Hydration
What seems like a lot of strokes to save just by drinking water while playing golf? 1 stroke, 2 strokes, 4 Stokes? The answer is 4 strokes. That’s a lot of strokes. 4 strokes is the difference between playing in a properly hydrated state vs playing in a dehydrated state. In a 2016 study, Magee et al. (7) found that in collegiate golfers, those that were dehydrated shot 4 strokes worse than properly hydrated golfers for 18 holes. Who would have thought that something as simple as drinking water could save you 4 strokes per round?
How does it work?
Aside from oxygen, water is the most important thing we need every day; going without water for as little as 3 days will lead to death. Astonishingly, some people on hunger strikes have lived up to 2 months without food (11). Water is our bigger need. Water makes up about 60% of our total body weight. It makes up 90% of our blood plasma; it helps to regulate body temperature, protects our brain, spinal cord, and organs. Water carries nutrients and oxygen into our cells. Simply put, we need water! (9)
Great, so what about golf? Well, dehydration causes lots of things that are detrimental to our golf game such as decreases in concentration, immediate memory skills (important for putting), and fine motor control. It also impairs motor task performance; increases irritability, heart rate, respiration rate, and perceived levels of effort (1,4,8). Clearly these are all bad things for golf. The last thing we need when trying to sink a 6-footer for par is our heart beating faster than it already is and having our mind wandering any extra. We need a clear mind, focused attention, and calm nerves to perform our best. Below is how these physiological changes from dehydration can lead to problems specific to golf.
Several studies have shown dehydration leads to the following in your golf game:
· Loss of 7.5% in putting accuracy (8)
· 11% loss in average iron distance (1)
· Near doubling of off-target iron accuracy (1)
· Over a six-fold increase in overestimation of distance from pin (1)
· Decrease in visual attention, judgment, and decision making (10)
After seeing this, it is surprising that dehydration doesn’t cost you more than 4 strokes!
How to apply this knowledge to your game
Simply, stay hydrated. Make sure to drink plenty of water before leaving for the course and make sure you drink plenty of water during the round. That is pretty general so let’s talk some numbers. A lot of places want you to weigh yourself naked before and after exercise to see how much water weight you have lost but let’s be honest, unless you are playing D1 football you probably are never going to do that and I don’t expect you to.
Let’s talk more realistic options. Lots of associations (ACSM, NCAA, NATA, AND) all generally recommend using 10oz as a good reference; 10oz 20 mins before you play and 10oz every 15-20 mins during play. So that’s about 40oz per hour, say 4 hours for a round of golf (some will play in 3 hours, others in 5, so let’s split the difference). This is a total of 160oz during your round. Let’s round up to an even 180oz for math sake, 10oz per hole. The most common water bottle sizes range from 24-36oz (lets split the difference again and say 30oz). That’s 3 30oz bottles of water per side. High temperature, low humidity, and high altitude will all require you to need more water so make adjustments based on your conditions. (8)
Need an easier method? You need to urinate at a minimum of once per side. If you aren’t going at least once at the turn and once right when your round ends, then you are leaving strokes on the course.
Bonus Info
For those early morning golfers who enjoy coffee here is some extra info for you. First of all, lets address the fact that caffeine is a diuretic which will dehydrate you in large enough quantities, but don’t fear, research shows this effect is negated by exercise (3). Zhang et al. states that “Concerns regarding unwanted fluid loss associated with caffeine consumption are unwarranted particularly when ingestion precedes exercise.” So, fear not coffee drinkers, as long as you stick to 1 or 2 cups of coffee you should be just fine. In fact, you might be even better than that.
Mumford et al. found that during competitive golf play, caffeine ingestion before or during a round actually improves golf specific measures of performance and reduces fatigue in low handicap golfers. Specifically, it showed statistical improvements in: Total score (~2 stokes better), greens hit in regulation (~1.5 more), and driver distance (~7 yards longer).
Before you get carried away and pound 7 energy drinks thinking you’ll be blasting 350 yard drives, this was talking moderate caffeine ingestion. The protocol was 1.9mg per kg of body weight. This is about 155mg for a 180 pound person, so about 12oz of regular coffee (8oz of coffee is about 100mg of caffeine). I say regular coffee because a VERY popular coffee chain has notoriously strong coffee with very high caffeine content so be careful. Energy drink caffeine levels can easily exceed 200-300mg. Here is a helpful link to see caffeine content of popular drinks.
Click the link to find out how much caffeine is in your favorite beverage.
More is not always better
The CDC cautions on drinking too much water. Drinking more than 48oz of water or sports drink per hour can cause of medical emergency because the concentration of salt in the blood becomes too low. This can be mostly negated with eating during your round, especially something salty like trail mix which will help increase your salt concentration. They also warn against drinks with high levels of caffeine as it will add excess strain on your body in the heat. (5) So once again, stick to an appropriate amount of coffee (1-2 cups) and avoid energy drinks. Water will always be your best bet, but sports drinks can be fine substitutes as long as you are mindful of their sugar content.
Summary
· Dehydration can increase your score by up to 4 strokes per round
· Dehydration impairs memory and fine motor control; increases irritability, heart rate, respiration rate, and perceived effort exertion. All bad for golf.
· Dehydration leads to significant decrease in putting accuracy, iron shot distance, and accuracy of approach shots.
· Try to drink about 10oz of water per hole, or 3 24-30oz bottles per side.
· Moderate amounts of caffeine before a round can improve total score, GIR, and driving distance.
Hopefully you found this article helpful and can use it to help shoot a lower score in your game.
American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA)
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND)
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)
References
1 Smith, M. F., Newell, A. J., & Baker, M. R. (2012). Effect of acute mild dehydration on cognitive-motor performance in golf. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 26(11), 3075–3080. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e318245bea7
3 Zhang, Y., Coca, A., Casa, D. J., Antonio, J., Green, J. M., & Bishop, P. A. (2015). Caffeine and diuresis during rest and exercise: A meta-analysis. Journal of science and medicine in sport, 18(5), 569–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2014.07.017
4 Adan A. (2012). Cognitive performance and dehydration. Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 31(2), 71–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/07315724.2012.10720011
5 CDC. Heat Stress: Hydration. DHHS Publication No. 2017-126
7 Magee, P. J., Gallagher, A. M., & McCormack, J. M. (2017). High Prevalence of Dehydration and Inadequate Nutritional Knowledge Among University and Club Level Athletes. International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism, 27(2), 158–168. https://doi.org/10.1123/ijsnem.2016-0053
8 Stevenson, W. (2018). Influence of mild dehydration on perception of effort and execution of golf and mental concentration tests in female collegiate golfers. Thesis submitted to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.
9 Wegin, A. (2022). Water: Essential for you body. Mayoclinichealthsystem.org.
10 Patsalos, O. C., & Thoma, V. (2020). Water supplementation after dehydration improves judgment and decision-making performance. Psychological research, 84(5), 1223–1234. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-018-1136-y
11 Tinsley, G. (2023). How long can you survive without food? Medicalnewstoday.com
