Although many amateurs heading out onto the golf course either choose or are forced to avoid visiting the practice range before a round, thus hitting their opening shot while as stiff as a brick and leading to unfavorable results, the same is hardly ever said for professionals.
Most pros arrive at the course at least a couple of hours before their official start time in order to stay relaxed, sufficiently fuel their bodies, and properly tune up using every club in the bag.
Yet, one DP World Tour pro - who is enjoying a fine season - has decided to miss out on that allegedly-important range time to do things his own way. A tactic that seems to be working reasonably well.
Englishman Joe Dean had played four DP World Tour events across 11 years before the 2024 season, one of which was the 146th Open Championship - at which he finished T70.
The 29-year-old's game eventually kicked on to new levels, though, and he qualified for some European Tour starts late last year through Q-School but only managed to attend his first event in February (the Qatar Masters) due to travel costs.
While his first start of the year was perhaps one to forget, his second was life-changing. At the Magical Kenya Open, Dean ended in a tie for second and earned himself $215,109.33 (£170,000). The former supermarket delivery driver has not looked back since.
In the tournaments since Kenya, Dean has earned more than $900,000 and has locked up a full DP World Tour card in 2025 - partly due to his own unique style of warm-up.
He has enjoyed an incredible breakthrough campaign without joining everyone else on the practice range before heading out for his 18 holes, instead choosing to simply focus on chipping and putting in the build-up.
Asked to explain his methods before the final round of the KLM Open this week, at which Dean lost out in a playoff to Guido Migliozzi, the 30-year-old said: "It's just something that I've worked on over the last couple of years.
"It's just been something where I've played well after not going to the range. If anything, I almost feel too loose [after the range], if that makes sense.
Straight down the middle with an early tee pick up!🤩@joedean_golf's first shot of the day (literally)...#KLMOpen https://t.co/gWFFogmolv pic.twitter.com/PBIm6N21qyJune 23, 2024
"I'm just trying to get more feel from coming straight here [to the short-game area] and seeing what I've got."
From a scoring point of view at The International in the Netherlands, Dean's choice led to a tidy start all week - with four pars from four on the first. He bogeyed the second twice but then also managed to generate an opening birdie on the par-5 third a couple of times.
And before heading out onto the 18th once again to see if he could pick up just a second pro win and first on the DP World Tour via a playoff, Dean was pictured sipping on a soda in the bar rather than fine-tuning his shots. While it didn't quite pan out how the Englishman would have liked on this occasion, it does seem like Dean's time is coming...
