What Are Your 2020 Golf Goals?

[Son of Seve]

Hi. I'm new to the forum. I'm from the United Kingdom & after playing off +2  25 years ago, I returned to golf 18 months ago after 20 years out. I'm now 48 years old &  already back off scratch & won my club Championship, so having to set the goals a bit higher this year. 

1) Win 2 trophies

2) top 5 finish in the English Mid Amateur championship

3) handicap down to +2 again

4) Europe beat USA in the Ryder cup.  😉

[Shermanator]

I think my primary long-term goal is to get to scratch, but getting there from now in a calendar year seems a little too lofty, and doesn't meet all of the metrics of being SMART (Specific - Measurable - Attainable - Realistic - Time-based).

 

That being said, I think reaching a 2.0 handicap index is doable with the time I have. In order to reach 2.0 and (ideally) scratch, I need to work on my weaknesses and make them my strengths, which GameGolf says is my short game and approach shots are my biggest weaknesses, see attached photo. 

I need to get better at getting up and down, over 10 rounds from Dec '19 thru mid Feb 2020, my short game is costing me over 4 strokes per round. Looking back, I'm getting up and down maybe 20% of the time. My bunker play is decent. But from the grass I'm just terrible. Too many duffs and thins. So I need to work on that. GOAL - Improve up/down to 50%

Hitting greens is also not a great strength, my GIR is probably around 33% (6/18). With me gaining strokes off the tee vs a scratch golfer, I immediately give it all back and then some with my iron and wedge play. If my iron play improves, it relies less on my short game, which would also save me strokes. Goal - Improve GIR % to 61% (11/18) - the average scratch golfer hits 12 GIR. I think a 2 handicap should be able to do 11. 

I think focusing more on putts has already begun to drop my strokes gained in that category. As I've seen around these forums, putting is a pretty simple task to master. I just need to actually focus on the green and not just "try and get this close". Every Shot Counts would say you want your putt to finish past the hole, so I need to really not leave putts short, but also not blow it 5 feet past the hole. Goal - Improve Strokes Gained putting to .5 vs a scratch golfer

 

I don't really need the driver drills as much. In fact, I probably shouldn't touch my driver at the range at all for a while. I don't want that skill to weaken, but it's already so many light years ahead of the other aspects of my game, that I don't need to worry about it. 

 

All that to finally get around to developing a practice plan to work on these weaknesses. I really like this video, I have copied his spreadsheet into google documents so I can easily track it on my phone. I'll tailor it more to my game, and hopefully over the next month or two I'll see my scores drop. Goal: Track and record my practice progress for 6 straight months with this spreadsheet. Hitting the golf course to practice or play at least 4x/week.

 

[Hogan72]

1.  Lower handicap from 9.6 to 6.5. 
2.  Improve accuracy from 100 yds in

3.  Improve overall flexibility and core strength 

4.  Learn how to hit a high cut - eliminate the snap hook. 

[NCGolfer]

Was a good year last year.  Accomplished most of my goals but still work to be done!  For this year:

1. Work on fitness/flexibility.  I have spent ZERO time on this and feel like it could be a big benefit for on (and off) the golf course.
2. Increased GIR.  Worked on the driver last year to great benefit.  Need to turn that into more GIR/nGIR for better scores.  Feel like the irons could be a lot sharper.
3. Win Club Championship - would be back to back to back.  🙂
4. Play more CGA tournaments.  Played first NC Mid-Am last year.  Need to keep playing in these to push my comfort zone and competition experience.

[Groucho Valentine]

Empty as many wallets as possible. 

[bweiss711]

Main goal for this year is to get to an 18 index.

The biggest way I plan to achieve this is to actually work on my game, instead of simply going to the course every now and then to smack the ball around.  In order to work on my game, I'm going to have to make an effort to make time for practice as well as regular tee times.  Practice needs to be specific and focused.  The basis for my practice will be Ben Hogan's 5 Lessons as well as active participation in a member swings thread here.

[Bonvivant]

On 11/26/2019 at 11:47 PM, Bonvivant said:

4. No club purchasing.

I like shiny objects sometimes (lots of the time), and I want to eliminate my desire for them to a certain extent. Going a season without purchasing something would be a big accomplishment, haha. I do need to replace my 5 Hybrid with something more suitable to the gap that I have, and I hope to do this before 2019 is out so that this goal can be on.

Well it only took 2 months for me to break this one. I've been playing vintage golf and was missing a couple of clubs for a full set. Bought a putter on Ebay and my buddy found the 9 iron i was missing while rummaging.

Still going to try to limit this but the goal is failed.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Bonvivant

[deadon500]

To play as much as I can ??????????????????????

[Edsland]

With my extra time at home after playing this game for 40 plus years im going to really work on proper chipping 

[Vinsk]

35 minutes ago, Edsland said:

With my extra time at home after playing this game for 40 plus years im going to really work on proper chipping 

@David in FL has just the solution for you!

[David in FL]

3 hours ago, Vinsk said:

@David in FL has just the solution for you!

Ha!

Actually, not this time.  For someone with the time and willingness to actually put in the work to learn to properly chip and pitch, that’s absolutely the best option!

 

[dennyjones]

Well.....

Times have changed.   My goal now is to just be able to play.   

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, dennyjones said:

Well.....

Times have changed.   My goal now is to just be able to play.   

Me too.

[Yukari]

Given the current situation, I would be delighted to be able to play regularly after June.

As for any improvement in my game, that would just be a bonus at this point.

[tehuti]

I am guessing this thread will have to reset once we are back to some semblance of normal. 

[iacas]

On 4/1/2020 at 12:53 PM, tehuti said:

I am guessing this thread will have to reset once we are back to some semblance of normal. 

Nah. My goals are unchanged.

[lastings]

my goals have now been updated to: 

1.  I hope I get to play some golf this year.  

thats it.  thats the list. 

 

 

[TN94z]

My 2020 ultimate golf goal is to get my handicap to a solid sub 5. The plan to accomplish this will be as follows:

-Work with my teacher twice a month, give or take. The number of times will be determined by how well I am demonstrating the things he has me working on.

-Lose weight/eat healthy/workout. This will include cleaning up my terrible diet, working out 4 times per week, and increasing my overall health, mobility, and cardio.

-Put the work in on my putting and short game. My wedges have become very inconsistent and I never work on my putting. It has always been pretty consistent, but has really been consistently barely missing some needed putts lately. I just need to work on making more putts.

-I plan on keeping up with some stats more this year. I kinda feel my way around what needs to be worked on from round to round, but I want some numbers to see what is actually lacking.

-Re-read lowest score wins to help with the stats.

-And last not but least, to get all of this done, I am going to dedicate more time to golf. I have had so much going on the last few years, that I have allowed my time for golf to slip away from me. Since joining my local club again, I really want to become one of the top players out there. It won't be an easy task but I'd like to be competitive in the club championship.

-Once I get some data via numbers for a big part of the year, I'll narrow those goals down to very specific numbers. That may be next year though.