Hold each exercise for one to two minutes when stretching or performing stability exercises. Always be aware of your breathing when stretching. Always take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth.

1. Breakdancer Hamstring Stretch — Assisted (Mobility)
In a seated position, fold one leg so the base of the foot is up against the inner thigh of the other, now keeping your leg straight reach for your toes and, if necessary, use a rope for assistance to pull yourself towards your foot.

2. Open Book Ribcage (Mobility)
Lying on your right side, curl your knees up to your chest, then place the right hand on top of your knees and then place the other hand under your ribcage, the side closest to the floor. Then pull these two parts of the body apart, rotating to your left as far as you can.

3. Golf Posture, Single-Leg Balance with Torso Rotation (Stability)
This exercise is great to help with short game most of all and is something everyone should be doing to help their game drastically. Get into golf posture, with your arms crossed over your shoulders. Then bring your feet together and bend one from the knee, so you’re standing on one leg. Now keeping the lower body stable, do small and smooth rotations with the shoulders, rotating around your spine and avoiding a rocking motion of the shoulders at all costs.

4. Pattern Assistance Single Leg Balance (Stability)
With a light resistance band anchored to a fixed object in front of you, place one end in each hand, then walk away until there is some tension within the band. Now keeping the arms down by your side and straight, pull the bands behind you making sure you retract the shoulder blades as well. This will engage your core muscles and help with your posterior chain. Then raise one knee up, so the thigh is parallel to the ground and hold for one minute each side.

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

More golf tips and instruction:
The chips are down if the hips are right
Looking for more power? It’s all about kinetic sequence forces
Understand golf’s power chain and how to avoid a weak link in your swing
Why solid putting starts with a sound set-up
Alignment is a fine balancing act to stabilise clubface
Why you are wasting your time on the range
Claude Harmon III’s simple impact drill
How Billy Horschel’s simple back swing move will make you a better ball-striker

The post WATCH: Mobility and stability are key links in the chain to golf fitness appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The off-season is no time to get complacent as maintaining fitness is crucial 

By Matthew Brookes
The off-season is here as well as the heat in Dubai, but don’t let this stop you from improving your game. Now is the time to prepare yourself for the next golf season and, with professional advice, it’s so easy to do so. Off-season for me normally has two sections and these are ‘post-season’ and ‘pre-season’. Both of these sections require different training methods. Today we are covering ‘post-season’ and this is all about increasing your body’s overall strength. 

Benefits
Did you know that hitting a golf ball can be the equivalent of a three-rep max in the gym, so the greater your three-rep max in the gym the further you can potentially hit the ball. There are obviously other factors to consider, but this is the exact reason why the players on all tours are all working just as hard in the gym as they are on the golf course. 

Method
The training method is called ‘5×5’, which involves completing five reps for five sets with up to 3 minutes rest between each set. This should consist of lifting as much weight as you can for those five reps, really helping to focus on increasing your strength.

Compound
Each workout will consist of compound exercises that focus on increasing the strength of your push, pull and legs. This will also help you increase the strength of your ‘Power Chain’ which is something I have talked about in past videos, so do check that out to find out more. 

Safety
Professional advice is always important, especially with this sort of training. Having the correct movement patterns is vital when performing these exercises and past work or exercises need to be completed in order to prepare you for these types of lifts, to help reduce the risk of injury.

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf-specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

More golf tips and instruction:
The chips are down if the hips are right
Looking for more power? It’s all about kinetic sequence forces
Understand golf’s power chain and how to avoid a weak link in your swing
Why solid putting starts with a sound set-up
Alignment is a fine balancing act to stabilise clubface
Why you are wasting your time on the range
Claude Harmon III’s simple impact drill
How Billy Horschel’s simple back swing move will make you a better ball-striker

The post WATCH: Fighting fit off the course during the summer heat appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Brookes
The final piece of the puzzle for chipping is regarding the short game sequence. Do look back at the first video on the Golf Digest Middle East website, where we covered gym exercises that’ll help improve your body’s ability to move in the correct manner and the second shoot on pressure points and head movement in the swing using the ‘Swing Catalyst’ motion plate to help master this technique.

