Australia’s winter months can be a very tough time for both golfers and golf coaches.
For a golfer, their bodies become inflexible and cold hands struggle to hold on to the club for dear life! It’s tough as well as frustrating for coaches as they watch their students struggling to get their ‘golfing muscles’ moving.
As a result, once the cold weather comes, many golfers will place their sets of clubs in a closet and won’t take them out again until it starts getting warmer. If you’re serious about your golf, you know it doesn’t have to be this way – so here are a couple of options for you.
GO SOMEWHERE WARMER
Not all of Australia is gripped by cold conditions, so why don’t you go indulge yourself in the Whitsundays and play the amazing Hamilton Island Golf Club whilst enjoying the luxurious accommodation of Qualia?
The Gold Coast well known for it’s all year round good weather has some of the best golf courses as well. Royal Pines, The Glades, Brookwater, Sanctuary Cove and Southport are all stand outs.
WARM UP PROPERLY
If you are going to stay local, make sure you warm up the right parts of your body. I’m not saying that you need to start getting your “beach body” prepared and hit the gym hard, but begin by performing basic squats and lunges, and get your body rotating. If your core muscles are firing, your golf is bound to get a lot better.
FIXING SOME COMMON BAD SHOTS OF WINTER GOLF
Golfers that are cold and tight struggle to coil properly. Instead of winding the upper body against a stable and quiet lower body, they tend to sway off the ball and lift their arms like they’re chopping wood. This makes it hard to hit solid shots with consistency.
The fix? Do some knee rolls to warm up and loosen up. Knee rolls are a simple exercise of lying flat on your back, bring your knees up at 90 degrees and slowly rotate them from left to right whilst keeping your back flat can help stabilize your upper body whilst keeping your hips mobile.
During winter, the pelvis muscles become ineffective as downswing initiators. The lower body should turn towards the target before any upper-body or club movement in that direction. If it doesn’t, the result is a poor swing path and off-line shots.
The fix? The best exercises for the lower body are your squats, lunges and stretching/lengthening hip flexors. These will help ensure your lower body is ready to lead into that turn so that your club can follow smoothly.
This article was written by Bobby Walia and first published in the Australian Business Traveller (July 2018).
