Now that you have had the winter to practice and improve your game, now is the time to put all of your hard work to the test. I’m sure you will have had a check up from your coach by now and if not you should do it NOW, it might even give your that confidence boost you are in need of! The basic principles are the most important yet they are the ones we often struggle to get correct, so make sure you are setting yourself up well to the ball and then you can trust your swing and see what happens!

Hopefully now you are set up correctly, you may begin to practice special pre-season training, in the next few weeks – allow yourself to ease into the season but at the same time come up with a routine that suits you! I’m sure you have all heard of Pre-Shot routine, but I’m going to take it a little further and begin with ‘Pre-Game’ routine!

We might as well start at the beginning as that is where your game may be going right or wrong and by the beginning I mean as soon as you get out of bed! Firstly, depending on what time of day you are playing, make sure you are awake at least 2 hours beforehand, i.e. if you are playing at 10am; be up out of your bed by 8am. Your body will take these 2 hours to waken and function properly so give yourself a chance! If you are not playing until the afternoon then this shouldn’t affect you. However, what day to day tasks must you fulfil prior to your game of golf? Are they stressful, does it leave you short of time and you end up rushing to the course and onto the 1st tee? If so then it is likely you won’t begin to play well until well into the game if at all. It would normally take the first few holes for you to settle and if you play poorly in these first few holes you become more stressed and it then spirals put of control! Have you ever been in the situation when you are on the course and you are saying to yourself – "I shouldn’t have bothered coming, there are more important things I could be getting done in this time!" I’m sure it is something you can relate to, and I’m sure ‘common sense’ will tell you that you are unlikely to perform well under such circumstances – yet we still do it! Lastly for your Pre-game routine, make sure you have everything you need, such as fluid and food and a pencil to mark your scorecard – these are little things but they will have an influence on your state of mind prior to play and therefore a big affect on your golf.

What about your Pre-Shot Routine? Everyone has one but whether or not they are aware is a different matter. I would like you to think about what your pre-shot routine is for a moment, starting from the moment you get to the ball until you strike it, write your routine down in order and the next time you are out on the golf course, playing a friendly, have a check at your list and see if you got it right! Amend your list if you have to and the next time I will tell you more about Pre-shot routine and how it can help you to improve your performance!