Playing early...

Hi guys, thought i'd share an interesting article that was sent to me by a friend. This may explan why i had such a stinker on Friday when i got up at 4am for a 6.20am tee time in Abu Dhabi! Thoughts?

From NYTimes.com

April 30, 2011
Those first-tee jitters might not be your fault, writes Bill Pennington.

DO YOU love being the first one on the golf course? Are you delighted to send that first tee shot into the glow of a rising sun? Good for you. There are many benefits to being the early bird. But your golfing body and golfing mind hate it. ''From a circadian rhythm standpoint, 6.30 in the morning is the worst possible time to play golf,'' said Dr Charles Czeisler, the director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School. ''It would be the absolute nadir of performance preparedness. You will be less flexible, your co-ordination will be off a little, your judgment will not be as good and your short-term memory would be affected. ''I know it's less crowded so it might be more enjoyable, but it's very far from the optimal time to play if you're talking about performance.''

Obviously, more goes into the golf experience than timing it for optimal performance. Because it is often about availability and scheduling, no one is proposing we turn asunder established playing routines. But don't you wonder why some people seem to score better in the morning, and others score better in the afternoon? How many times have you teed off at 10am, played a great nine holes then fallen apart on the back nine? Is that swing fatigue or did the time of the day have something to do with it?

Sleep experts and those who study exercise science can answer most of these questions, or at least predict the average outcome. Because it does matter what time of the day you play, and there are routine things you can do - such as turning your face to the sun - to improve your chances of performing better. Numerous studies on athletes have proved that when it comes to muscular strength, mental acuity, flexibility and the most favourable body temperatures for athletic activity, the most productive time period is from 5pm to 8pm. A preponderance of Olympic records, for instance, have been set in the evening. Of course, 6pm or 7pm is not a prime time to tee off. Czeisler instead proposed golfers might perform best when starting a round about 4pm. He said 10am might be next best, although he had an unusual caveat about that starting time (more on that later).

If you think this sounds like academic mumbo-jumbo and has nothing to do with your recurring slice or your putting yips, it's worth noting that the field of applied physiology has flourished in recent decades with discoveries about our body at play. And don't think for a moment that golf, even when riding in a cart, is too sedentary to need advice from the world of exercise science. On most days, the average golfer significantly taxes the body's musculature and flexibility, and there is considerably more physical exertion than widely thought (about 1400 calories expended if you walk 18 holes, 850 if you ride). Fine motor skills are required for chipping and putting, mental acuity is necessary for prudent decision-making, and your mood and equilibrium are tested by golf's inherent frustrations. It helps to be out there when your body and mind are best prepared to handle all that.
Czeisler said 4pm was a preferred choice because your body was coming out of a period when the desire to sleep was strong. ''Every study of shift work reveals that people on the 3pm to 11pm shift are most productive,'' he said.

Early in the morning is not optimal because our bodies and minds are still recovering from the strongest need to sleep. ''People try to fix that by downing a couple of cups of coffee but that probably isn't a good idea for golf,'' Czeisler said. ''Caffeine adversely affects fine motor movements, and can produce tremors in your hands.'' A better idea would be to arrive at the course a little earlier, go outside and face the sun for 10 minutes. ''There is empirical evidence that bright light in the morning will help adjust the body clock,'' said Shawn Youngstedt, an associate professor in the department of exercise science at the University of South Carolina. ''It does not take a lot, and can affect mood, behaviour and function.'' OK, but we can't all play at 10am or at 4pm. And what if we know we have the 7am tee time in the club championship? Well, if you went to bed earlier than usual each night for a week, got up at 5am or 6am and got early sunlight each day, you could reset your circadian system to be ready.

Czeisler has another proposal that would remake golf as we know it. To truly maximise performance, Czeisler said golf courses should build dark, quiet spaces in the clubhouse where golfers could nap. ''If golfers teed off at 10am, played nine holes, then took a nap, they would improve a lot over the next nine holes,'' he said. ''When people fade on the second nine, it might be because they're affected by that 1-4pm period when the body has the desire to sleep.''

Nice article! I just made a small edit to it to add a link to the original source so we aren't guilty of reproducing copyright material without attribution

Thanks Davie. yes, it is an interesting article. We often play early here in Duabi to beat the daytime heat, and i try to tell myself that an early night and a coffee will liven me up. But the reality is quite different. I find it very hard to concentrate, and even to stand still over the ball when i'm so knackered.

For me, the most important factor about morning golf is mental strength. I find i am much more irritable first thing in the morning, more susceptible to frustration and keeping control of my emotions. If i play early and don't start well, i find it near impossible to stay focussed and keep the red-mist at bay...

My greates shots all seem to have happened in the fading light of the day, so maybe there is something in it.


Although because of the ballot I have had the odd pre 7am tee time on TOC. Not sure whether it is the nerves or the time of day but I have had a few horror shots on the first tee there.

Could it also be the case that with a 6.30 tee time you have often not had the time to properly warm up.

Great article and no doubt some truths in it, although not sure it could be applied to all and not sure that other factors would not have a greater affect.

Welcome back, TEB. Interesting article; I am naturally averse to early mornings so can see sense in it, even though if I'm honest I tend to be pleasantly surprised when I am forced to play early.

Probably a bit of psychology in there. If you think you will play bad because some article has told you you will do you are more likely to do just that.

However, if you are first out, you get the course in the best condition with freshly cut cups, properly raked bunkers, divotless tees and most likely more benign conditions than later in the day.
You won't have half the club who insist on racing pointlessly round in 2.5 hours playing right behind you and you aren't waiting on the slowcoach professional wannabe off 28 in front of you.

So, the extraneous reasons that you might be able to blame the course for if you tee of later are not such a big deal if you are off first.
You can only blame yourself for a bad round in the morning.

super_realist wrote:You won't have half the club who insist on racing pointlessly round in 2.5 hours playing right behind you

Surely if you are first out, you WILL have half the club right behind you

SR

The biggest problem with slow play in an event is that the early starters doddle round in a pointless four and a half hours and ruin the day for the other 120 players.

Early starts can mean wet fairways, and grabby first cut and slower than expected greens leaving bicycle spoke patterns to the hole.