I didn't realize how bad I was warming up until I studied—I mean, really studied—how pros do it. And the Masters provided the opportunity to do just that.
The 2025 Masters marked the first time any tournament tracked and made publicly available every ball every player hit during tournament week. It was a godsend for golf nerds, and you can read the stuff I wrote about it here, here, here, and here.
One thing that zooming out and looking at all this data gave me an appreciation for was how structured tour players' practice sessions are. Not necessarily down to the original golf ball (though sometimes it is!) but more generally. Like a washing machine, they kinda go through the same cycles every time. And their game is better for it.
The rest of us can, too. In simplest terms, here's a little checklist to structure your practice a little more like the pros:
1. Literal warm up 🏋️
The first phase of any good range session is the literal warm up phase. Switching on all your key muscles, so they can do what you need them to do.
Most pros do this phase in the gym, that's probably a hair too ambitious for the rest of us. But maybe not! Either way, some tips to nail this phase:
If you do go the gym route, don't be afraid to lift weights. Just do what Rory does: Same weight, but fewer sets than you would usually do.
The ultimate goal is to get your heart pumping, so the blood moves around.
Dynamic stretching is a term you'll hear floating around. Oversimplified, it means moving while stretching. Like a walking lunge, or wall circles. Again, heart pumping, blood moving.
2. Baby wedges 🏌️♂️
You don't need to hit a ton of these—budget somewhere between five and 10 golf balls—but literally every pro started their range session hitting pitch shots. So you should.
The most common starting distance was right around 60 yards, and they worked their way up to about 90 yards over the space of a handful of shots.
It's good for tempo, good for solid contact, and good general 'first golf swing of the day' well-being. You probably think you do this already (I did too!) but once you actually start counting it out, you'll find you're probably skimping on this part.
3. Brush your teeth 🪥
Working on some stuff in your swing? Now is your time. After wedges, budget about 30 percent of your range sessions to the technical stuff. It's boring, but essential, which is why Ludvig Aberg's coach calls this part brushing your teeth.
Slow motion swings are great to include in this phase. Golf swing drills are right at home here, too. Overexaggerate the swing feels—this is the range, not the course. Don't forget about the most boring of the boring stuff: The fundamentals. Don't worry too much about where the golf ball is during this part. This is swing time.
4. Hit shots ↖️↗️
After you've brushed your teeth, it's time to switch off that part of your brain. To get out of golf swing mode, and into play golf mode.
Accept that your technique will be what it will be at this point. It's a work in progress, on the right path. But aside from a few general feels that may carry over, this phase is simple: Pick a target, go through your full pre-shot routine, and hit a shot at that target.
A good best practice here is to change the club you're hitting, or the target you're aiming for, every one or two shots. Three in a row is too many.
5. Ramp up speed 🏎️
Reserve five to 10 balls towards the very end of your range session to amp up the speed with your driver. Think of it as a last step of switching on your golf muscles. More than that and you could get tired; fewer than that wouldn't be enough.
An inexpensive club or ball speed monitor goes a long way here. I've been throwing one down during this phase of my warmups, and come to really like it. If you have a sense of what your average is, you'll be able to account for if you're faster or slower than usual that day.
Ways to adapt 🧑🍳
Finally, while each practice session will have these five things, you can adapt them as needed. A pre-round warm up will probably have a shorter "brushing your teeth" phase. A longer practice session will have a shorter "hit shots" phase. A speed training session will have less of both, but bigger "warm up" and "speed" phases.
Regardless, the basic ingredients stay the same even though the amounts may differ from day to day. And it’s because of this recipe you’ll make your practice work a little harder for you.