RELATED:
Looking for more power? It’s all about kinetic sequence forces
Understand golf’s power chain and how to avoid a weak link in your swing

This month’s edition is about having the correct sequence when chipping. This sequence is very different to the ‘Kinematic Sequence’ used in the full swing and is called the ‘Finesse Sequence’.

This sequence is vital to help produce enough bounce and to help deliver the club at the correct angle at impact. Where in the full swing we start with the hips turning in the downswing, when chipping we should actually reverse this sequence and have the hips move last or certainly move a lot less.

Stability and control of the lower body is key to help with this movement. A good drill to help you get this feeling and take it into the shot itself is the single leg chip. For a right-handed player stand on your lead leg and have the ball opposite the foot. Your trail foot should be on its tip toe slightly behind you. Once in position and balanced, chip the ball no further than five yards in the air and feel how the low body is limited in rotation. This is the feeling you want to take into the normal chip and once the swing gets any longer than this the lower body should start to rotate that little more towards the target.

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf-specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

You might also like:
Why solid putting starts with a sound set-up
Alignment is a fine balancing act to stabilise clubface
Why you are wasting your time on the range
Claude Harmon III’s simple impact drill
How Billy Horschel’s simple back swing move will make you a better ball-striker

The post WATCH: The chips are down if the hips are right appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Throw in the tricky par-5 13th with the island green beforehand, and the par-4 15th hole after with no space to go left, and it is a stretch of holes that can be a scorecard deal-breaker towards the end of your round.

The 14th has water defence around the front and right side of the green with three bunkers dotted up the left to the back of the putting surface, leaving very little room for error. The wind predominantly plays slightly into and from the left-to-right, bringing that water into play and even more so if you slightly miss-hit your tee shot.

My advice is to favour the left side of the green when picking a target line. This portion of the green plays much deeper, so you have a larger area to hit.

Another reminder is that when it’s breezy, swing easy! Don’t feel stupid picking a club or two more, which will launch the baller lower and with less spin, thus helping that ball travel straighter with less effect from the wind. Good luck and enjoy the battle for the green jacket.

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf-specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post How to play Dubai Creek’s answer to Augusta National’s famed par-3 12th appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

This most likely occurs when there’s a weak link in your “Power Chain”. The chain is made of three links: the legs, core and upper body. If there is a weakness within one of these links, then energy created from the ground won’t necessarily make it into the ball at impact. Here are three exercises that’ll help increase the power.

1. Kneeling Overhead Slam
With the use of a slam ball, start in a kneeling position grasping the ball. Now lift the ball above your head feeling a lengthening in the abdominals. You should feel a shortening and contraction in the abdominals as you slam the ball down into the ground as hard as you can.

2. Lying Chest Pass
Start in a lying position with a soft medicine ball between both hands, sitting on your chest. From this position we are going to throw the ball vertically into the air above you. It pays to make a couple lighter throws first just to get the coordination and timing of the throw correct. Once confident, find your rhythm and employ a minimal pause between each throw.

3. Cable Step And Turn
Set the cable machine at chest height then take one step away, keeping your chest facing the machine and arms stretched. It’s important to note that the same width between your chest and hands is kept throughout this movement. With your feet starting together, take one step away from the machine and then rotate the shoulders away from the machine. Return to starting position and repeat on the other leg.

Never go too heavy with any of these exercises; good form when performing at speed is of utmost importance. We are looking for a fast movement and anything too heavy will slow you down. Complete each exercise as a single set with 10 reps, 4 sets and 60 seconds rest. If you’d like to go a little harder, make it a giant set and repeat each exercise one after the other with a two minute rest after each set.

Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post Understand golf’s power chain and how to avoid a weak link in your swing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Here at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, we’re lucky enough to have a new 3D motion plate from Swingcatalyst, a groundbreaking bit of kit which helps us see every little detail of ground interaction.

The technology allows trained users to cross-reference key horizontal, torque and vertical ground forces against averages collected by Swingcatalyst from PGA Tour players.

From there, any amateur looking for more distance – (let’s be honest, who isn’t?) is invited to the Peter Cowen Academy at DCGYC where we can build a fitness programme to help you increase the output of the key ground forces. Here are three of my favourite exercises you can try out with the help of the “what’s that strap”.

