MILO BRYANT: Get on par with fitness by training, hiring coach

Many golf enthusiasts believe that golf and fitness are on different ends of a very long spectrum - even now, after Tiger Woods has re-infused the sport with a different mind-set toward fitness.

It's true that one doesn't have to be in great shape to play the game. Many of us have seen guts with at least $5,000 of beer in them attached to cigarette-smoking lips attached to clubs that hit 'em long and straight. But we're seeing fewer and fewer of those.

Today, the best junior golfers get up at zero-dark-thirty (for you nonmilitary readers, that means crazy early), and get in a cardio or resistance workout before going to school. That gives them all afternoon to practice.

The best in the world use fitness as a tool. It's not something that's done because it sounds good. It's done because it produces results.

For many, getting in better shape overall will help their golf games.

Others need something more specialized. It's not about getting in the gym and throwing up a lot of weight and getting as strong as we can. Sure, we can do that. But getting stronger isn't necessarily going to improve our games. That 250-yard slice will simply become a 280- or 300-yard slice.

Golf fitness is more complex than that. It's about understanding how and why the body moves the way it does during the swing.

There's no one way to swing a golf club. But every golfer has a most efficient way to swing a club. Combined with the club pro, a golf-fitness instructor can help find that swing.

There are reasons golfers lose posture, early extend, sway, come over the top, have flat shoulder planes, suffer from the effect of reverse spine angle, etc. Strength, range of motion and strength throughout that range of motion go a long way toward determining how we swing a club.

We'd like to think it's all mental, that we can just snap out of a pattern by visiting the range a few more times. It's better to eliminate the physical restrictions first. Do that and the mental aspect of golf becomes much easier.

Don't believe it? Look at the world's top 100 players. They can physically do anything they want on the course. We won't learn about Woods' fitness regimen until well after he's retired. But nobody questions his physical ability. Lorena Ochoa, the No. 1 female golfer, has competed in triathlons, half marathons and four-day Eco-Challenges. It's no coincidence that the world's best golfers are good athletes, too.

For more information on golf fitness training or to find a practitioner in your area, check out the Titleist Performance Institute at mytpi.com or The CHEK Institute at paulchekseminars.com/golfcond.cfm.