Pre-Round Mistakes Golfers Make

Golf Monthly

Joe Ferguson from Golf Monthly shares 7 common mistakes people make before a round of golf.

Transcript

00:00I think it would be fair to say golf is a tough enough sport without ruining your round

00:03before you've even gotten started.

00:05So let's head out to Madeira.

00:06I'm going to show you some of the most common pre-round mistakes that I see and how to fix

00:10them.

00:11Okay, so the first part of poor preparation for golf is a particular bug bear in mind.

00:19As a gear writer, someone who deals with equipment all the time, preparing your equipment badly

00:24is the cardinal sin for me.

00:27First up on that would be just not cleaning your clubs.

00:29Then your grooves full of mud will affect not only your spin and your launch conditions,

00:34but it'll have an effect on your distance and consistency.

00:37Make sure you turn up with clean clubs and at very least have a towel so you can do it

00:41at the course.

00:43Second equipment error I see all the time when playing them, which is turning up with not

00:47enough equipment.

00:48The equipment I'm talking about here is things like tees, pencils, pitch mark repairers, balls,

00:54and even a nice fresh glove.

00:55You see a lot of people turning up with gloves that very much look like they're on their

00:59last legs, the big holes all over them, so at least get a fresh glove so you feel good

01:03starting the rounds.

01:05Finally, the final thing I see in equipment all the time is people turning up with low

01:10batteries on their lasers.

01:12The amount of times I see someone on the 15th or 16th hole clicking away, desperately trying

01:16to get a yardage, but their battery's gone, make sure you've got a spare one in the bag.

01:21If you're a GPS guy, make sure that GPS is charged up before you play.

01:25Okay, so another mistake I see in preparation happens exactly now.

01:36We've come to the driving range, we're going to loosen up to hit some balls, but I see people

01:40just put their balls down, grab a club, and start hitting away.

01:43And not only is that going to affect your performance, your body's not ready to move in that way.

01:47You've got a real danger of injury there.

01:49You're coming out cold.

01:50Your muscles aren't ready to make the twisting motion that's involved in golf, so it's important

01:55to do a few little stretches, dynamic stretches as well, just to get your body moving and

01:59ready to do what is quite a complex movement.

02:02Now, I'm not going to bother showing you any stretches here because I'm not a professional,

02:06so I'd recommend doing some research online, even watching a YouTube of Miguel Angel Jimenez's

02:11warm-up, something like that, or consult a professional and have a proper physical screening to see

02:16what you need to warm up specifically.

02:18But it's absolutely critical for injury and performance to make sure you do some stretches

02:23before you start hitting shots.

02:26Okay, so another bit of poor preparation that I see a lot comes on the putting green.

02:31If people visit the putting green at all, I often see mindlessly hitting mid-range putts

02:35and not really getting the information they need.

02:38So in terms of putting warm-up, for me, I like to split it into two categories.

02:41Number one, I want to start building some confidence.

02:43I want to see that ball go in.

02:45If you're just hitting 15 and 20-foot putts at various targets, you're getting a little

02:49something from it, but you're not going to see the ball go in an awful lot, and we want

02:53to build that confidence.

02:54So I like to set up a little drill.

02:55I use my putter, put that in the hole, grab a little T-peg, and that measures me at about

03:00three feet.

03:02Then, I'll just simply spend some time hitting some putts from that three-foot range and

03:09just knocking them towards the hole, seeing the ball go in, and building confidence from

03:16there.

03:17The more you see that ball go in, the more you're hearing that sound, you're feeding

03:20your computer with good vibes, and that's great for your confidence during the day.

03:25Second part of this, again, I'm not even going to use a hole for this bit.

03:29I want to start feeding my computer and my brain with some knowledge of the pace of these

03:33greens.

03:34So I'll take my three balls, I'll find a long putt, and I just aim for the fringe.

03:42It can be from 40 feet, 50 feet, 60 feet, but I'm just going to keep repeating and trying

03:47to get the ball stopping just on the fringe line and take it from there.

03:54It's pretty much on the fringe cut.

03:58Pretty good, so probably just run into the fringe cut a little bit there, so now I know

04:01I need to take a little bit off.

04:06That's just more gently approaching the fringe, a couple of inches short, but you get the idea.

04:12So I've got a really good idea of speed now.

04:14Now, what I would do is turn around and go from that fringe to this fringe because it's

04:18a little bit more downhill.

04:19I've got some really good information I can take with me for the day, and I'm better prepared

04:23to hold putts.

04:25Another big mistake I see about preparing for a round of golf is ignoring the short game.

