Rates of improvement

[Liam97]

I am 17 years of age and have been playing golf regularly (once a week and range 3-4 times a month) since last august. I was currently in the process of getting my handicap and regularly hit low- mid 80's. I predict my handicap will be around 15 so I'm quite pleased with that. My question is, how much improvement will I see if I play regularly for the next year before I go off to uni in September of 2015. I know rates of improvement slow down as you get better but I just wanted the opinion of some more experienced players to see what I can aim for while while staying realistic :-)

[mvmac]

There are so many things to consider that no one can tell you exactly how much you'll improve by playing more.

Here's a good thread on improvement. Good luck on lowering the handicap!

[StBarnard]

Good thread mvmac.  Thanks for posting it.

[BrownCoast]

just remember theres also a good chance that you'll get worse for a bit before you improve. at 17 your body is still growing and if you start packing on weight and muscle then your body just wont twist like it is used to and you will probably have to learn a somewhat new swing new distances i.e 8 iron goes from 130 yards to 150 yards you might loose some of your fines in putting. but if you stick to it and keep hitting the range or work with a coach or just take a few (or few more) lessons then your body will pick up on its old routines of what you did right and will improve in that way by hitting further or straighter. you might not see it directly in your score right away but you'll see it in distance or accuracy or things like that

[dfreuter415]

My question is, how much improvement will I see if I play regularly for the next year before I go off to uni in September of 2015. I know rates of improvement slow down as you get better but I just wanted the opinion of some more experienced players to see what I can aim for while while staying realistic .

There are too many variables to make any prediction on your improvement, but the factors include:

- How much time you invest in practice

- How much talent that you have for playing the game

Just remember that playing regularly and practicing are two completely different things. You can play 6 days a week and not make any improvement, because all you are doing is doing the same things, right or wrong, over and over.

Practicing is a different animal. When you practice, you take a weak point of your game and try to make improvements, using various drills to create new habits or "muscle memory." You then take those new habits to the course, and see how it affects your game. With the proper amount of drill and practice, and feedback from using it on the course, you can then see real improvement over a given period of time.

Good luck on your journey. May you lower your handicap threefold.