Tommy Fleetwood’s YouTube channel isn’t exactly producing daily content. Quality over quantity. He’s a busy guy with a full PGA Tour schedule, a family and degrees to prepare for. So when he gives us a look at how it works, you pay attention. his video, “How I Prepare for a Major,” spends a full day of practice at his home club. If your Saturday morning game is your version of a major championship, there’s plenty here worth stealing.
1. Limit your swing to free your mind
Fleetwood shows up to the range with a small arsenal of training tools — a plane perfecter, a golf box, stretch clubs around his head — and he’s unapologetic about it. The idea is that each assist takes ownership of a specific part of his swing, so he doesn’t have to think about it anymore.
The thought process is transferred from his head to an external element.
“The more limited I make certain aspects of my golf swing, the freer I can absolutely feel,” he explains. “The more I feel like I can hit it because I’ve stayed in such a well-structured place.”
He is not managing his axis angle or controlling his airport; the golf box is doing it for him. The result is a more athletic, uninhibited movement because the mental load is offloaded to the equipment around it. For amateurs, the lesson is not to go buy everything in the training aid aisle. It’s finding one or two things your swing consistently does wrong and letting something go out of your body take care of them. Stop thinking and start moving.
2. Give your brain a second to learn
We constantly talk about the importance of exercising with a goal. But Fleetwood does something interesting when he gets to work on his short game. He hits absolutely no targets. Not a hole, not a flag, not a spot on the green. It works only in motion.
Fleetwood’s reasoning is that the moment a target enters the picture, your brain starts solving problems around it. You stop repeating a movement and start producing a result. Subtle tweaks drag on and suddenly you’re not rooting anything useful.
By completely removing the target, he gives his brain a moment to absorb the sensation of the swing without interference. Movement becomes the focus, not the result.
The idea is that once that move is in the groove, he can bring in a target and trust that the move he’s been rehearsing will show up when it counts. For amateurs who go straight to trying to open from 20 yards, it’s worth asking whether you’re really practicing a shot or a swing or just trying to get the ball to fall.
3. Walk before you run: my favorite food
This is my favorite, and I think it’s the concept that professionals almost never talk about because, to them, it’s assumed knowledge.
Fleetwood calls it calibration and he does it everywhere. On the range, he’s calibrating his shot and the starting line before he ever thinks about distance. In the bunker, he is systematically working through various lies and slopes. On the putting green, he’s warming up his legs to get a feel for the slope percentages, spinning fairways to confirm his alignment and hitting late shots with pace. He is building a picture of how the course (and its swing) is behaving that day, in those conditions, before asking himself to compete.
The assumption at the professional level is that you don’t just show up and play. First you gather information. You run the diagnostics. You learn the environment before you try to perform in it.
Most amateurs do the opposite. They hit a few range balls, a quick putt or two, head for the first tee, and then wonder why it took them six holes to find their game. This is the calibration phase; you’re just doing it on the course when it matters. Fleetwood does it before he gets there.
Final thoughts
I’ve always said that if you’re going to practice golf, you might as well practice it right. These tips won’t necessarily change your entire routine, but they may be worth incorporating if you’re trying to improve.
