As a high-performance coach on the PGA Tour, I\u2019m particularly stoked for two of my athletes\u2014Cam Smith and Luke List\u2014who will be teeing up at Augusta National as winners on the PGA Tour in 2022. Cam won the Players Championship last month and the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii in January, the same month Luke triumphed at Torrey Pines. Luke lives in Augusta, Georgia, so the Masters is very special for him in that regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cam\u2019s victory at the Players was phenomenal and the stats show it. His average driving distance that week was 290.6 yards, which ranked 20th in the field. His average proximity to the hole was 35 feet, which ranked 14th. He gained 2.88 strokes on the field for his putting, which was just lights-out good. And then there\u2019s the physical performance side of things, which I\u2019m lucky enough to see. Cam was well-rested and I believe that translated into him being able to easily deal with the stop-start nature of the weather delays at TPC Sawgrass. Cam\u2019s body was moving extremely well and that allowed him to be able to hit some clutch shots down the stretch, like that tee shot to close range on the par-3 17th in the final round (even if he pushed it a little!). Cam\u2019s family were over from Australia, so the mind was happy and the body was in a great spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019ll be striving to take that physical and mental performance from TPC Sawgrass to the Masters this week. When I\u2019m trying to get a PGA Tour athlete\u2019s body and mind ready for a tournament, I\u2019m trying to achieve three things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to the Masters, there are certain variables we need to account for\u2014from a physical standpoint\u2014compared to other tournaments and courses. Because it\u2019s a major, the intensity is elevated, and so good sleep is crucial to a golfer\u2019s cognitive state. Their bodies are also going to be doing a lot of walking and Augusta National is extremely hilly on a majority of the holes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cam will play practice rounds at Augusta National on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before the tournament starts. That is probably extra golf for him compared to what he\u2019s used to in regular tournaments, which means that his legs are going be a little heavier. That likely means some more recovery work for me. We\u2019re going to make sure his hydration\u2019s good, because it\u2019s spring and it\u2019s starting to get warmer. Other than that, we try not to introduce too many new or different protocols and prepare for this event just like we do other tournaments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Warm up<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We still go through all our orthopedic and musculoskeletal tests before a tournament round. We\u2019ll go through a stretching routine in the morning. We\u2019ll do an active warm-up with some band work, some hip stability exercises and some core exercises to engage the core muscles. Then, just before we send him off to the range, he\u2019ll do some last-minute power moves, in the form of counter-movement jumps, to make sure he\u2019s being monitored throughout the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recovery<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n With any PGA Tour athlete, I\u2019ll go through a recovery routine that starts with checks and balances and ends with a \u2018flush rub\u2019, or massage therapy. If there are any imbalances, we\u2019ll try to correct those first. Then, we\u2019ll look at the recovery side of things, which will be different at Augusta due to the added intensity of the walk and probably a few more balls being hit than normal. We\u2019ll do that by getting the legs freshened up and trying to get the back freshened up with some soft tissue therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Luke, who is 37 and a more mature athlete, we must monitor the load on his upper body a little more than Cam because he\u2019s a taller guy with big levers. Luke\u2019s is a similar program to Cam\u2019s but slightly more individualized based on his needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s what it takes to prepare an athlete for the rigours of Augusta National during Masters week. It\u2019s all worth it to see these guys living out their dreams of playing the Masters. I\u2019ll be working hard to make sure they\u2019re as physically prepared as possible and deal with any issues that may come up during the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheers, Nic Catterall<\/p>\n\n\n\n About Nic Catterall\/Peak Power Golf<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nic Catterall is an Australian high-performance coach, specializing in strength and conditioning, musculoskeletal therapy and sports science, for professional golfers on the PGA Tour in the U.S.A. Nic works with Cam Smith, Luke List, Matt Jones, Dylan Frittelli and Hank Lebioda. Nic created the Peak Power Golf company to educate about the athleticism of golfers and what they are capable of. Peak Power Golf provides online training, athlete mentoring and athlete assessments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, it\u2019s that time of year. The Masters has almost arrived, and the entire sporting world is pumped for the Augusta National major to kick off. As a high-performance coach on the PGA Tour, I\u2019m particularly stoked for two of my athletes\u2014Cam Smith and Luke List\u2014who will be teeing up at Augusta National as winners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,6,5,8],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-7","tag-masters","tag-pga","tag-tournament-prep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions\/20"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blog.peakpowergolf.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/e0d47a_1bef0c957fa0416a995a283c695d6e15mv2.webp\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n