Welcome to Road Rules, a GOLF.com series in which we pick the brains of expert golf travelers, ranging from professional golfers and caddies to globetrotting course raters and teachers. We’ll unlock their must-have travel items, go-to airline tips and more to inform you for your next golf excursion.
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Professional golfers are jet setters by trade. One week, they’re playing stateside and the next they’re competing on the opposite side of the globe. It’s a perk of the job getting to see so many parts of the world, but it can also take a toll on their bodies.
While modern air travel has connected the world more than ever before, it can also present some challenges for athletes trying to compete at the highest level each week. Sitting on a plane for 12+ hours is stressful on the body, and that’s before taking jet lag into consideration.
For the domestic travelers reading his, jet lag is the phenomenon that occurs when traveling across many time zones at a time. While the clocks at your destination might show that it’s the middle of the night, your body clock is still adjusted to your jumping-off point.
How to play good golf after a long flight, according to a major winner
This lack of synchronization between your body and the clocks might not be a huge deal when the only thing on your daily agenda is shopping and tourist attractions, but for athletes prepping to compete, it can be bothersome.
Luckily for pro athletes — golfers especially — they become somewhat experts on the best ways to combat jet lag in their years crisscrossing the globe. According to LPGA star Lydia Ko, the remedy is simple.
“Just sleep,” Ko said at last week’s Pelican Women’s Championship. “My trick is sometimes — obviously I don’t do it when I have a tournament the week after — but I will not sleep the night before so that I am very, very tired on the plane so I sleep the whole flight.”
Ko said that she’s become quite good at this technique. So good, in fact, that it will sometimes worry the flight attendants on her trans-continental flights.
Split image of lpga pro lydia ko at golf tournament and an airplane flying away”Sometimes the flight attendants ask me if I’m okay because they’re worried I’m sick because I’ve slept through a 15-hour flight,” she said. “To all the flight attendants out there, I’m the most probably low-key, hands-off, hands-free passenger on board.”
If you’ve got a flight around the world soon, take a page out of Ko’s book and pull an all-nighter beforehand. It should allow you to get some Zs on the plane and wake up refreshed and ready to go by the time the plane touches down at your destination.