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Pre-Round Preparation of the Top Golfers
By Tony | December 9, 2007
Last week I drove up to the Sunshine Coast for the Australian PGA Championship at Hyatt Coolum. I always look forward to going up to the Australian PGA, because there is always an impressive array of national and international players. This year was no exception with Rory Sabbatini, JB Holmes, Adam Scott, Nick O`Hern, Stuart Appleby and the eventual champion Peter Lonard amongst the filed, and it is also a good opportunity for me to catch up with some of my former colleagues.
Also in the field was Australian High Performance Golf Academy student Steve Jefress who has been in great form the past few months which was highlighted by his Top 10 at the Australian Masters and T4th at the New zealand Open. Steve just couldn`t get it going on the greens this week and shot rounds of 73,79 to miss the cut. AHPGA Director Lawrie Montague who has been working with Steve on the Mental side of the game for the past five years followed Steve around the Coolum course Thursday and Friday and told me Steve played beautifully from tee to green but just was not able to make any putts and eventually lost patience on the greens.
Whenever I go to a Tournament I like to spend as much time as possible watching the guys go through their various pre-round practice routines on the driving range and short game practice area. I am always fascinated by the different strategies of preparation by the players. Some players like to prepare in a very structured way and others basically just warm up by hitting some short irons, mid irons and work their way through the bag up to the driver.
I watched Stuart Appleby go through his pre-round warm up before the first round on Thursday. Stuart practices in a very structured/ measured manner. He set up a practice station by laying down two shafts (one for his body alignment and and one for ball position) on the driving range. Brett Rumford ( who the week before finished 2nd at the USPGA Tour Q School and earnt playing rights on the USPGA Tour for 2008) was going through a backswing pre-set drill whilst hitting balls on the range. Nathan Green on the other hand explained to me that he just likes to basically warm up before play by starting with some wedges and working his way through the bag up to the driver. He then moves over to the short game area where he plays some sand shots, lob shots ( from various lies and grasses) before heading for the first tee and the start of his round. Nathan was good enough to do an interview with me before the first round, where he discusses life on the USPGA Tour and how and what he is currently practicing ( to read this interview and others visit our Membership site).
The guys are off to Sydney now for this weeks Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club. Steve likes the Australian GC layout so look out for him this week. He had a good post round session with Lawrie and is excited and confident about playing this week.
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