1. Lateral Leaps
With the cable machine to your right, place your left arm through the strap with the strap going behind you and over your back. Now get into a single, right leg balance, in golf posture and load into your leg with a shoulder rotation towards the machine. From this position, push off to your left away from the machine and land controlled onto your left leg. This exercises generates both accelerating and de accelerating forces, vital for the golf swing.

2. 180 Vertical Jumps
With the machine to your right, place your left shoulder through the strap with the strap coming across the chest, then rotate anti-clockwise 180 degrees. Now with a big load and rotating to your right, make an explosive 180 degree rotational jump to your left so you finish facing the other way to your starting position, making sure you finish controlled and balanced.

3. Box Jumps
Select a box height that is safe enough for you to jump onto. Then, with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your hands placed on your hips, start completing the descending movement of a squat, which is the loading phase of this exercises. Now explode into a vertical jump and land on the box as softly you can. Loud landings should be avoided as much as possible.

Complete each exercise with 10 reps per side, over three sets and with up to 60 seconds rest between each set. Better still, join us at DCGYC and we can set you on the right path to better golf. From the ground up.

— With Kent Gray

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf-specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post WATCH: Add pop to your golf swing appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Brookes
It is not only the full swing that can be improved by an understanding of ground forces and pressures. They’re facets of utmost importance in the short game as well although should be viewed, and the moves implemented, differently to the long game. In a nutshell, the shorter the shot, the smaller forces and movements we should see.

When amateurs approach me with inconsistent ball striking with their chipping, we head straight to the Swing Catalyst force plate. A lot of the time the issue can be linked to their interaction with the ground and with the Swing Catalyst technology at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, it’s easier than ever to show them what changes need to be made.

The low point of the swing is a big factor and this can be affected by the pressure trace reading. The reading should favour and stay the majority of the time on the lead leg during the shot and have very little lateral movement compared to a full swing.

The pressure trace pattern I see in amateurs who struggle with chipping tend to have too much lateral movement on to the trail and then back onto the lead leg during the shot. Something that can be visually checked is the head movement of the player.That is achieved by drawing a line on the lead side of the head at set up (see below, right) and can be used as a cross reference during the swing. But this is not a 100 percent cure.

Other aspects that are vital to consistent chipping are mobility, stability and strength – all influences that can impact short game ability. A “TPI” (Titleist Performance Institute) physical screen assessment is something I always take my students through as there may be a single leg balance, glute strength or even a disassociation issue between the upper and lower body that may have some influence in the swing characteristics. If you have having issues getting up and down consistently around the greens, consider a visit to DCGYC’s Peter Cowen Golf Academy to add the latest technology to your game improvement ambitions.  You won’t be disappointed.

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post Fatting or thinning your chips? Both? Watch this! appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

We’ve got a deep dive on the 43rd Matches, including a unique sit down – in a pink flamingo no less – with American stud Brooks Koepka. Don’t miss our Ryder Cup “File” and “Dossier” features either, a fascinating look at everything American captain Steve Stricker must know to “whip the Europeans”, and the inside oil on how Padraig Harrington can help the Euros “spank the Yanks”.

Elsewhere, we chat with Trump Dubai-based freelancer Alex Riggs who has embraced social media to become an online tutor to (mostly above average) Joes and Janes everywhere and land a plum gig on GolfPass, the Golf Channel off-shoot owned by NBC Sports. The Canadian has even landed a role coaching NBA superstar Steph Curry courtesy of his digital profile.

Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club professional Matthew Brookes has a series of stretches that will help you cool down and ensure you’re ready for your next pre-round warm-up, while Butch Harmon shares a simple tip to flush it off downhill lies that are commonplace in the Middle East. We also head to Glen Oaks in Old Westbury on Long Island, the private New York club nicknamed the “Augusta of the North” which is set to host the penultimate leg of the LET’s new Aramco Team Series next month.

There’s also a fascinating take on the triumphs and tragedies of trying to earn a start on the PGA Tour via cut-throat Monday qualifying. All this and much more in the September 2021 edition of Golf Digest Middle East.

