Four hours???? You have to be joking. Good one!!
All you really need is a half hour, 45 minutes tops. Do some stretching of your back and legs.... then take a couple of clubs and make some easy full swings to stretch your shoulders, chest and arms. Hit some balls, starting with the short irons and just get a nice tempo going......don't worry about where the ball is going. Work your way up to the long irons, the hybrids, and then the driver. I don't try to hit every club. I probably only hit about 5 or 6 of them, at most. Hit a few chips and a bunker shot or two. Then hit the putting green. Putt a few 30-40 footers from different angles to get the speed, then putt a few 5 footers to finish. Really focus on making the 5 footers as you will almost always have at least 6 of them EVERY round, some for par, some for birdie.
If you only have 5 minutes (which should never happen in a tournament), the stretching is more important that anything else.
If you have swing thoughts that you want to work on, those are better worked on AFTER the round. Use the pre round range session to warm up and get loose. You don't need to be trying something new "to see how this works" in a tournament.
As far as playing in tournaments, treat it exactly like a regular round of golf. The more you build it up the more pressure you put on yourself and you take yourself out of your comfort zone. Don't take foolish gambles and don't try to hit shots that have a lot of risk without a lot of reward (as an example, hitting to a back right flag with a right to left wind and trouble near the green). Believe me, NOBODY else cares what you shoot, so don't be embarrassed or self conscious on the course, or the first tee especially. The pros have to make a lot of birdies to win, all amateurs have to do is make par after par after par. So take what the course gives you and don't try to force it.
We all fail far more often than we succeed, so don't be disappointed if you don't play your best. Get back on the horse and play another tournament. The more you play, the more natural the feeling becomes.
