Tested: DF-18 Pre-Round Performance Drink

Let’s start with the basics. DF-18 is a powder you mix into your water or smoothie before your round or workout. It claims to enhance focus, reduce fatigue, improve muscle and exercise performance, and sustain hydration. One pack gives you plenty of Vitamin C, Vitamin B12, zinc and magnesium, among other nutrients, which is great.

RELATED: 7 Ideal Golf Snacks to Help You Finish Strong

What DF-18 doesn’t have is maybe just as important. It’s caffeine free and free of added sugars, with less than 1 gram of total sugars and 6g of total carbohydrates. This is all good stuff. We recommend snacks that give you a good combination of protein (DF-18 has 3g, about 6% of your daily value), Carbs, Fiber and Magnesium, and DF-18 delivers on three of the four, lacking only fiber.

The ultimate question, of course, is does DF-18 work? The folks at DF-18 were kind enough to send me a sample of the powder in order to find an honest answer to this question. I’ll preface this by saying that’s a tough question to answer. DF-18 is a preventative measure. At its core, it’s designed to prevent your late-round meltdowns that happen when you lose energy, focus and concentration. It’s hard to attribute the lack of a result to any specific measure.

With all that said, I took DF-18 before five rounds of golf, all of which I walked. I tried the mango peach flavor, and for a performance drink, I was more than satisfied with the flavor. During each round, I noted how I felt mid-way through the back-9 compared to when I teed off on the first hole. I definitely noticed stronger focus, energy and concentration throughout my entire round compared to when I didn’t use DF-19, and that feeling put into perspective how much my energy normally drops from the start of a round to the end, something I had never realized before.

However, despite feeling stronger with better focus and concentration through the most important stretch of my rounds when taking DF-18, I sadly cannot report any impact on the scorecard. 

DF-18 is sold in 10, 20 or 30 packs of powder that you mix into your drink. You can save money by buying in bulk, and by setting up a monthly subscription, but if you start with a one-time purchase of the 10-pack, it costs $4 per pack. You can get that cost down to just under $3 per pack if you want basically a drink a day by setting up a subscription to get a 30-pack every 30 days.

I believe almost every golf product is good for certain golfers. It’s not a matter of whether DF-18 is good, because it is. It’s more a question of who should use DF-18?  

After trying it on the course, I’d recommend DF-18 for the following types of golfers:

• Golfers who compete in any type of league or tournaments;
• Golfers pushing themselves to shoot a goal score or reach a new level of play;
• Golfers who keep score as if it’s the final round of the U.S. Open even when playing alone;
• Golfers who get fatigued late in rounds, lose focus and tend to have one or two “blow up” holes down the stretch.

If you don’t take your golf scores too seriously, already have a disciplined pre-round meal and mid-round snack plan, or feel that $3-4 dollars per round is too expensive, the benefits of DF-18 might not be for you.

Playing a round of golf demands a lot from your body. From your swing, to the focus and concentration required, and all the walking (even if you’re using a cart), golf takes a toll. While taking DF-18 can’t guarantee you’ll shoot lower scores, it can help put your body in the best position possible to finish off a strong round or avoid a late round-killing collapse.