The Importance of Pre-Round Nutrition

Dr. Craig Davies is the National Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Canadian Junior Golf Association (CJGA).  His current stable of tour players includes Canada’s own Stephen Ames and Jon Mills as well as tour standouts Hunter Mahan and Nathan Green.  In his first submission, Dr. Davies discuss the importance of pre-round nutrition in maximizing your body’s output.

By Dr. Craig Davies
cdavies@jgac.ca

This last year has been a real eye opener for me.  I have had the amazing opportunity to work with CJGA National Coach, Sean Foley, in Orlando, Fla. and to work with some of the world’s best players on a weekly basis on the PGA Tour.  Each and every day that I go to work I can honestly say that I learn or experience something new. 

One of the most important things that I have become more aware of is the difference in preparation for the world’s best players compared to those on the mini-tours, college or junior golf circuits.  I am not talking about how these players organize their pre-round range and practice green routines (although this is very important), but the preparation that begins long before they even get to the practice areas.  In this installment I will focus on the pre-round nutrition and in the next month’s section I will focus on proper body warm up.

Golf is a very long event and is often as much a test of attrition as it is pure golf skills on some occasions.  The best golfers in the world are aware of how important nutrition is related to how their body and mind is able to perform on the golf course.  Notice that the word’s body and mind are underlined in the previous sentence.   Many golfers understand that golf is as much a mental game as it is physical and yet they spend barely any time focusing specifically on making their mental game better.  Nutrition has a major impact on the brain’s ability to perform optimally, make difficult decisions and then co-ordinate the neuromusculoskeletal system (nerves, muscles and bones) to perform in an ideal and efficient manner. 

One of the simplest ways to start looking at golf nutrition is to start with blood sugars.  A golfer’s blood sugar needs to remain as constant as possible throughout the duration of a round to keep the way the brain and body perform as consistent is possible.  If the blood sugar gets too high, the body becomes hyper-excitable which results in hasty decision making, quick and erratic movements in the golf swing, a sense of nervousness and can create an environment that makes relaxing for putting and shot making very difficult.  When blood sugars lower it can make the golfer feel both physically and mentally fatigued, irritable, and makes good playing nearly impossible.

Most young players experience a constant swing between too high blood sugar and too low blood sugar throughout a round because they are making poor nutrition choices.  Candy bars and pop do not provide good golf nutrition. 

The first item to consider is to identify what you eat before you play.  Ideally you should eat far enough before your round that your body has been able to regulate the blood sugars by the time you tee off.  On the road, we generally try to finish eating about 90-100 minutes before a tee time.  This gives us 25-30 minutes to do our physical stretch and warm up and then an hour to practice before teeing it up.  Once on the course, the focus is on maintaining proper blood sugars by constantly grazing the right foods throughout the round.  I recommend seeing a nutritionist experienced working with golfers to get a specific plan. 

Because everyone has different dietary requirements and options available to them (because of allergy, cultural, availability or other reason) it is difficult to give a specific example.  As a general rule though it is important to have a complex, slow release carbohydrate, easily accessible protein and to ensure proper hydration.  A multi whole grain bagel with natural peanut or almond butter (not the sugar infused peanut butter that most people eat!) with a small protein and a berry shake is decent example for a meal 60 – 90 minutes before tee time.  As a general rule, consuming a 500ml bottle of water every 45 mins to an hour is often sufficient but this requirement may change depending on weather during a particular round or individual requirements.

If you are playing around lunch time make sure that you wake up with enough time to get a good breakfast in your system about 4 hours before you play and then have your pre-round meal about 60-90 minutes before play.