A Practice Routine for the Week Before a Tournament

Seven Days Out: Take Inventory

The week before competition is not the time to rebuild every part of your game. Begin with an honest check of ball flight, contact, wedges, and putting. Hit a small sample of clubs and identify the one pattern that matters most. A predictable fade is playable; alternating hooks and blocks needs attention.

Write down three priorities at most. They might be driver start line, 80-to-110-yard distance control, and four-foot putts. This prevents the week becoming a tour of every flaw you’ve ever noticed. If a technical issue requires major work, save the deeper change for after the event unless it prevents functional contact.

Five Days Out: Do the Heaviest Work

Place your longest session early enough to recover. Warm up, address the priority pattern with a focused drill, and then test it with changing targets. Technical repetitions should lead toward golf shots rather than consume the entire basket.

A useful 75-minute structure is:

1. 10 minutes: movement, short wedges, and gradual speed.
2. 20 minutes: focused full-swing drill with feedback.
3. 15 minutes: random targets and club changes.
4. 15 minutes: wedge distance ladder.
5. 15 minutes: putting from short and long range.

Finish while the motion remains coordinated. Extra balls hit through fatigue can leave you with soreness and a blur of late-session misses.

Three Days Out: Rehearse the Course

Turn the range into the tournament venue. Use the scorecard or a course map and “play” selected holes: driver to a pictured fairway, then an iron based on the quality of that drive. A poor tee shot means a recovery club, not a free restart. Go through your full routine and switch targets every ball.

Build a simple course plan at the same time:

• Tee club and intended shape on demanding holes
• Safe side for approach misses
• Layup yardage on par 5s
• Places where bogey is acceptable
• One cue that settles you before a committed swing

Tournament reminder: Confidence comes from clear choices more reliably than from one perfect range session.

The Day Before: Reduce Volume

Keep the final session short. Roll putts to learn pace, hit chips from the grass you expect, and make enough full swings to feel athletic. Avoid chasing a last-minute discovery. If the ball flight isn’t ideal, select the version you can predict and plan around it.

A light nine holes can help some players, but don’t turn it into an emergency scoring test. Leave with energy. Prepare practical details—clubs clean, gloves dry, tees and markers packed, starting time confirmed—so competition morning has fewer distractions.

For putting, finish with makes from three to five feet rather than repeatedly attempting long, low-percentage putts. You want to hear the ball fall and see a familiar start line.

Tournament Morning: Wake Up the Pattern

Arrive with enough time to avoid rushing, but don’t exhaust yourself. Begin with gentle motion and contact, move through wedges and mid-irons, then hit a few tee shots to the shape required on the opening hole. The warm-up is a readiness check, not an audition for a new swing.

On the green, practice pace in both directions before hitting a handful of short putts. End by picturing the first tee shot and completing its routine once. Whether the last ball is perfect matters less than whether you chose a target and committed.

A good tournament week narrows as it progresses: broad assessment, focused work, course rehearsal, light touch, then play. You aren’t trying to store seven days of great swings. You’re arranging your preparation so the swing you own can show up rested and ready.