Golf warm-up drills: a pre-round routine for 5, 15 or 30 minutes

When Fradkin and colleagues watched 1,040 amateur golfers at two courses and a driving range, only 54% warmed up at all, and the usual warm-up was a few practice swings on the tee. These golf warm-up drills take a few minutes more than that, and there’s a version for 5, 15 or 30 minutes depending on when you get to the club.

This is general advice for healthy golfers, not medical advice. If you have pain, an injury or a health condition, see a doctor or physiotherapist before you change how you exercise.

Why move, not stretch

In a small 2004 study of 20 male golfers, half did a golf-specific warm-up before play, five times a week for five weeks. Their clubhead speed went up 24% over the seven weeks of testing, while the matched group who didn’t do it barely changed. In a 2009 study, golfers swung a 5-iron about 1.9 metres per second (around 4 mph) faster after dynamic stretching than after static stretching. They hit the ball faster too, and struck it nearer the middle of the face. A third study that year had golfers do 20 minutes of passive static stretching before hitting drivers. Clubhead speed, distance, accuracy and solid contact all dropped, and the drop was still there, though smaller, an hour later.

A 2019 review of 23 studies came to the same view: dynamic warm-ups tended to help, and static stretching did worse than the other methods and may have hurt performance. On injuries, the studies it found were mixed, so nobody can promise a warm-up will prevent one. What it does do is get you moving before you swing at full speed.

So don’t hold a stretch for 30 seconds. Keep each drill moving, and start small.

The mobility drills

These take about four minutes and you only need a club. Do them in this order, gently at first.

Drill	How	Reps
March and arm circles	March on the spot, swinging your arms in big circles forwards, then backwards	30 seconds
Leg swings	Hold a club or the car for balance and swing one leg forwards and back, then side to side	10 each way, each leg
Walking lunge with a turn	Step into a lunge, turn your chest towards the front knee, then step through	5 each leg
Hip circles	Hands on hips, feet shoulder width apart, slow big circles	8 each way
Turns with a club across the shoulders	Club across the top of your back, get into your golf posture and turn back and through	10 each side
Hip hinge with the club	Hold the club along your spine, hinge from the hips down to your address posture, stand back up	10
Building swings	Two clubs together, or one held by the head: waist-high swings, then shoulder high, then full	5 of each

If something pinches, make the movement smaller. If that doesn’t help, leave it out.

A warm-up for every length of time

5 minutes: car park, no range

Time	What	Detail
0:00 to 3:00	Mobility	A shorter round of the drills: march, leg swings, turns, hinges
3:00 to 4:00	Building swings	5 waist high, 5 shoulder high, 5 full with an iron
4:00 to 5:00	First tee swings	3 practice swings with your first tee club at playing speed, each with your full pre-shot routine

If you have two more minutes and the putting green is on the way, roll three long putts.

15 minutes: a few range balls and the putting green

Time	What	Detail
0:00 to 4:00	Mobility	All the drills in the table
4:00 to 11:00	Range, about 20 balls	5 with a wedge (half swings first), 5 with a 7-iron, 4 with a hybrid or fairway wood, 3 with driver, 3 with your first tee club
11:00 to 15:00	Putting green	6 long putts from 9 to 12 metres (30 to 40 feet) for pace, then 5 from 1 metre (3 feet)

30 minutes: range and putting green

Time	What	Detail
0:00 to 5:00	Mobility	All the drills, slowly
5:00 to 20:00	Range, 30 to 40 balls	8 wedges (half, then three-quarter, then full), 8 with a mid iron, 5 with a long iron or hybrid, 5 with a fairway wood, 6 with driver, then 3 with your first tee club as if you were on the tee
20:00 to 22:00	Chipping, if the club allows it	6 to 8 chips to a hole, picking a landing spot each time
22:00 to 30:00	Putting green	4 minutes of long putts for pace, 2 minutes on putts from 1 to 2 metres, then hole 5 in a row from 1 metre

To fit all this in, get to the club 40 minutes before your tee time. If you’re rushing from the car, use the 15-minute version instead.

The range: in order, and not a lesson

Start with your shortest club. A half swing with a wedge asks the least of your body and makes good contact easiest. Then work up through the bag so your speed builds with the length of the club: wedge, mid iron, long iron or hybrid, wood, driver.

Finish with the club you’ll hit off the first tee, whether that’s driver, a 3-wood or an iron. Hit the last two or three balls exactly as you will on the tee: pick a target, go through your routine, hit one ball and step back. That way your opening shot isn’t the first one all day you’ve played for real.

Pick a target for every ball, a flag or a post rather than the open range. And don’t try to fix your swing an hour before a round. If the ball is going right, allow for it today and work on it in practice. Take one swing cue you trust and use it on every ball. If you keep your swing cues in Golf Journal, read yours on the way to the range.

The putting green: pace first

The speed of the greens changes from course to course and from day to day, and a long first putt that runs well past or stops well short is how three-putts start. So begin with long putts.

1. Long putts. From 9 to 12 metres, roll three balls to the fringe or a tee peg rather than a hole, and try to stop each one within half a metre of it. Do two or three sets from different directions, uphill and downhill.
2. Medium putts. Three or four from 4 to 6 metres to a hole, still thinking about pace.
3. Short putts. Finish from 1 metre and hole a few in a row, so the last thing you see before the first tee is the ball dropping.

For drills to work on putting between rounds, see putting practice at home.

Note what worked

You’ll only know which warm-up suits you if you write down what you did and how you started. After the round, note a line or two:

• How long you warmed up, and which version.
• How the first three holes went, since that’s where a warm-up shows.
• The swing cue you used and whether it held up.
• How the pace of the greens compared with the practice green.
• Anything that felt tight, and which drill helped.

After five or six rounds you may see a pattern, such as better starts after the 15-minute routine, or a rushed first tee shot whenever you skip the putting green. In Golf Journal you can put this in the round’s notes, or log the warm-up as a practice session with the practice timer and keep your swing cues there. How to keep a golf journal covers what else is worth writing down.

For days when you can’t get to the course, how to practise golf at home has drills that use the same mobility moves and swing cues.