04:30Those who do warm up at all tend to go and hit some longer shots and might chuck a couple

04:33of balls down on the putting green.

04:36These shots, your pitches, your chip shots, they're the ones that require some real finesse,

04:41and ignoring warming up those smaller muscles that control the real precision elements of your

04:46game, I think is fatal, so it's always, for me, important.

04:50If you've got the facility, I mean, I've got a great chipping facility here at Santa

04:53De Serra, don't get me wrong.

04:55Some people don't have that benefit, but you can always find a little area off the course,

04:59just a piece of grass, say half a dozen chip shots, get the feeling of the ball on the

05:03club base, seeing some flights, seeing how far they're going over 20, 30 yards.

05:08It's really important to warm your feels up.

05:11I would just come to the chipping green, I would just hit a few little pitches to various

05:17targets and just start to get a feel of how it's reacting on the green, if the green's

05:22good.

05:23Go to that white one now, hit some different length shots, some vary the trajectory, get

05:29it rolling out a little bit more, and you can really start to refine your feel over these

05:34shots.

05:37When you get out on the golf course, you're not going to have any big surprises of a

05:41chip shooting out of your hands because you've warmed up those refined muscles.

05:45Don't ignore the short game, get your scores lower.

05:49Another part of poor preparation that I see is a bit of a mental mistake.

05:53Those of us who are diligent enough to come to the driving range to warm up and hit some

05:56shots, I can often see a lot of panic taking place on driving range before the rounds.

06:02If you're hitting bad shots, that can often put people off.

06:04What you've got to remember is this is not a practice session.

06:08This is a warm up.

06:09What does a warm up mean?

06:10We want to warm our muscles up and get loose for the round of golf.

06:13We're just going to simply hit a few shots away and we're just observing what's coming

06:21out.

06:22It's more of a physical exercise.

06:23We're not practicing certain shots.

06:25We've done our practice or we should have done before we arrived to warm up for that particular

06:29day.

06:30If you hit a load of bad shots during practice, don't worry.

06:33Some of my best round of golf have come after a really bad warm up.

06:37It's handy.

06:39It can lower your expectations and you just go and play.

06:40Conversely, some of my worst round of golfs have come with a great warm up.

06:44In my experience, there's not a great correlation between the two.

06:48If you're warming up, just warm up.

06:50Don't practice.

06:51If you're hitting some bad shots, don't panic.

06:53Be honest.

06:54How often have you been in this situation?

06:57You get round to the 13th, 14th, 15th hole.

07:01You're a bit hungry and you reach into your bag and you've got no food or even worse, you're

07:06thirsty and you haven't got any water.

07:08It's not just your mood that's going to suffer.

07:10It's your thought process.

07:11We need to be fueled so we make good decisions, so your brain's working optimally.

07:16If you haven't got that food in your body and you haven't got that energy, your thought

07:19process will suffer and your scores will suffer over the last few holes.

07:23Number one, it's really important to be fueled before the round.

07:25I'm not talking a big, greasy, full English breakfast.

07:29Some good, healthy, slow-release carbohydrates will set you up well for a good round.

07:33In terms of preparation for the round, make sure you've got plenty of water in your bags.

07:38Fruits, things like trail mix and nuts and beef jerky are really, really good sources

07:43of energy that will keep you hydrated, keep you fueled for the round and keep that brain

07:48working well and make you finish your round strong.

07:51Prepare well.

07:52Okay, so there's a few things you can do to prevent poor performance and poor preparation

07:57from a strategy standpoint.

07:59Even if you're playing your home golf course and you think you know like the back of your

08:02hand, a lot of courses, the entrances, you might drive through some of the holes on

08:07the course.

08:08So it can be really useful to have a look around and take some information in, particularly

08:12pin positions.

08:13You can call upon that information later on in the round and that might help inform your

08:16decision around club selection.

08:19Another little tip I always like to use, particularly if I'm playing on a tree-lined golf course,

08:23it can be really difficult to pick out the wind because the trees can block it.

08:28So I like to find a course map.

08:29You can get these quite often on the back of the cards or on a stroke saver and either get

08:34to a high point of course, find out what the wind is doing and then mark that direction

08:39on the course map.

08:40You can also use one of the weather apps to do that.

08:42It'll tell you the exact direction the wind is coming from.

08:45Get that prepared on your course planner or your card and you can refer back to that using

08:50the orientation of the hole and the direction of the wind if you're stuck out on the course.

08:54And that can really help you save shots as part of avoiding poor preparation.

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