This pro-pro-approved warm-up is the perfect way to ease into the round

Whether you have a habit of warming up or not, every golfer should stretch and relax before playing a round. Now, does that always happen? Probably not, as many of us (myself included) tend to run late tee times and don’t take the proper time to dial in our bodies and minds before teeing off.

But if you want to do well in the exam, you need to study, right? So treat the golf round the same way.

To help, GOLF 100 Chief Instructor Jamie Mulligan offers his favorite warm-up routine, and walks former LPGA champion Veronica Felibert through the steps she’ll use to get ready for the upcoming round.

The video below explains it all.

A senior instructor shares his favorite golf warm-up routine

As most of us know, many novice golfers just go to the practice range before a round and try to bomb their driver or hit a bunch of balls mindlessly on the range. But none of that is particularly helpful in preparing for 18 holes, so Mulligan and Feilbert say you have to be serious about your warm-up routine.

Here’s what Mulligan suggests you do before your next cycle.

Use a short iron

Mulligan begins the warm-up routine with Felibert using a short iron and just taking some easy practice swings.

“We have a short iron, and I want you to do some slow practice swings for me,” ordered Felibert. “Just open the club up, let it drop, and let your body go with it.”

This warm-up not only helps loosen up your body — but helps slow down your sequence, Mulligan says, which is an anti-speed workout — which is what many players want when they’re in the driving range.

“Everybody wants to make more speed in the golf swing, but you have to follow through in order to do it,” he adds.

As Felibert hits some balls, Mulligan reminds him to stay “quiet” all the way through his swing, and to slow down on his follow through.

“Make it a little quieter and smoother, let the ball come in naturally when you’re making it,” he said.

Keep your head still

While most golfers don’t think about balancing a water bottle on their head during the swing (and they should), Mulligan says the visual can help during your warm-up.

He then walks off and puts a bottle of water on Felibert’s head to help make his point.

“Imagine you have a bottle of water on your head and you don’t want to spill anything,” he said.

She then asks Feilbert to swing her, keeping everything smooth and still, with her body moving naturally all the way.

“What I love most about this warm-up is taking it to another level,” he adds. So now make the ‘water’ even quieter as you swing. It should almost feel lazy.”

Use 3 golf balls to ‘keep going’

In this drill, Mulligan has Felibert hit three golf balls, but he does it for one purpose: To control his distance by changing his backswing.

Felibert lines up three balls on the practice mat, and Mulligan explains how he sees the length of his backswing before hitting each one.

“I think of this as a clock, with [her taking the club back to] 9 o’clock, 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock and then 12 o’clock,” he explained.

The goal is to hit all three balls with the same speed, power and tempo at different “times” on the clock, which helps you dial in your swing and control distance — all without using much effort.

This is a great pattern to practice, which Mulligan thinks is “how our brain learns.”

Try the kick-start drill

Mulligan says everyone needs to change the pivot or shoulder to get the club back, so he suggests using the kick-start drill – which helps loosen up the area between the hips and upper body.

Using a different golf club, Mulligan helps Felibert start the backswing, pulling his lead shoulder back as if he were the first.

“I use this kick-start drill by just turning it [upper body] and letting him turn around,” he explained. “That sounds like it [she] he didn’t do anything.”

Mulligan then combines this drill with the idea of ​​a water bottle sitting on his head, emphasizing the need to stay on tempo and not move all the way through the swing.

Finally, you can launch the driver

We’ve come all this way and we don’t have to use a driver – but don’t worry, because it’s finally time to let the big dog eat.

So Mulligan says this is about dialing your aim off the tee, making sure you know exactly where you want the ball to land as you look for the fairways.

“Once you get the driver out and it’s almost the end of the warm-up, I like the idea of ​​getting the stick down there at your feet,” Mulligan said. “Now you’re going to take everything we’ve done in the warm-up and go as good as you can, let the ball hit with your swing.”

While using your driver here, the goal is not to gain swing speed or increase distance during the warm-up. Rather, it’s to ensure you’re on target and properly aligned, which you should be able to replicate throughout your cycle.

Finally, Mulligan says this is the type of warm-up he would use with a top player – and a top teacher working with the likes of Patrick Cantlay and Nelly Korda.

“This will be a warm-up we can go through and it will be similar to what I see from many Tour players,” he adds. “So the first thing you do is make your body light and relaxed, and then try to find a little mantra to make your movement – which is, in this case, to sit tall and let the club fall to the ground.”