Focus on this 1 thing during your pre-round warm-up, says top instructor

If you count yourself among those golfers who stride directly from the parking lot to the first tee, I can relate. Once my competitive playing days were over, I never took warm-ups seriously.

And I paid for it, too — usually in the form of a few rough opening holes before finally getting into the groove of the round. The benefits of warming up seem pretty obvious: preparing your body to play your best golf right off the bat should be reason enough for dedicate some pre-round time to hitting balls and rolling a few putts. But according to GOLF Top 100 Teacher Lou Guzzi, it may be time to change my ways — and perhaps yours too! — because there’s even more value to be found in a pre-round warm-up: identifying your swing pattern on a given day, and rolling with it on the course.

“A big piece of advice I could give to folks is, when you warm up, a lot of people are stuck on this ball flight that they have to have,” Guzzi told me at GOLF’s recent Top 100 Teacher Retreat in Scottsdale, Ariz. “‘I’ve got to hit my soft-draw driver.’ And I’m like, look, we’re human beings. We feel different every day. When I go to the range and I warm up, I’m just looking for a smooth swing, good tempo, hit the clubface as best you can. And what’s my pattern for the day?

“Perfect golf is knowing your pattern for the day and then playing it, not trying to force your shot,” Guzzi continued. “Because you’re not gonna always have your shot. I can have a five-yard fade one day with a driver and a 15-yard fade the next day with a driver and I’ll play it. It’s great. As long as it’s fading 10 to 15 yards consistently, that’s what I’m going to play today. And sometimes it even draws, which boggles my mind. But it’s like, ‘I’ll play the draw today,’ and you just adjust.”

Instruction

Guzzi says not warming up before playing a round is doing yourself a serious disservice. And it doesn’t have to be an extended session — a half-hour does the trick just fine.

“I need that 30-40 minute warm-up between the range and putting and then getting yourself relaxed,” Guzzi said. “And I use that time to obviously warm up, see what my ball flight was for the day, feel my putting stroke and get that stabilized, and then just have that five or 10 minutes to just breathe and try to get your body as relaxed as possible before you tee off.”

So, the next time you schedule a round, make sure to work in that extra bit of time to spend on the range and putting green before teeing off.

“That way,” said Guzzi, “you know, you’re going to the first tee as prepared as you can be.”

Warm-ups: good for the body, good for the round.