It's time to TEE OFF!
How best to prep for your tee time after being off the greens for so long – 8 things to do to sharpen your gear and to make the countdown timer tick faster. Learn more.
Singapore just announced yesterday that we'll be able to play golf this weekend!
All around the world things are starting to open up...
It's been months since our last round of golf, and everything's feeling a little tight and rusty.
So now’s the best time to prep your golf gear before we’re all let out onto the greens for our tee time soon.
How do you best prepare for your first golf game after being off our beloved greens for so long?
The simple answer is to show your equipment some love and this will multiply back unto you on the golf course!
Here’s 8 things we can all do during this preparatory period:
1) Prep For Tee Time - Clean Our Clubs
Many of us don’t clean our golf clubs well.
Take the opportunity to wash off the mud and dirt gathered in the grooves or face of our clubs. You’ll be surprised that such gunk can negatively affect the start direction of your shots, the carry distance and also the spin you generate.
We can thoroughly clean our clubs by using a gentle wire brush to get the dirt out of the grooves, then give them a thorough wipe with a cloth and warm soapy water.
Be sure to dry them thoroughly as well, I like to wipe them down with a dry cloth before air drying them, so that there’s no moisture remaining that will cause rust.
Once we’ve cleaned our clubs…we can’t blame the equipment if we hit a bad shot!
2) Prep For Tee Time - Clean The Grips
An alternative to changing our golf grips, is to clean them.
The grips have tiny little channels for the frictional grip we need when we hold them to golf.
This would sound obvious, but they also gather sweat and grime, and will reduce the amount of grip we get from them over time.
In this instance, we use a cloth and warm soapy water to give our grips a really thorough scrub all the way around.
Pay particular attention to those tiny channels where we would want to remove all the dirt, dander and whatever else which have gathered in them.
Cleaning the grips would also reinvigorate the rubber of the grip to regain that nice and soft brand new feel, if not entirely then at least partially.
We all love that feeling when we hold a brand new club with a brand new grip – you’ll want to re-enact that feel, like you’ve got really nice control of the club.
3) Prep For Tee Time - Remove Unnecessary Items From Golf Bag
A good number of us tend to stuff what we think we need into our golf bags.
Since the last time we played, from before goodness knows when, our golf bags would probably have accumulated lots of items we have been thinking of getting rid of because we don’t actually use them.
Such excessive items will weigh us down when carrying the golf bag, and even more, cause extra strain and stress on our shoulders which can affect our performance.
Unnecessary things which have built up over time may include that driver wrench which we put in last year, golf balls we found in the rough and stuffed in our bag, etc.
Focus on the gear that we really need in our golf bag, for actual play on the course.
4) Prep For Tee Time - Categorise Our Gloves
This might seem a little over the top, but we can categorise those gloves we have into various different levels of wear and use them differently – so that we have the best feel, grip and performance when we really need it.
If we want to, we can put the 2 or 3 levels of wear of gloves into different Ziploc bags and mark them – makes them easy to find and ensures they stay dry.
When practising my shots, I would always use one of the more worn gloves rather than brand new ones. When warming up before a round, you can either wear the same or switch into slightly less worn gloves. The brand new ones can come out when we’re playing in a match with our friends, when the real stakes are on!
5) Prep For Tee Time - Clean Our Shoes
Moving on to what covers our feet – to keep our golf shoes looking pristine for as long as possible.
For those of us with a cleated pair, we can take the cleats out and give them a thorough clean, getting all the dirt out of the different tiny holes, before putting them in.
With leather shoes, we can use the leather cream to nourish that leather, and keep it soft and supple for as long as possible.
If you’re at the zenith level of cleanliness, take the laces out of your golf shoes, soak them in hot soapy water and make sure you get those tiny dirt specks out of the laces while you’re at it.
Before you take off those laces, remember how to thread them back again! Also, best not to ask your wife or kids to do this for you.
6) Prep For Tee Time - Stock Up On Essentials
For the golf bag. Think about what you might actually need out there, beside the usual golf balls, tees, clubs, etc when the courses reopen.
Perhaps we need a spare battery for our laser range finder which would come in useful if it has been a while since the last change, since we don’t want the battery running out halfway through our round.
Or maybe some sun cream, some plasters or even allergy tablets - little things that can make a big difference out there for us on the course.
7) Prep For Tee Time - Mark Your Balls
There’s going to be a mad rush for tee time when courses reopen, and everyone will be energised from the word go.
Our playing partners or kakis won’t appreciate it if we are wasting precious time on the first tee marking up our golf balls.
So during this preparatory period, spend some time with your golf balls of choice and maybe mark up a dozen balls or so with your favourite design – it can be as simple or complicated as you want!
Doing so now will mean we’re all ready to go when courses reopen.
8) Prep For Tee Time - Improve The Strategy
Since we still have some time now, we would want to do some strategy prep for our first highly anticipated round of golf after so long.
Think about the times when we haven’t shot a decent score – what clubs were we using, for example, when we were missing the greens on the wrong side.
Now’s the time to really think about what clubs would get us in the least amount of trouble.
Target to keep the double bogey off the card, that should be the key thing when we want to create a strategy for a golf course.
Think about where the safe side of the green is to miss from, what’s the best place to putt from, certain greens that give us an uphill putt that’s really going to help reduce the risk of three putts.
Maybe these are the things we haven’t thought about, or have had the time to think about, especially since most of us typically play our familiar courses.
Well, it’s time to rethink our course strategy or rectify strategy gaps to knock shots off our rounds and score better, when our tee time comes and real soon!
Looking forward to seeing all of you again soon!