There's almost no rhyme or reason for how amateur golfers practice and warm up. I'm guilty of it. I'll grab a random collection of clubs, rifle through golf balls, then wonder why my swing feels strange on the first tee.
Somewhere along the way I started wondering: What do pros do?
Well, thanks to the PGA Tour tracking range data from every player during all its signature events this season—more than 250,000 shots in all—we can find out.
I wrote about some of the broader insights right here, but as far as specifics go, these are some of the exact recipes that players use, according to their own averages.
We've used amateur golfers' driving distance data so you can scale them to your own game. I unpacked it more in the latest episode of Golf IQ, which you can listen to below (and subscribe to here).
One quick note...
Basically every player starts their warm-up sessions in the gym, with a 30-60 minute active warm-up session. Some light cardio, explosive lifting, and active stretching of the key muscles.
It's true to say that pros are already warmed up by the time they get to the range, but we're not going to tackle that piece here. Just their pre-round range session.
The Baseline warm-up
This is the average of all tour pros in the dataset from this season. The key insights here: 50 balls in all, one every 45 seconds (slower than you probably hit them) and as many wedges as drivers.
The Scottie warm-up
Scottie is interesting because more than half his shots are hit with the bottom half of his bag. He starts and ends with them.
The Fast warm-up
No golfer hits golf balls faster than Chris Gotterup. If you like to hit lots of range balls quickly, this is the recipe he uses.
The Slow warm-up
On the other end of the spectrum is Aaron Rai. Nobody practices slower than Rai. He hits a ball a minute, and about five shots per distance bucket.
The Wedge Lover's warm-up
Hideki Matsuyama hits more wedges than any other player on tour, and far more short wedges than anyone. He effectively starts his range sessions with chip shots.
The Ladder warm-up
Most golfers ladder up through their bag, but no golfer's ladder is more ladder-y than Alex Smalley's. Starts small, and no comedown at the end: driver is the last club he hits.
The Grinder's warm-up
Patrick Cantlay hits more golf balls than any other player during his warm-ups. If you like longer range sessions pre-round, here's how he does it.
