There are a lot of factors that we deal with in the game of golf that are outside of our control: weather changing mid round, less than ideal course conditions, challenging playing partners or slow play, etc.

Fortunately, one aspect that is always in your control is your personal nutrition and hydration levels when teeing it up.  It is vital for performance and focus to ensure you have appropriate calories and water intake both before and during your round. Below are some key points to help you stay present and sharp during your golf practice and play.

• Eat a sound meal prior to starting your activities. It doesn’t have to be a large meal but consuming some quality calories, such as some scrambled eggs or avocado on toast, is a great way to fuel up prior to playing. Research has shown that eating a meal approximately 2 hours prior to activity will allow your body to digest, breakdown, and then use those nutrients for fuel for your golf activities.

• Start hydrating before you get to the golf course. Being aware of your hydration levels, especially on warm days, can be crucial in maintaining focus and mobility during a round of golf. Drinking a glass or two of water prior to drinking morning coffee can also help with establishing and maintaining proper hydration throughout the day.

• A solid rule of thumb for hydration: drink 50% of your body weight in ounces of water for general daily hydration, drink closer to 75% of your body weight when in warm or extreme conditions, such as in the summer or when working out. For example, if you weigh 200 lbs, about 100-150 oz of water would be a good number to shoot for on a daily basis (i.e. a gallon of water is 128 oz).

• When choosing your water, do your best to select spring water or water that still has minerals in it, compared to distilled water. Though it may seem contradictory, we want to have minerals or electrolytes in our water supply to help with water absorption and help replenish the salts we lose during sweating. You can simply add a small pinch of sea salt to your water to ensure you are getting some minerals and promoting hydration levels.

• Eating light snacks pre-round and during your round of golf. Shoot to eat something simple like a banana or apple for simple sugars and carbohydrates or some mixed nuts to get protein, fiber, and light salts (salts/electrolytes will help with your water absorption as well).

• Do your best to avoid processed snacks or high sugar options as they can upset your ability to stay calm and focused. These “cheap fuel sources” can invoke further hunger cravings as they are fast burning and more unstable calories.

• Pay attention to your hunger cravings and learn from your past experiences. Ensuring you have fuel in your body prior to your round could help with hitting peak performance levels when it counts. Have you noticed you tend to start off a round great but overtime your performance and energy levels fall out on the second 9? If so, make sure to consume a light snack around hole 7 or 8 to feel confident to make it through the round with maintained focus and energy.

Understanding your game and performance tendencies can be a huge addition to your overall success on the course.

Matt McKay is a Golf Fitness Professional with a BS in Kinesiology from Purdue University. He is a Titleist Performance Institute certified instructor and a certified Golf Performance Specialist through the CHEK Institute. Matt has been a certified personal trainer through the American College of Sports Medicine since 2012. He has completed the Golf Specific Exercise I course with Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization as well as completing ELDOA Level 1 course. He is KVEST Level 3 certified.

Matt’s training style focuses on first building the student’s personal awareness and education levels followed by corrective exercise programming based upon the needs of both the student
and their instructor. Working directly with our Golf Instructors has created a great team aspect allowing our students to improve in a more efficient manner.