Golf hydration is the name of the game, no joke, if you are not well hydrated, it’s game over.
Don’t make the mistake of not drinking your fluids. Don’t sip on your coffee from earlier that morning or you have a six pack of beer to finish.
Playing golf while your body is begging you for water and electrolyte is probably the worst thing you could do for your round. Your vision can start to blur, joints start to ache and to make things worse you could get a headache in the middle of your round. You get exhausted much faster especially if you’re walking the course.
Liquid IV
I love this stuff, I have been using this hydration multiplayer for a few years now. Liquid i.v. uses cellular transport technology, which basically means you will hydrate faster.
It’s very easy to use, you pour one pack into 16 oz of water and that’s equivalent to drinking 3 bottles of water.
I usually pour one pack into 32 oz of water, this would be equivalent to drinking (
I purchase a box of 30 from
The ingredients in this product are top notch and they actually use real cane sugar, which is apart of the hydration process.
They have a pretty cools story behind the product and why they developed it.
I would highly recommend this product Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier
Here’s the nutritional facts
Here’ A List Of Electrolyte Drinks For Golf
Hydrant
Drip-Drop
Scratch Labs
GoodOnYa
Nuun Sport
Here’s Those Products In A List!
My Thoughts On Staying Hydrated
Drink the clear liquid, I don’t mean sprite and not just see through stuff because beer would fall into that category along with a bunch of other drinks.
I was watching the news one night and they mentioned that 75 percent of all americans fall short of the recommended daily 10 cups of water.
Which means most
This is really bad considering the effects of being dehydrated can have on you.
I would say you are putting yourself at a disadvantage by not staying hydrated, on the golf course and off.
I list below a couple of really good products that you can add to your water that will hydrate your body much faster.
These things that I recommend are by no means required but they get the job done much faster.
What Do I Notice When I’m Dehydrated While Playing Golf
I notice a lot about my body when I’m getting dehydrated, my vision starts to become blurry.
My joints start to ache and I feel much more exhausted after a round if I didn’t stay hydrated.
I will generally start to see my game steadily declined throughout the day. This is due to many reasons like my body just getting tired from swinging the clubs but it’s also because my body is dehydrated.
I’ll admit, I don’t pack enough water sometimes and my body and my score
Putting becomes much more difficult because I can’t always see the line.
I would say generally overall hitting the golf ball is much more difficult too. Which means I need to try and focus more but this becomes difficult.
I’m focusing on things that I could have prevented by staying hydrated. It’s a vicious cycle!
Number 1 – Blurred Vision
I’m not sure if other people have issues with this but if I’m doing something physically demanding and I’m not drinking enough water then my eyes start to get blurry. When I re-hydrate, my vision becomes much better.
This is something I didn’t start noticing until I started playing golf again. If you’ve read some of my other posts, you will know I pick the game back up in my mid-twenties.
Maybe it’s an age thing, I’m 32 now at the time of writing this post with much more gray hairs then I thought I was going to have.
Unfortunately I don’t think drinking enough water will keep the gray hairs away, but that’s okay.
Number 2 – Body Aches
Walking 18 holes isn’t easy, especially if you carry your bag, which I don’t do by the way but pushing your cart isn’t easy either.
A golfer can walk one and a half times whatever the scorecard yardage says, and if you’re a new golfer, you could probably double that.
If you have any past injuries, these can become magnified, not just from walking and playing but from becoming dehydrated too.
I have a lower back injury from weight lifting, this comes with all sorts of issues. One of the things I notice is that I’m sorer after a round if I don’t drink much water.
\Maybe I’m wrong though and it’s just my golf swing that is causing some pain and water has nothing to do with it.
Number 3 – Muscle Cramps
Have you ever had a charlie horse? These are no fun at all, at least I think they’re no fun because I think I got one when I was a kid.
When I was playing a lot of sports, I was walking down the hallway of my house after playing a basketball game outside during the summer.
My quad muscle on my right leg locked up and I dropped to the floor instantly.
I couldn’t straighten my leg for about 15 minutes and the pain was so bad I could not stop crying.
Imagine if that happened while playing golf or something similar, this would be awful.
I don’t take risks like that, golf is too expensive of a sport for me to quit in the middle of a round because of a muscle cramp.
Plus, nobody wants to see a grown person crying on the fairway because they can’t straighten their leg.
I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, just thinking of the pain brings back bad memories.
Number 4 – Concentration
This is another sign of dehydration, the decisions you make on the course are affected in such a bad way.
Trying to read a difficult putt, reading a putt is tough enough so having an unclear mind due to dehydrations isn’t fair to your game.
You should be focusing on the shot at hand, instead you’re still focused on the bad putt you made on the hole before.
Drinking water could become part of your
This will surely help with hydration and will probably prevent you from being dehydrated.
It doesn’t have to be in your
Number 5 – Headache
Nothing worse than trying to play with a throbbing headache but just imagine if you had all the other symptoms above.
If you get a headache and you don’t have something to help with the pain like
You could get a headache for other reasons as well, like not having your morning cup of coffee or your daily dose of sugar.
