Reflections from the DP World Tour: Two Weeks in Qatar & Bahrain

Spending two weeks in Qatar and Bahrain with the medical team on the DP World Tour is always a powerful reminder of what elite performance really looks like.

One of the most striking things about life on tour is the enthusiasm, work rate and genuine passion these players have for the game. What you see on TV on a Sunday is only a fraction of the physical and mental load they carry through the week.

What a “Typical” Week Looks Like

In a standard tournament week (with minimal travel), the schedule often looks like this:  

• Monday: Light practice, recovery, preparation
• Tuesday: Full practice day
• Wednesday: Full practice day + Pro-Am
• Thursday–Sunday: Competition (if they make the cut)

  There are very few true days off.   Many players will spend hours on the range, even on days when they’re not competing. Some are still grinding long after others have left. The volume of balls hit, time spent in practice swings, short game reps and gym work can be enormous.   But it raises an important question:   Is more always better?

The Practice Load Question

Every player has their own routines, habits and tolerance to stress. Some thrive on long hours. Others perform better with shorter, sharper sessions. Interestingly, some retired players reflect that parts of their careers involved over-practising, driven not by performance needs, but by fear. The fear that:

• If they stop, they’ll fall behind.
• If they practise less than their peers, they’ll lose ground.
• If they rest, they’ll get worse.

From a medical perspective, it’s hardly surprising we regularly manage:

• Neck pain
• Lower back issues
• Wrist injuries

  When you combine repetitive rotational loading with limited recovery, something eventually pushes back. And yet, these are the best players in the world. Many have developed these habits because, at some point, they worked. The real challenge is finding the line between productive training and compulsive accumulation.

Why We Need Better Practice Data

One thing I would love to see evolve in professional golf is better tracking of practice exposure. Imagine if we consistently recorded:

• Time spent on the range
• Number of balls hit
• Type of practice (technical vs random vs on-course simulation)
• Gym load
• Recovery days

Not to restrict players, but to understand them. Better data would help us:

• Understand true weekly workload
• Identify early signs of overload
• Correlate practice volume with performance
• Spot patterns of over-practising
• Give players confidence they’ve “done enough”

Sometimes reassurance is as powerful as an extra bucket of balls. For those of us building structured rehabilitation and performance systems (like we do inside the app), this idea is central: Load should be intentional, not accidental.

Saturdays on Tour: The Other Side of the Cut

Saturdays can be the most difficult day of the week. Around 60 players make the cut. Roughly 80 don’t. While the leaders are preparing for the weekend charge, others are left reflecting, sometimes questioning their game, their direction, even their career. The margins on tour are incredibly small. The difference between:

• A great year
• Keeping your card
• Losing status

… can be minimal. Ironically, a strong year can increase pressure:  

• Bigger house
• New car
• Higher expenses
• More expectation

More financial commitments When form dips slightly, the stress multiplies. Mentally, the load these athletes carry is enormous. It’s not something I envy.

Performance Isn’t Just Physical

Two weeks in the Middle East reinforced something important: Elite golf is not just about technique. It’s about load management, recovery, psychology and sustainability. The best players in the world aren’t just managing their swing, they’re managing:

• Their bodies
• Their practice exposure
• Their confidence
• Their careers

And sometimes, their identity.

Final Reflection

If there’s one takeaway from these weeks on tour, it’s this: Performance improves when training is structured, recovery is respected, and load is measured, not guessed. Whether you’re a tour professional or a club golfer using our app, the principles are the same. Do the right work. At the right intensity. For the right duration. And recover properly. More is not always better. Better is better.