All this and much more in the September 2021 edition of Golf Digest Middle East.

The issue is again free to our loyal audience. You can scroll through the ISSUU link provided or download the bumper September 2021 issue FREE to your favourite device for later. Alternatively, pick up a copy at your favourite club. Whatever option you take, we hope you enjoy the read.

The post Get the September 2021 issue of Golf Digest Middle East FREE today! appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Matthew Brookes
We’re regularly reminded about the importance of a proper warm-up before putting our bodies through the rigours of a round of golf or range session. But what happens afterwards?

Cooling down is just as important. Done well, it ensures many long term benefits including improving mobility for future rounds, helping with recovery and post-round soreness as well as helping to embed any swing changes you might be working on.

All my clients receive a personal cool down routine to help them make the swing changes we are trying to achieve. Here I share five stretches which target the areas most common with physical limitation.

Hold each for 60 seconds and focus on a deep inhale through the nose and exhale through your mouth every time. Repeat each exercise on the other side where applicable. –with Kent Gray

1. Toe touch
Keeping your legs straight, slowly bend over from the hip and reach down as far as you can towards your toes. This is lengthening your hamstrings and will help with set-up posture.

2. Standing half lotus
Starting in a standing position, use your club as a balance support in your left hand. Cross your right leg over the knee of the left leg and then place your right hand on the right knee. Then push the right knee down and away from you while hinging slightly from the hip and keeping a strong straight back. Repeat on the other side. This assists with hip mobility, helping improve rotation and sequencing.

3. Behind back overhead extension
Place a club behind you with your right hand holding onto the grip. Now place your left hand behind you, holding onto the club. Fully extend your arm up and above your head allowing the lower hand to be pulled up. This will work on shoulder and back mobility as well as scapular stability – all vital for better rotation in the swing.

4. External shoulder rotation
Have your left arm at a right angle with the elbow pointing away from you. Place the club on the outside of your forearm and wrap your thumb around the shaft of the club. Now take a grip of the club beneath the elbow with your other hand and pull the club across your body as far as you can keeping your shoulders back and elbow up. This improves shoulder mobility which helps with club plane and release pattern through impact.

5. Standing quad stretch
This is an exercise I’m sure we have all completed sometime during our lives and although very basic, it can be very beneficial when done correctly. Standing on your left leg, bend your right leg from the knee behind you. Pull the foot as close to your bottom as possible until a stretch is felt across the front of the leg. A little tip to make sure you’re getting everything out of this is to feel that you tuck your pelvis so your belt line is flat and not falling forward. Another feeling is to squeeze your glutes. This exercise will help lengthen your quadriceps and hip flexors, vital for hip mobility throughout the swing.

Incorporate these stretches after every workout and you’ll be moving, feeling and playing better golf in no time.

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Matthew Brookes is a PGA teaching professional and golf specific fitness trainer at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s Peter Cowen Academy Dubai.

The post Stay Cool: Post-round stretches to ensure you can play your best golf next time out appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

In the latest edition we talk to five of the Middle East’s key golf industry players – panellists all at the Emirates Amateur Golf League’s recent ‘Future of Golf’ forum – to discover where the game goes from here.

There’s little doubt Golf Saudi is playing a pivotal role in the new frontier. We have a report on the new Aramco Team Series after the LET-sanctioned format made its debut in London. We also learn what the 11th hour awarding of the 2021 Asia-Pacific Amateur Championship to Dubai is just the start of a golden two year period for the region’s top young players.

Talking of Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, Matthew Brookes explains why random practice trumps beating driver after driver on the range and we delve into the research that will help you break 100, 90 and 80 in no time. And who better to impart his wisdom on flushing your fairway woods than the Swedish Iceman, Henrik Stenson?

All this and much more in the August 2021 edition of Golf Digest Middle East.

The issue is again free to our loyal audience. You can scroll through the ISSUU link provided or download the bumper August 2021 issue FREE to your favourite device for later. Alternatively, pick up a copy at your favourite club. Whatever option you take, we hope you enjoy the read.

The post Get the August 2021 issue of Golf Digest Middle East FREE today! appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.