How to find your spring groove. (Golf).

For CEO golfers who live in the North and the Midwest--and even many parts of the South--spring couldn't arrive soon enough this year. As the fierce winter just past buried fairways and greens under snow, golfers resigned themselves to putting on the carpet, swinging in the garage and watching the pros play in sunny climes on TV.

But now that the thaw has come, as eager as you are to rush onto the course, .it's important to ease back into the game. Banging too many balls too fast can cause injuries, not to mention bad swing habits and bouts of frustration. Here's a quick guide to regaining your groove:

Be sure to stretch. The golf swing exerts a toll on the body, placing torque on the back and shoulders and forcing the hands and wrists to move in a whiplike fashion. You can reduce your chances of pulling a muscle or straining a tendon by properly warming up, particularly when you're stiff from taking a few months off.

There are several key stretches for golf. Leading pros recommend, among other things, lying on your back with your head raised off the floor and bringing your knees to your chest; twisting your torso while standing with your feet shoulder-width apart; and, borrowing from baseball pitchers, stretching your arms across your chest and folding them back behind your head.

* Go easy at first. Once you're ready to pick up a club, spend a week simply swinging without hitting balls to build up your strength, suggests Dave Pelz, a teaching pro in Austin, Tex., who works with several PGA Tour players, including Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh. Then try hitting some balls with wedges, Pelz says, gradually moving up to longer clubs.

* Think rhythm, not power. "Your brain remembers what you used to do last fall when you were really ripping it, but it was warm and you had been swinging all spring and summer, says Pelz, who also teaches execs. "Now it tries to make that move and you can really hurt yourself."

* Keep your expectations low. Trying to shoot your best score -- or even just play to your handicap--will only frustrate you. Not only is your swing in less-than-midseason form in the spring, the golf course you're playing likely is as well. The fairways may be rutted in places, with clumps of semidormant turf, the greens bumpy and slow. Pelz suggests playing what he calls "personal better ball": Hit two balls off each tee, choose the best one, hit two balls from there and so on, until you hole out. The idea is to build your confidence and regain the feel of playing a good round.

Remember the words of the great Walter Hagen, says Gary Wiren, a noted pro who teaches at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla. Hagen, who won 11 major championships between 1914 and 1929, said he always expected to mishit five or six shots per round. "In the spring," says Wiren, you re going to have a little bit more of that. So you accept it and don't worry about what's wrong with me or what's wrong with my swing. It's part of the getting-ready process.

* Learn from your misses. A good sign that your game has come around is when you begin to consistently hit the ball on center of the club face, not off the toe or heel, says Jim Suttie, a nationally recognized pro who at this time of year teaches at Green Garden Country Club in suburban Chicago. He notes that you'll also start missing shots in the same direction, instead of spraying the ball right and left.

"Your timing comes back, your tempo and your rhythm and your balance," he says. Suttie calls these "the unknown factors" of the golf swing, fully as important as mechanics such as grip and setup. And, he points out, these intangibles probably won't fully return until summer.