This has certainly happened to me, not drinking my morning cup of coffee.
Headaches are tricky but I would say your odds of not getting a headache are much better.
Think About It
The average water in a male body is between 60% and 65%, we’re made up of water, our body can’t function properly when dehydrated.
I read an article of a man who suffered from heat stroke while playing a local tournament on a couple of extremely hot summer days.
His body was depleted of electrolytes and he passed out while driving his golf cart.
Playing golf on a hot summer day without water is very dangerous and downright reckless.
Beside the fact that you could suffer a bad score because of it, you risk potentially suffering long term damage to your body.
Dehydrated Golf Performance Solutions
Drink Plenty of Water
I know, you’ve heard this before but it’s true and if you don’t have the proper water bottle then it makes it difficult.
I love those Hydro Flasks insulated thermoses, they keep the water cold for 24 hours which is awesome on those hot days.
Be careful with these, you can literally create such a strong vacuum with these water bottles.
I left my water bottle in the refrigerator overnight with the lid off so the next day I could
The water was so cold and the temperature outside was so hot that it created such a strong suction that I could barely open the lid.
Sports Drinks
Powerade and Gatorade have electrolytes that can help with dehydrations but these tend to have loads of sugar in them.
If you
This way you get much more water and less sugar but also getting something that
Liquid I.V.
Celtic Sea Salt, Lemon and a Splash of Honey
This is another way to make sure your body has what it needs to perform at top level, plus it’s all natural.
The minerals in
- Sodium
- Potassium
- Magnesium
- Calcium
- Chloride
- Phosphates
- Sulfates
This is what makes up electrolytes and
This drink taste really good too, it’s close to an Arnold Palmer but loaded with healthy sugars and minerals.
I actually drink lemon water and honey every morning before work on an empty stomach.
I feel great after drinking it and it doesn’t make me hungry
Here’s how I make it:
- Couple slices of lemons
- Teaspoon of honey
- 1/4 Teaspoon
- 12-16oz of water
Mix it up well, I usually take a fork and squeeze out all the lemon juice before I add water to the glass.
You can add more or less of the ingredients to fit your taste better. Check out the Celtic Sea Salt that I use.
Choose Your Food Wisely
Try not to eat a couple slices of pizza before your round. Choose your food wisely because you don’t want your body to feel like you can’t drink any water because you are too full.
I would suggest eating if you are hungry obviously but don’t stuff your face.
Bananas, apples, granola, Cliff Bars, Power Bars, Sandwiches, there’s so many foods you can take out on the course that are easy to eat.
The foods listed can provide you with what you need and won’t make you feel like you can’t move because you ate too much.
Drink Your Water Consistently
Especially on the hot days, if you can take sips every swing as I mentioned above you should be good depending on how hot it actually is.
If it’s pushing 100 and high humidity, you better be taking gulps of water and something to replenish your nutrients.
Dress Appropriate
If you’re wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans because when you arrived at the golf course it was so cold.
But the morning passes and now it’s much warmer, you’re going to be sweating like crazy.
Especially if you’re walking and maybe you didn’t even bring water because the forecast said mostly cloudy, but turned out to be a hot beautiful day.
How often do the weather forecasters get the forecast wrong? Where I live, Pacific Northwest, they get it wrong 9 times out of 10.
All they do now is report what’s happening as it’s happening and call that forecasting.
I don’t mean to offend you by the way if you’re a weather forecaster but it can be frustrating.
What You Don’t Want To Drink And Eat
Coffee
One cup probably isn’t going to hurt but if you’re drinking it and not drinking water, you’re in for dehydration pains.
Not to mention that drinking too much coffee can give you the caffeine jitters and that’s no fun on the first tee.
If you really want to drink coffee that bad, you might want to consider diluting it a bit with water. Or maybe for every sip of coffee you take one or two sips of water.
Beer
I don’t think you get dehydrated right away when you drink beer but you definitely have to use the restroom quite a bit.
Which takes liquids out of your body if you don’t sweat them out. Plus, you alter your state of mind which results in potentially great shots and really crappy shots.
I would say, if you drink beer you should consider a 1 to 1 ratio of beer to water.
Soda
Soda is loaded with sugar which depending on how well your body processes sugar is a good thing or a bad thing. I would suggest you try to avoid a high sugar drink because it doesn’t offer you anything nutritious.
Wine
I have never played or heard of anyone drinking wine while playing golf but if this is something that you do then I would say Don’t Drink Too Much.
High Sodium Foods
Any food that is covered in salt is probably not the best in general, even though I’m a huge fan of salty fries, chips etc. Try to keep the salt to a minimum because your body will be craving water if you eat salty foods before a round of golf.
Bottom Line
You need to make drinking water a priority, there’s no excuse for you getting dehydrated. Make it a necessity to stay hydrated, that means being conscious of the amount you’re consuming per hour or minute or hole.
Don’t fall victim to dehydration because there’s more symptoms than what I mentioned above. Dehydration can be life threatening and if you are playing golf and not drinking water than this could literally be dangerous.
Don’t fall victim to this preventable problem, drink, drink and drink some more. But don’t over drink ; )