Have you ever heard the phrase “you can’t outwork a poor diet”? Well, it’s true! Your body needs healthy fuel in order to perform at its best. Eating healthier foods and staying properly hydrated can help increase your energy, mood, and golf performance. Check out 3 of my golf nutrition tips below!

1. Proper Hydration

In order to perform at your best you need to be properly hydrated. How do you figure out how much water you should be drinking during a day? Calculate half of your bodyweight in ounces and that is how much water you should be drinking each day. The Titleist Performance Institute suggests to drink 25% of your daily water intake when you wake up in the morning,  50% of your daily intake while you are playing your golf round and the last 25% of your daily intake post-golf round and throughout the rest of the day. This only accounts for water; so soda, coffee, and other drinks do not count towards your daily hydration intake.

2. Breakfast IS The Most Important Meal Of The Day

Whether you have an early tee time or a later tee time, you need to make sure you eat breakfast! Eating a nutritious breakfast can actually set the tone for controlling your blood sugar for the day. When you wake up you are in a “fasted” state and your blood sugar is low. So it is important to eat protein, healthy fats, and carbs (in that order). Proteins break down slowly and do not spike blood sugar levels, which make them a great nutrition source for breakfast. 

3. Eat Whole Foods

Whole foods are foods that have been changed as little as possible. Examples: animal protein, fruits and veggies, nuts, beans and legumes, and grains. Eating whole foods will give you almost all the nutrients your body needs. So for more energy & more nutrients before, during, and after your golf rounds, choose snacks/meals that are made of whole foods. Example: Instead of getting crackers or cookies to snack on during a round, choose jerky or a piece of fruit or even a handful of nuts. 

As a golfer, it is important to have good nutrition, hopefully after reading this blog you have some tools to change your nutrition to improve your swing in the process! Golf fitness training will be available at American Classic GC starting March 1st. For more golf fitness education and training, email me at brittmmorrison@gmail.com to set up a fitness assessment!

-Britt Morrison, TPI Level 2 Fitness Trainer

One of the hardest things to do from time to time is to find something that you and your significant other can do in your spare time together. We all love to sit on the couch and binge watch our favorite tv shows and movies together, but have you thought about ways to get outside and be active? Of course there’s taking long walks, going on a hike, taking a bike ride, and other types of great ways to enjoy the outdoors, but have you thought about playing golf together? Believe it or not, but golf can be one of the best ways for you to spend your time together!

For those of us who consider ourselves to be golfers, we know that golf is a lot like everyday life. You have your good days and your bad days, as well as your remarkable shots and the strokes that got away. This can be seen exactly like life though, and be a great way for you and your partner to grow together. You’ll be there to support each other when the ball doesn’t fly as you wanted, but also be there to celebrate those shots that keep you coming back. It’s a great way to bond through the ups and downs of a round, but also to have someone to lean on through every round played together.

As mentioned before, golf is a great way for you both to get exercise and vitamin D. If the Doc is recommending that we all get 10,000 steps per day, then why not have some fun while getting your steps in? Walking 9 holes at the Classic can get you anywhere from 5,000 to 6,500 steps depending on where your shots are going. So the next time you miss the fairway, just remind yourself that it doesn’t hurt to get a few extra steps in. It’s always good to see the glass as half full!

Overall though, golf can be as fun as you allow it to be. When you look back on the earlier days of your relationship and think about all of the fun times you had together, playing golf with one another can bring back those same feelings again. You’ll be able to challenge each other, support one another, and laugh when the other messes up and says their favorite swear word. The fact that golf can help you reminisce on the “good old days,” as well as create new memories together, makes it a great way to spend time with your loved one.

-Austin Ebersole, Head Golf Professional at American Classic Golf Club

With the Superbowl happening tonight, now is a great time to talk about football players who golf!  Many of us watched star quarterback Tom Brady play in “The Match” before the start of the NFL season alongside retired NFL quarterback Peyton Manning and PGA tour legends Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. While Brady struggled throughout most of the round, his incredible hole out on the 7th hole from 150 yards out was awesome to watch.  Chiefs stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce also entertained fans playing alongside each other at the American Century Championship, celebrity golf competition, this past summer.  Kelce and Mahomes were fun to watch on the course together, and this was highlighted when Kelce sunk an eagle putt on 18.  After sinking the putt, Kelce and Mahomes yelled as if they just scored a touchdown and celebrated with a chest bump and a couple flexes, and chances are we’ll likely see some of that in the game tonight.

There are many other NFL players who golf, and many are very good players. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan is a great golfer with a very low handicap, and he credits his impressive golf game to his former backup quarterback Chris Redmen, who used to constantly win money from Ryan by beating him in golf matches during their time together on the Falcons.  Retired quarterback Tony Romo is also a great golfer and might be the best, current or former, NFL player who golfs.  After retirement, he played in a few tour events and tried to make a playing career for himself. Currently, he is an NFL broadcaster, but his golf game is certainly very impressive. 

I think many current and former NFL players turn to golf as a way to continue playing a sport competitively against themselves and friends.  Watching some of the best athletes in the world take on golf can inspire all of us to get into the game. Tom Brady during “The Match” was offered 50,000 dollars from commentator Charles Barkley if he could hit the green on a par 3.  After shanking the ball 20 yards off target to the right and into trouble, Barkley joked that he should have just offered him the $50,000 if he could keep it on the planet.  While Brady is actually a very solid golfer, seeing the best quarterback of all-time hit a ball so poorly shows us how difficult golf can really be.  

Golf can be played for a lifetime, and many former NFL players take it seriously upon retirement.  After Brady’s golf round that day, he said he loved golf because at halftime of a football game they check for concussions while in golf you get offered snacks and refreshments.  All the more reason to pick up golf!

Enjoy the game! 

-Sam Cresta, Assistant Golf Professional at American Classic Golf Club

You put in the hours at the range… You play a few times a week… You take lessons…. You are doing everything right! Yet, your golf swing is still not the best it can be. Well, what’s left? New to the American Classic Golf Club this spring… Golf Fitness! What is golf fitness? Golf fitness is training your body to enhance your golf swing. Beginning in March, I will be accepting 1-on-1 clients for golf fitness training.

I have been studying flexibility and mobility for a while now, and the one thing that almost everyone has in common is that they want to improve their mobility, but do not know where to begin. A great start is stretching every day. Stretching everyday for at least 15 minutes (holding each stretch for 30 seconds or more) has been proven to enhance your flexibility over time. With that being said, I have now worked in the golf industry for 7+ years and I can tell you from experience that a lot of golfers do not stretch properly, if at all. And that’s where I come in!

I can help you create a golf warm up routine, cool down routine, and help you improve mobility. Here’s how:  The golf fitness assessment is a tool I have gained from my TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) certification. This tool allows me to test your body and see what areas need improvement in order to enhance your golf swing. After your golf fitness assessment, we can schedule 1-on-1 training sessions to focus on those areas that need improvement. I create custom programs for each client based on their golf fitness assessment; no two programs are the same! It is important to recognize that everyone has a different golf swing and everyone’s body is different! 

Golf fitness is the perfect accessory to your golf lessons. Working on your swing and technique go hand in hand with working on your mobility. Maybe your technique is lacking because you just can’t get far enough back in your backswing, or maybe you are having issues with getting your lower body involved in your golf swing, and those are areas I can help! Together we can improve your golf swing by strengthening and stretching the muscles most often used in golf. 

-Britt Morrison, Level 2 TPI Fitness Trainer

Want to learn more? Email me at brittmmorrison@gmail.com