The Perfect Golf Pre-Round Stretching Routine

By spending just five minutes doing the following six stretches before you start a round of golf, you’ll be able to gain an edge on your buddies and consistently save a few strokes on those opening holes.

A nice side benefit of this routine is that it will help protect you from injuries as well. Just one caveat before starting this routine: spend about 5 minutes walking before you start doing it. This will help raise your body temperature and avoid some of the damage that can result from stretching cold muscles.

Rotate The Neck

Turn your head to the right, looking as far over your shoulders as possible. Take your left hand and gently push it against the left side of your face. Hold for about 15 seconds, then switch sides.

What this does is stimulate the actual neck movement in a correct swing – left shoulder to chin in your backswing, and right shoulder to chin in your follow-through.

Side Bend

Stand with your feet set shoulder width apart, and raise the right arm above your head. While keeping your knees slightly flexed, lean to your left and move your left hand down the outside of your thigh to just above your need.

You should feel a good stretch (yet comfortable) along the right side of your trunk. Hold for 15 seconds and repeat for the other side. The side bend helps to reduce the risk of muscle strain in your rib cage and trunk.

Shoulder Stretch

Reach across your body and grab the back of your right elbow with your left hand. Pull that arm across your body and under your chin as far as you can and hold. Repeat with the other arm.

This stretch will increase the flexibility in the back of your shoulders. Your left shoulder stretches as you rotate through the shot. Stretching each shoulder will improve your distance.

Chest

Clasp your hands behind your back and raise your arms up and out. Inhale to increase the stretch. This stretches your chest and the front of your shoulders, which improves your overall range of motion.

Forward Bend

Gently bend forward at the waist until you are able to grasp your ankles, bending your knees as necessary. Relax your neck and arms as you slowly bend forward at the hips. Now hold onto your ankles as you slowly straighten out the knees, until you can feel a good stretch in the back of both legs.

Hold this for about 15 seconds, then slowly stand, bending your knees as you straighten your trunk. This will stretch the lower back, which is every golfer’s most injury-prone area, plus the gluteal muscles and the hamstrings.

Trunk Rotation

Standing with your back to a tree or a golf cart, rotate your body to the right so you can grab hold of the tree or cart with both hands without moving your feet. You should be looking over the left shoulder as you stretch.

Increase the tension by pulling yourself around a little further with your hand, and hold for 15 seconds or more, then repeating with the other side. This stimulates the swing by working the sides of the abdomen and the trunk-rotator muscles.

Have You Broke The 100 Yet In Your Golf Game?

According to the National Golf Foundation the average score shot by the 25 million or so American golfers is 102. A mere 10 percent of all players consistently break 100. Only 5 percent break 90, and fewer than 1 percent break 80.

After interviewing hundreds of professional golf schools that have trained hundreds of thousands of golfers over the years, the information comes to the following conclusions:

• In a typical round, golfers who consistently break 100 but fail to shoot lower than 90 hit only four fairways with their tee shots, take 40 putts, and usually don’t make any birdies.

• Golfers who consistently shoot lower than 90 typically hit six fairways with their tee shots, take only 32 putts, and commonly make no more than one birdie during the round.

At first read, that probably doesn’t seem like much of a statistical difference to you. Certainly it’s not a difference so insurmountable that you can’t close the gap. So what is it about the 80s shooters that sets them apart from the 90s shooters?

There Are Two Types Of 80s Shooters

The first type is made up of better-than-average ball-strikers who don’t have the time or inclination to work on their short game or think about course management. They could probably shoot in the 70s if they put their mind to it.

The other type of eighties shooter doesn’t strike the ball much better than the guys who shoot ninety-five every week, but their overall game is enhanced by their deftness at those parts of the game which don’t require as much physical talent. Those things are putting, chipping and sand play, course management, and brain management (keeping tight control over their emotions).

So What Type Of Shooter Are You?

Since you are already at a decent enough level to break 100, we know that you can get the ball airborne and hit it somewhat straight. So as you might have guessed by now, your goal in golf should be to become a better scorer.

The good news is that not only will you shoot lower scores by applying the strategies outlined by our golf tips, you will also start winning those Saturday afternoon bets on the course!

There will be nothing sweeter than sitting in the club with a cold beer while the guy you just took twenty big ones from scratches his head and says, “I don’t understand it. I hit the ball just as good as you do, but you beat me by ten shots. How do you do it?”

The appropriate response: Just shrug your shoulders, and… smile.

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