How good is good enough for your game?

[9wood]

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

 

[Lihu]

40 minutes ago, 9wood said:

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

 

1. I think 10 is a comfortable level, but there's always that desire to get better for a variety of reasons such as not liking to mishit shots. It's a terrible feeling.

2. I'm satisfied with my game, but there's always room for improvement. Even if my score does not improve, it feels good making the greens in two or three shots.

3. I feel like I can devote less and less time to maintain a decent level of play. If I wanted to improve into the low single digits, I would imagine it would take a lot of time and effort. I would be spending too much time playing and honing my skills instead of getting exercise and relaxing my mental state.

My son is about a 3HC (6 when off season), I just played a round with him after he had a 1 and a half month hiatus from playing golf. All but 4 pars came pretty easily on the 6027 yard course, and he bogeyed 4 holes so he shot to a roughly 4HC and it was a "bad" day for him. Meanwhile, I shot 13 strokes over with my "good" game. It seems like to get to 3HC requires a lot of consistency, and you are making birdie putts at least 10 times a round. I can't imagine myself doing that even if I put 6 hours a day into it.

I am pretty much convinced getting to the low single digits is natural ability that is brought out at a young age. He puts in about 6-8 hours a week into this game during play league, but 4-6 hours a day during golf season with his high school team mates. There's also something about playing with other competitive high school students that makes you really focus on every shot or putt.

This is why I say that 10HC is a "comfortable" level. There's no real pressure to perform you get to play naturally, and if you duff or OB a shot it's not a big deal. . .

 

[imsys0042]

16 minutes ago, 9wood said:

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

1.         I tried my best on every shot and didn't make "stupid" mistakes.   normal mistake is a bad swing.  stupid mistake was trying to hit something really hard or making a dumb choice like the wrong type of shot around the green.  or completely forgetting that the green that I've played 300 times breaks the other way.

2.     With the amount I can play and practice, I would say handicap wise 3.0.   But beyond that, I would be happy when the quality of my misses were sufficient to score 76 or lower on a given day.

3.    playing three times per week and practicing several times per week (before/after round plus dedicated times of 30 minutes 3 times per week).   Plus keeping a note-book with my home course information and stats at night.

 

I actually put in a huge effort this year.   I practiced 3 times per week and played as much as I could.   I entered every tournament that I could to get used to the pressure of playing in them.   I played about 115 times since March when the course opened and went from a peak of 13.5 (I started at 11.1, but some worked on some changes that ballooned me up a bit) to a low of 8.0.   I finished the year at 8.4, and since I had to stop posting I've maintained that ability score-wise.   I have two small kids at home so I basically gave up doing anything else to work on my game.   I hope to further improve next year by taking more lessons and working on my putting.

[Grumpter]

1) It's a moving target. If I reach a level that is good enough and stay there for extended period then the target line of what is good enough is moved.

2) See 1

3) 700'ish hours a year seems to be about my max if my back cooperates. My idea of devote may be different than yours though. I can't think of much more devotion than committing about 5.5'ish hours of my time and $50'ish x 125 times this year. I'm not much of a range rat and tend to get my practice on the course.

[DaveP043]

56 minutes ago, 9wood said:

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

Good enough is probably always going to be "just a little bit better"

I've played some of the best golf of my life over the last few years, so I'm not dissatisfied.  On the other hand, there's always room for improvement.

Here's the real issue, at least for me.  I love to play, and most weeks in the season I get to play Saturday and Sunday, usually 9 during the week, but I really only practice one day a week.  This schedule has helped me drop my handicap by one to two strokes over the last two years.  I really don't see myself devoting much more time than I do already.  

[DrvFrShow]

Scorpio, Year of the Dragon, Type A personality. I've learned I cannot play competitively because it saps all of the fun out of the game. It turns it into a job. I had to take time off from the GHIN system last summer to find out why I took up the game in the first place by playing a series of practice rounds. 

I may not re-up my GHIN next season and just play fun golf playing reasonably within the ROG realizing my score doesn't mean anything but then again, unless you're playing in high level competition, does your score mean anything anyway? This doesn't mean I don't want to play decent fun golf. 84-86 would be a good score. I don't think I'm going to do any better. 

[No Mulligans]

Good enough to consistently beat my buddies so they have to buy the after round meal and drinks.  I'm not there yet.

Seriously though, I think a big appeal of golf for me is the road to improvement.  That's what I enjoy.  Golf is unique in that it has such a good yard stick which is the scorecard and handicap system.

I suppose there is no such thing as good enough.

[zero]

Good enough for me is playing a whole round with the same ball. It's being able to understand what's happening in my game so I can do something about it. It's remembering why I'm out there in the first place. So I think if I'm doing it right, I'm always improving in a way that's positive and exciting. Good enough will never happen but perfect will.

