Hitting the golf links before you’re ready could ruin the season for you before it even starts.

Golf injuries often occur in the spring, says Steve Oostrom, an Ottawa-based course examiner and owner of MyGolfClinic.com. If you head out onto a course and start swinging a club as hard as you can without having exercised or practiced during the winter months, you risk spraining muscles and spending more time in the clubhouse than on the fairway. Keeping your muscles limber can prevent injury.

Here are five tips from Oostrom on how to make sure you are ready for your first tee-off:

1. Keep swinging year-round
Daily practice will help you feel comfortable with your golf swing.

If you are an avid golfer, you should take 50 to 100 practice swings, without a club, every day during the winter, Oostrom says. If you play less frequently, 25 to 50 will suffice.

2. Check your clubs
Take a good look at the grips of your golf clubs to make sure they are ready for the season.

If the grips on your clubs are dry, shiny or cracked, Oostrom says, you are not going to be able to hold them properly. That can affect your swing.

You can either buy new grips, he says, or wash the old ones with warm water, dish soap and a hard-bristle brush.

3. Go for a walk
Start exercising now to make sure you are ready for your first round of the season.

Walking an entire 18-hole golf course is roughly equivalent to travelling six to eight kilometres, Oostrom says. So, you should be in decent shape before your first tee-time.

Once the weather is nice, go out and walk four or five blocks every day, he says. It doesn’t take long and will help get your legs and arms moving and your heartbeat up.

4. Go for a drive
Prepare for the season by going to a driving range before heading out onto the green.

“You have to start hitting golf balls,” Oostrom says. “You don’t just tee up.”

Once the spring weather starts to show itself, find a local driving range or public golf course and, once or twice a week, buy a bucket of balls and start swinging.

5. Book a lesson
Some professional help will help you get rid of any bad habits before you start the season.

“Take a lesson,” says Oostrom. “It’ll really help you enjoy the game a lot more if you get some advice first thing in the spring.”

Make sure that lesson is with a registered Professional Golfers’ Association or a Canadian Golf Teachers Federation professional, he says. The lesson should cover the fundamentals of the golf swing: grip, stance, posture and alignment.