Justin Rose

Golf no longer has a real off-season. That’s made me think hard about how to structure my schedule.

Professional golf used to operate as a traditional annual season with a break over winter. But the global nature of the game today means it never really stops. As a result, there’s no natural off-season and the way the top players approach their schedules has changed.

My off-season is looking like being three or four weeks from the first week of December until the New Year. It’s important to find your own breaks and what I’ve begun to prefer is figuring out more regular two-week breaks during the season and maybe one three or four-week break where I literally down tools instead of taking an eight or 10-week extended break at the end of the year. I have a rule of thumb that I like to put my clubs away until I get a bit itchy and miss it and want to play golf again. That’s usually about a two-week process for me.