7 Mistakes I See Golfers Make While Warming Up Before Their Round

I know you’ve been here before.

You look forward to your tee time. You have the best of intentions to play well. Maybe your warm-up session even goes well.

But after a couple of early mistakes, the round quickly goes sideways. Pretty soon, you’re not counting score and just playing for fun.

Even though there’s nothing wrong with that, most golfers are obsessed with getting better. It’s disappointing when a round goes south.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could prepare better so that our rounds don’t go off the rails?

Let’s be honest—most of us are not going to warm up like the pros. We don’t have the time, patience or energy to put that much effort into it.

Having said that, we can still avoid some basic pitfalls that hamper our ability to play well.

Here are seven mistakes golfers make warming up before their round.

1. Taking the range session too seriously

If you listen to most professional golfers, hitting balls before a round is simply a way to loosen up the body.

The quality of the shots might not be perfect but that doesn’t matter too much to them. This isn’t a time to be making dramatic swing adjustments or launch an investigation into why your fade has turned into a slice—you are dancing with the girl you brought.

It’s called a “warm-up session” for a reason. It’s time to get the body moving.

Try not to take each shot too seriously. Some of the greatest rounds ever came after a horrendous warm-up. The opposite is also true. How many times have you hit the ball perfectly on the range and then immediately lost that confidence on the course?

The warm-up simply doesn’t matter that much, other than to loosen your body up for the round.

2. Not hitting lag putts on the practice green

What do you usually see when golfers practice their putting before a round? Maybe they throw down a few balls from about 10 feet and hit the same putt—often to the same hole—on repeat.

But the main benefit of hitting practice putts is to get a sense of the green speed and your own pace. I know a lot of courses have slower or faster practice greens than the actual course but it’s often a decent indication of what you will face.

Speed is not that much of a factor on 10-foot putts. You aren’t learning nearly as much about the speed as you do for a 40-foot putt. And hitting those longer putts also helps you understand your speed control and overall rhythm.

If you only have time for a handful of putts, hit a few lag putts. Try to two-putt them. You are guaranteed to face those scenarios out on the course and this is a great way to acclimate your brain to those conditions.

3. Not aiming at targets on the range

This one drives me crazy.

Golf is a game of accuracy and precision. If you go the range and don’t aim at any targets, you are just hitting into an empty field. A lot of shots look good if you are hitting into an empty field.

While, yes, the results of each shot during the warm-up shouldn’t be taken seriously, you are still trying to gear your mind up for aiming at targets.

Not setting up at targets is the equivalent of a basketball player warming up for a game by practicing his jump shot without a hoop. Sure, you could make the same shooting motion—but the game is about making it in the hoop.

The balance is to get your mind focused on targets while not being judgmental of the result. It’s just a warm-up but looking at targets is a part of that warm-up.

4. Not stretching or loosening up in any way

If you want to play the game well, you have to get your body ready to swing the club.

Period.

A lot of people won’t have time for a full warm-up session. That is totally understandable.

But not having time to stretch at all? That is something you could at least do at home. Maybe you exercise in the morning or go through some basic yoga poses that crack a few bones.

If you forget to stretch at home and don’t have time for a full warm-up (by the way, you should stretch before a warm-up range session anyway), you can at least focus on a few quick stretches in the parking lot or outside the golf shop.

5. Being too disorganized/not having any routine

Even if you show up just 10 minutes before your round, you could still have a routine.

Maybe that routine is to stretch, hit a few lag putts and then head to the first tee. At least it’s a routine. You know what you are doing.

One mistake I see is that golfers are discombobulated when they show up to the course. They don’t have enough golf balls or ball markers or tees or whatever else. Everything is frantic and disorganized.

There is no routine or game plan. And then they still expect to play well!

Have some plan. You could have a plan for getting to the course 10 minutes, 30 minutes or an hour before your tee time. We’re not talking about anything fancy here—it’s just a routine to get you focused.

6. Putting harsh expectations on the round

Here is something I used to tell myself prior to stepping on the first tee: “If I don’t break 80, this round is ruined.”

I would stay mentally engaged until it became obvious that I wasn’t going to break 80.

The problem with that is my expectation was results-based rather than being process-based. Having the ultimatum of shooting in the 70s didn’t help me play better.

Rather than thinking about your potential score as you warm up (or even as you drive to the course), focus on what habits you are going to value.

One example is, “I will take a deep breath after every shot and reassess the next shot with fresh eyes.”

And then you can practice that in your warm-up! Hit a shot, take a deep breath, let the result go and then focus on the next swing.

It’s a way to mentally gather yourself heading into the round. And you can still do that even if you don’t have time to hit balls before you play. Set an intention for the round that you will follow no matter what happens.

7. Paying no attention to nutrition

Nutrition is an important topic that a lot of recreational golfers brush to the side.

However, there is an overwhelming body of evidence that suggests what you eat and when you eat it affects your game—even if you are riding in a cart.

One example is that a “large meal” takes about three to four hours to digest. Playing golf while digesting too much food can decrease your energy level and affect how efficiently the body moves.

That is why you should leave at least three hours between eating a large meal and starting a round of golf. Studies have shown that ingestion of a meal containing 140-330 grams of carbohydrates three to four hours before exercise has enhanced athletic performance. Good examples of large meals to consume around this time include spaghetti with tomato sauce, a chicken sandwich with soup and omelets with toast.

The other side of this is not eating at all prior to playing. That can be even more debilitating.

If you don’t have time for a big meal a few hours prior to the round, then keep it light (fresh fruit, bagel, yogurt, etc.).

You should also eat during the round but that is a conversation for another day.

So those are the seven mistakes I see golfers make during their warm-up. Do you have any others that should be added to the list? Let me know below in the comments.

Top Photo Caption: A golfer practices during the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. (GETTY IMAGES/Andrew Redington)