Joe Ferguson from Golf Monthly shares 7 common mistakes people make before a round of golf.
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00:00I think it would be fair to say golf is a tough enough sport without ruining your round before 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 them.
00:15Okay, so the first part of poor preparation for golf is a particular bugbear in mind. As a gear writer, someone who deals with equipment all
00:22the time,
00:23preparing your equipment badly is the cardinal sin for me.
00:26The first up on that would be just not cleaning your clubs. Having your
00:30grooves 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.
00:36So make sure you turn up with clean clubs and at very least have a towel so you can do it at the course.
00:43Second equipment error I see all the time when playing them, which is turning up with not enough equipment. And the equipment
00:48I'm talking about here is things like tees,
00:51pencils, pitchmark repairers, balls, and even a nice fresh glove.
00:55You see a lot of people turn it up with gloves that very much look like they're on their last legs, with big holes all
01:01over them. So at least get a fresh glove so you feel good starting the rounds. And
01:05finally, the final thing I see in equipment all the time is people turning up with low batteries on their lasers.
01:12The amount of times I see someone on the 15th or 16th hole clicking away, desperately trying to get a yardage,
01:17but their battery's gone. Make sure you've got a spare one in the bag.
01:21And if you're a GPS guy, make sure that GPS is charged up before you play.
01:32Okay, so another mistake I see in preparation happens exactly now. We've come to the driving range,
01:37we're going to loosen up to hit some balls,
01:39but I see people just put their balls down, grab a club and start hitting away.
01:44And 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. You're coming out cold, your muscles aren't ready to make the twisting motion
01:53that's involved in golf. So it's important to do a few little stretches,
01:57dynamic stretches as well, just to get your body moving and ready to do what is quite a complex movement.
02:03Now, 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,
02:08even watching a YouTube of Miguel Ángel Jiménez's warm-up, something like that, or consult a professional
02:14and have a proper physical screening to see what you need to warm up specifically.
02:18But it's absolutely critical for injury and performance to make sure you do some stretches before you start hitting shots.
02:26Okay, so another bit of poor preparation that I see a lot comes on the putting green. If people visit the putting green at all,
02:32I often see mindlessly hitting mid-range putts and 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. I want to see that ball go in and if you're just hitting
02:4515 and 20 foot putts at various targets,
02:48you're getting a little something from it,
02:50but you're not going to see the ball go in an awful lot and we want to build that confidence.
02:54So I like to set up a little drill. I use my putter, put that in the hole,
02:57grab a little T-peg and that measures me at about three feet.
03:02Then I'll just simply spend some time hitting some putts from that three-foot range and just knocking them towards the hole,
03:10seeing the ball go in and building confidence from there.
03:15The more you see that ball go in, the more you're hearing that sound,
03:18you're feeding your computer with good vibes and that's great for your confidence during the day.
03:23Second part of this, again, I'm not even going to use a hole for this bit.
03:28I want to start feeding my computer and my brain with some knowledge of the pace of these greens.
03:34So I take my three balls, I 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
03:46and trying to get the ball stopping just on the fringe line and take it from there.
03:52Just pretty much on the fringe cut.
03:56Pretty good, so it probably just ran into the fringe cut a little bit there,
03:59so now I know I need to take a little bit off.
04:04That's just more gently approaching the fringe.
04:07A couple of inches short, but you get the idea.
04:10So I've got a really good idea of speed now.
04:13Now what I would do is turn around and go from that fringe to this fringe
04:16because it's a little bit more downhill and I've got some really good information
04:20I can take with me for the day and I'm better prepared to hold putts.
04:24So another big mistake I see about preparing for a round of golf is ignoring the short game.
04:29Those who do warm up at all tend to go and hit some longer shots
04:32and might chuck a couple of balls down on the putting green.
04:35But these shots, your pitches, your chip shots, they're the ones that require some real finesse
04:40and ignoring, warming up those kind of smaller muscles that control the real precision elements of your game,
04:46I think is fatal.
