Why Yoga and Golf?

October 17, 2026|Sandy Xie

Why I started doing yoga for golf, what happened at our first Bay Area Tee & Flow, and four poses you can try at home.

When you look up golf tips, it’s all “drop the arm, stay behind the ball, float your club, do this drill and it will fix your slice.” There are also endless clinics and gadgets to fix your swing, but all of it assumes the problem is your technique.

On the other hand, there’s plenty out there about the mental game, but it’s always advice aimed at your head — think this way, visualize the shot, and most of it isn’t telling you what to do with your body at the same time.

I don’t think you can separate training your body and your mind.

That’s why yoga is the “tool” that fixed my golf game.

Yoga is more than getting a stretch in

The biggest misconception about yoga is that it’s just about getting a stretch in, but it’s so much more than that. Without nerding out too much about yoga philosophy, which I’ll save for a later day… yoga is the combination of physical postures (asana) and breath work (pranayama) to form a mind-body connection, and the poses are just a small portion of it.

And sure, over time you do get more flexible, but it was never about flexibility for me. Because of my hyper-mobility, being flexible actually works against my golf game. I overswing and get out of alignment, which is why I’m working on shortening my backswing rather than trying to get any looser.

Tee & Flow

I got my 200hr yoga teacher training because I wanted to learn more and deepen my own practice, and Tee & Flow is our signature wellness event where I share what I’ve learned. We gather at the course to flow through a yoga practice together, then hit the range where you’ll feel the immediate differences in your body.

We hosted our first Bay Area Tee & Flow this past weekend at Mariner’s Point, and it was such a blast. The feedback we got was all a version of “woah, I have never felt this loose when swinging before.” You hold on to so much tension in your body that you stop realizing it’s there. Try taking a deep breath right now and see if your shoulders drop :)

Try these at home

Cat / cow - On all fours, wrists under shoulders and knees under hips. Inhale, belly drops, chest forward, look ahead. Exhale, press the floor away and round your back.
Thread the needle - From all fours, slide your right arm under your left and rest your shoulder and ear on the mat. Keep your hips stacked over your knees. Switch sides.
Low lunge twist - Right foot forward, back knee down. Left hand inside your right foot, right arm reaches up. Turn from your ribs, not your arms. Switch sides.
Figure four - On your back, cross your right ankle over your left knee and flex the right foot. Thread your hands behind your left thigh and pull it in. Switch sides