[Golfingdad]

1 hour ago, 9wood said:

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

 

1.  @DaveP043 and @Grumpter both said it perfectly.  "Good enough" is a moving target that will always be a little bit better than I am currently.  And that definition works while you're improving AND after you've crested and start getting worse. :)

2. Also similar to what Dave said ... I'm pretty satisfied with how I've been playing in the last couple of years because I've been playing the best I've ever played and steadily improving.  The satisfaction mostly comes from the steady improvement though.  As long as that continues, I'll continue to be satisfied.

3. 2-3 hours a week practicing and as much playing time as I can possibly dig up - which is currently about 30 rounds a year.

[Pretzel]

1 hour ago, 9wood said:

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

 

1) I currently define "good enough" as one over par or better for 18 holes, but like others mentioned it is a moving target.

2) I don't think I'll ever achieve a lasting satisfaction with my golf game. I will certainly be satisfied on days, and I have been satisfied on days I've played well in the past, but I don't forsee myself being completely satisfied ever since I will never always play "good enough". It's rather self-defeating, but it motivates me to continually improve.

3) Well, this coming spring and summer (starting when I get back to college from winter break on January 6), I plan to spend at least 2 hours a day at the course practicing, if not more when I head out to play. I would like to play for my college team, which is division I, so I plan to bust my butt to get there.

[rkim291968]

1. Never

2. Around 12 HI

3. Going forward in my retirement, I plan to play 4 rounds per week, and practice every day for 30 mins to 90 mins.  

[mcanadiens]

1. In the long term there is no such thing. In the short term I'll take an 85.

2. It might be the day I quit playing. Without the hope of getting better, I don't know if I'd go on or not.

3. Not sure, but it's way more time than I currently have.

[bmartin461]

2 hours ago, 9wood said:

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

 

I play golf and I play chess, I think I chose these as there is no way to master either.   So I agree with the others on #1, I think I will always want to improve over where I am today, but that is also the fun part of it.

For #2, I think I would be satisfied if doubles or worse only happened once every few rounds instead of several times a round.  My original goal was to be able to play any course, which I think I'm at the level to do now.  

For #3, given my life situation at the moment, I can realistically only give 4-5 hours a week tops, so the progress will be slow, but hopefully steady.

[GolfLug]

1 hour ago, 9wood said:

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf?

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game?

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you?

 

1. Current level Shooting 77-79 from 6500-6600 yards. So maybe around or sub 5 HCP.

2. Maybe 2 shots better than that, once I can devote more time in the next 5 years or so when kids get older. IMHO with a 235 -240 yard drive it would take exceptional amount of work (for me) to get better than that.

3. For now 10-15 mins a day without a ball at home. 1 round a week. Realistically that is all I can give up unless there is a massive career change which I don't foresee.

[Patch]

When I become "completely" satisfied with my game is when I most likely will be playing less. Right now since I am hovering around 80 most days I feel pretty good where my game is at. This considering what it was 5 years ago. 

Right now I devote about 20 hours a week playing and practicing. Some weeks more, some weeks less less. That's  more than enough for where I want my game to be. Too much other stuff going on in my life right now. 

Golf for me is just a form of challenging  relaxation. Shooting a score in the high 70s is fun, but then again a low 80s score is just fine too. 

[nickyreno]

1. How good is good enough when it comes to your game of golf? It will never be good enough. As soon as complacency sets in, there is no longer room for improvement.

2. At what point would you become satisfied with your game? Never!

3. How much time would you be willing to devote to the game of golf to get your game to a level that would satisfy you? Willing: 24/7 365. Able: 2 days a week tops.

My current goals to get myself to the next level:

• Scoring Average: 69
• Driving Distance: 300
• GIR: 80%
• Scramble: 50%
• Putts: 1.5

I am currently a 12 handicap. I hope to break into single digits by the end of next season. And hopefully break 5 by 2020.

 

[Patch]

19 minutes ago, bmartin461 said:

I play golf and I play chess, I think I chose these as there is no way to master either.   So I agree with the others on #1, I think I will always want to improve over where I am today, but that is also the fun part of it.

For #2, I think I would be satisfied if doubles or worse only happened once every few rounds instead of several times a round.  My original goal was to be able to play any course, which I think I'm at the level to do now.  

For #3, given my life situation at the moment, I can realistically only give 4-5 hours a week tops, so the progress will be slow, but hopefully steady.

Funny you should mention playing Chess. I took a bad knock on my head a few years ago. Put me in a coma for quite a while. Part of my continuing mental therapy is to play chess against my computer. This therapy also helps with my on course, golf thinking process, since course management is sort of a chess game in itself. 

[SteveH]

Like others, good enough is a moving target for me. I am a very driven person when it comes to improvement and will work at something constantly to see results. I play and/or practice nearly every day in the summer since retiring and my index has dropped from just over 16 to around 12 in 2 seasons. I had it to mid 11's this summer but ended with just over 12 ( I put the blip down to having to change equipment mid season due to theft). My goal for the coming season is to get my index to a single digit. Last year I took some lessons in spring that helped to remedy a couple of faults that I did not want to keep working on improving, lol.  I will likely do the same this year.