04:47So it's always for me important, if you've got the facility,
04:50I mean I've got a great chipping facility here at Santa de Sara, don't get me wrong,
04:54some people don't have that benefit.
04:56But you can always find a little area off the course, just a piece of grass,
04:59say half a dozen chip shots, get the feeling of the ball on the club face,
05:03seeing some flights, seeing how far they're going over 20, 30 yards.
05:07It's really important to warm your feels up.
05:10So I would just come to the chipping green, I would just hit a few little pitches
05:16to various targets and just start to get a feel of how it's reacting on the green,
05:20if the green's good.
05:22Go to that white one now.
05:25Hit some different length shots, some various trajectories, get it rolling out a little bit more.
05:31And you can really start to refine your feel over these shots.
05:36So when you get out on the golf course,
05:38you're not going to have any big surprises of a chip shooting out of your hands
05:42because you've warmed up those refined muscles.
05:44Don't ignore the short game, get your scores lower.
05:48So another part of poor preparation that I see is a bit of a mental mistake.
05:52Those of us who are diligent enough to come to the driving range to warm up and hit some shots,
05:57I can often see a lot of panic taking place on driving range before the rounds.
06:01If you're hitting bad shots, that can often put people off.
06:04But what you've got to remember is this is not a practice session.
06:07This is a warm-up. And what does a warm-up mean?
06:09We want to warm our muscles up and get loose for the round of golf.
06:13So we're just going to simply hit a few shots away.
06:19And we're just observing what's coming out.
06:21And it's more of a physical exercise. We're not practicing certain shots.
06:24We've done our practice, or we should have done, before we arrived to warm up for that particular day.
06:29And if you hit a load of bad shots during practice, don't worry.
06:32Some of my best round of golf have come after a really bad warm-up.
06:36Sometimes it's handy. It can lower your expectations and you just go and play.
06:40Conversely, some of my worst round of golf have come with a great warm-up.
06:43So in my experience, there's not a great correlation between the two.
06:47So if you're warming up, just warm up. Don't practice.
06:50And if you're hitting some bad shots, don't panic.
06:53Okay, now be honest. How often have you been in this situation?
06:57You get round to the 13th, 14th, 15th hole, you're a bit hungry,
07:01and you reach into your bag and you've got no food.
07:04Or even worse, you're thirsty and you haven't got any water.
07:08It's not just your mood that's going to suffer, it's your thought process.
07:11We need to be fuelled so we make good decisions, so your brain's working optimally.
07:15If you haven't got that food in your body and you haven't got that energy,
07:18your thought process will suffer and your scores will suffer over the last few holes.
07:22So number one, it's really important to be fuelled before the round.
07:25I'm not talking a big, greasy, full English breakfast.
07:28Some 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,
07:37fruits, things like trail mix and nuts and beef jerky
07:41are really, really good sources of energy that will keep you hydrated,
07:45keep you fuelled for the round, keep that brain working well,
07:48and make you finish your round strong. Prepare well.
07:52Okay, so there's a few things you can do to prevent poor performance
07:55and poor preparation from a strategy standpoint.
07:58Even if you're playing your home golf course and you think you know the back of your hand,
08:02a lot of courses, the entrances, you might drive through some of the holes on the course.
08:06So it can be really useful to have a look around and take some information in,
08:10particularly pin positions. You can call upon that information later on in the round
08:14and that might help inform your decision around club selection.
08:18Another little tip I always like to use, particularly if I'm playing on a tree-lined golf course,
08:22it can be really difficult to pick out the wind because the trees can block it.
08:26So I like to find a course map. You can get these quite often on the back of the cards
08:30or on a stroke saver, and either get to a high point of the course,
08:34find out what the wind is doing, and then mark that direction on the course map.
08:39You can also use one of the weather apps to do that.
08:41It'll tell you the exact direction the wind is coming from.
08:44Get that prepared on your course plan or your card,
08:47and you can refer back to that using the orientation of the hole
08:50and the direction of the wind if you're stuck out in the course.
08:53And that can really help you save shots as part of avoiding poor preparation.