on the greens. Focus on the positives. If you pick a line and start the ball on that line, you have putted well; you just haven’t read the green quite right. Next time, you’ll get the line right and the putt will drop.

How to let off steam after a bad shot?

Most amateur golfers dwell on poor shots. What’s the point? Once it’s been hit, nothing can be done about it. The only thing you can affect is what happens next. A great way to let off steam and forget the errors is the, “10-yard rule.” It’s a psychological strategy employed by Tiger Woods in his prime, amongst others. After a bad shot, you can vent your frustration (internally of course) until you’ve reached a point 10 yards from where you struck it. After crossing the imaginary line, that shot is history, it should be totally forgotten and your mind should move on to the next stroke.

How to limit damage when your golf ball is in a bush?

If your ball lies in a bush, the best way to limit the damage might be to take a penalty drop, to go well back and into a point where you have a full shot. You almost certainly won’t get the ball into the hole in as few shots as possible by hacking hopefully at it, willing it against reason to escape back to the fairway – that’s how the really big numbers can rack up.

What is the objective of hitting the ball in the cup?

Each time you reach your ball, your objective is to get it into the hole from that position in as few shots as possible. Don’t think about what has gone before, or the worst-case scenario, just focus on how to get the ball in the cup in the most efficient way from where it lies.

Do amateur golfers return their putts?

The amateurs who get the most out of their games will very rarely post a “No-return” and will tend to give it their all until the very last putt has dropped.

How can I be better at golf?

I believe every golfer has the potential to be much better than he or she is, and that using the mind is one essential way to improve. You will never know if you have the ability to be the best player in the world, or the best player in your club, unless you commit yourself to developing both your physical and mental skills.

How to set goals in golf?

In setting goals, you need to take an honest inventory of your game. Maybe your ball-striking needs improvement. Maybe it's chipping and pitching or bunker play. Maybe it's something in your mental game. You might need to have a better attitude toward putting, or you might need to be better at staying in the present. Obviously, no one is perfect in any of these areas. But most players are better in some than in others. Give your inventory the form of a report card. If you're giving yourself B's and A's in most aspects of the game and D's in one, you know how to allot your time and energy. Your inventory will guide you in setting the process goals that are correct for you.

Why do we want to play golf?

That's because, in sport, the human body works most effectively when the conscious mind is shut off. Call it instinct, or intuition or the right side of the brain if you're more comfortable with those concepts than you are with the notion of the subconscious. Whatever you call it, you want it in control when you play golf. You want to swing thinking only of your target.

How to be more confident in golf?

I only know that our bodies react to the degree of confidence we've nurtured in our conscious and subconscious minds. Play a shot confidently, and the body performs at its grace ful best. Play a shot while doubting your ability to pull it off and the body more often than not loses its rhythm, grace and timing. Confident golfers play like athletes. They walk onto the course as if they were going to a party that is full of people who like and admire them. Golfers who lack confidence step onto the course the way an anxious, uptight nerd would walk into that same party.

What is golf in the mind?

Inside the Golfer's Mind. Golf is a game of confidence and competence. I am not about to tell anyone that a player who lacks physical skills can transform overnight into a winner by changing his thinking. If you trust a bad swing, it's still going to produce bad shots.

What is the difference between playing to play great and playing recklessly?

There's a fine line between playing to play great and playing recklessly. Reckless players hit driver off virtually every tee. They fire at sucker pins they have no business aiming at, because they're convinced that's what playing to play great is all about. It isn't. Golfers who are playing to play great love a great drive more than they fear the rough. They like making putts more than they care about three-putting. They love chipping it in more than they loathe not getting up and down. But they may have a conservative strategy for certain holes. The conservative strategy is what permits them to always make a confident, even cocky swing. When the moment is right, when they've got a scoring club in their hands, they take dead aim at the hole. But only when the moment is right.

Why don't you evaluate how you're playing?

If your mind is truly in the present, you don't evaluate how you're playing, because that would mean you're thinking about the past. You don't judge or critique for the same reason.