Qualified PGA Teaching Professional

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Warming up

Every golfer should have some sort of a warm-up routine.  I am not one who advocates a long, tedious routine before teeing off, but I do believe that the warm-up is important.

I have a pet understanding about hitting a good recovery on one of the early holes. I always think that brings me luck and some of my best rounds have followed a good approach shot, bunker shot or par saving putt on the early holes.

There is one particular thought which occurs to me from my early junior amateur days. Pryor to hitting off I would practice long putts from one club-length off the putting surface. My thinking here was that on the first few holes I might be a bit nervous and this could lead to not hitting my irons their normal length. As a result I would be faced with a long shot from just off the green to a pin placement at the back of the green. My earlier practice gave me confidence that I could run the ball easily to points within a metre of the hole. I remember using this preparation particularly for pennant matches. I played my final year in junior pennant undefeated. I owe much of this success to this secret weapon.

My warm-up as a professional took on a fuller approach. Firstly I hit some 5ir short shots roughly 40 to 50 m along the ground and in a defined direction. Next using a 4ir, shots are played to carry beyond the 5ir shots. If I was happy with those I would grab for the 3ir and increase the swing length to play shots beyond the 4ir range. I am only warming up and not playing near full strength.

By playing 3 consecutive good shots I would progress to the next range and club. If not I would go back to the previous. Next would be a fairway wood, then the driver. Again If I did not hit the ball on the chosen line two times, I returned to the previous. The point to this exercise is that it gave me a report on my ability on the day. For instance in form I was hitting drives by 12 shots. If I was struggling I may not be near hitting the driver after 30 shots. I would finish off with some high pitch shots and then go to the putting green. All going well this would be timed to then move smoothly to the tee off.

At that time I found that if I was hitting my long irons well I was playing all clubs well. My warm-up reflected this and effectively had me playing the long irons within 10 shots. A shortened version of this warm-up could always be done in the practice nets.