What Are Your 2015 Golf Goals? Official Thread

[sumdude]

I've been playing for 14 months.

I've got many goals, here they are in rough priority order:

1. Learn to have more fun and enjoy golfing! No point in being uptight on the course.

2. Be able to get off the teeing ground with >200 yards (i.e. learn to hit my driver or 3w) . I'm taking a lesson with the pro I've been working with this weekend.

3. Ingrain my range swing enough to take it to the course reliably . This is largely a mental block - I'm trying to make the practice range as similar to a round as I can on occasion (switch clubs, take 2 min between shots, "play" a course on the range).

4. Gain distance on my longer clubs (3-6i, 3h, 3w/5w, driver) . This ties in with number 2, above.

5. Dial in <100 yard shots . I'm going to work on the Pelz wedge system (full, 3/4, half swings with three wedges) and learn how to control ball spin on the green.

6. Break 90 by November 2015 . I don't like score related goals (for me) but I think I should be able to break 90 at least once this year. If I can't I may seriously quit golf.

[Pretzel]

My goal for the 2015 season is to become a scratch or better golfer and make the golf team at the division II college I will be attending. I plan to implement strategies outlined in LSW to achieve this, including: - Using yardage books before tournaments to map out a gameplan with the lightest Easter eggs - Aiming for the center of the green outside of 100 yards - Continuing to improve my swing, using video more frequently and possibly subscribing to evolvr

[missitnoonan]

I have 2 tickets to Wednesday's practice round at The Masters.  27 years ago, I almost got to hit a shot on #12 Amen Corner.  Unfortunately, Fuzzy picked the Asian guy beside me instead.  So hopefully this will be my year to get that opportunity.

Secondly, to gain about 20 yards off of the tee and get to a single digit handicap.

That should do it.

[Lihu]

1) Getting key 2 with a full swing, sans injury.

2) Hope to get to 2 keys this year.

3) Start working on "ball striking".

4) Practice my short game 35% of the time I plan to practice.

5) Spend a lot more time actually playing golf.

Amending this.

Get past the first three chapters in LSW. I no longer have the haphazard wrist loading phenomenon, so it makes sense to plan my rounds at this point. Previously, I might have one week or month where I hit one distance and another would be yet another distance. At this point, it seems like I am swinging pretty much as fast as I can, and my wrists are loading the shafts as nearly the same way as I can every time.

Get both of the first two keys to an acceptable level, and start working on key 3 then work from item 3 and on.

My short game is pretty terrible at this point. I have no "feel" as to how far I need to hit. The pitches, bunker shots and putts are much smoother and easier, but I need to spend at least a month of playing to get a feel for their distances. I don't mishit any of the short game shots, but have no idea how much to put behind any shot.

Ball striking is my bane. I hit too thin at this point. I think I need to aim down into the ground more after the ball. I get no spin to speak of either, probably because I am sweeping the ball more than striking down.

I hope to be playing some decent golf before the end of the year.

[Royster1984]

My goals this year are to spend more time practising putting. 2nd goal get more consistent with the driver and 3 wood.

[RH31]

1. play 90 rounds

2. improve ball striking

[divot dave]

Last year the vast majority of scores were between 90 and 95 with 1 round > 100 and 1 round < 90.

This year I'd like to see the vast majority of my scores between 85 and 90 with outliers in the 70's and hopefully nothing above 95-97...

To accomplish this, I have three major points of emphasis...

1. Improve Key 3 inline impact which will improve the quality of ball striking.

2. Improve accuracy off the tee. I lose the majority of my strokes here.

3. Improve on course management and strategy.

These points of emphasis are being backed by a combination of lessons, video analysis and training at a newly opened indoor golf facility near my job which I joined the other day.

During the winter months the plan is to take full advantage of the indoor facility and work on the points established during a lesson I took over the holiday. I will be posting my progress on my swing thread during this time.

When my winter membership expires the plan is to begin with Evolvr and hopefully move on to new points of emphasis that can carry me thru the spring and summer months.

Periodically I will be taking lessons to focus on Driver work and will add any points of emphasis into the current regimen.

[Golfingdad]

Hmmm, my goals for this season:

1. Keep practicing smart and as often as possible.  All stupid monkey like too.
2. Keep that handicap going down at any rate.  Let's be a little ambitious and say the goal is to get it below 4.

I'm not going to make any tournament goals this year because I'm not sure how many I'm going to able to play in, so this year might be mostly just a "rebuilding" year focused on practice and improvement.

[treebound]

2015 goals:

1. Further upgrading/upgrading club selection now that my bag is basically conforming (one plan I had in 2014 was to update my clubs)

2. Figure out my actual distances for each club (I’d like to get a laser rangefinder this year, which will help with this goal)

3. play more golf than I did in 2014

4. improve my consistency via focused practice instead of just “hitting a bucket of balls at the range”.

5. improve my swing and hitting distances. I feel that this needs to come after and also along with #4.

6. establish my official handicap.  Even though I have a USGA handicap now, it is based on one round of golf so I don’t really consider it as “established”.

[bubble]

will try more range pro sessions hopefully 1 every month.

had about 3-4 for the last two years to start over from a very odd swing.

it took a long time but I'm really playing a lot less bad shots and the bad ones are much better shots as well. good shots are getting excellent sometimes yet erasing the bad ones is the best progress in my game as of now.

scoring average is going down slowly but good rounds are getting repetitive since the last 3 months.

the backdraft is I have not practicde putting a lot these past two years, just maintained it a bit. I only played on range and had lots of short game time.

nevertheless hitting the ball better and approaching better got me dwon form 32 putts average to 30.7. also I'm below two putts per green these last two years (1.95) and 1 birdie average per round in 2014 + 4 eagles.

so I do project to get back to putting before team nationals come up in march, may and july.

[sjduffers]

I am fairly new here, so I didn't have 2014 goals posted, but I met all but one of them: break 80 (done 6 times), get index under 10 (done, one revision at 9.8), get 33%GIR (not done, but came close at 30.5%).

I want to continue to improve and as such have started a lesson plan at GolfTEC.  That process started in October, but the goal was to have an effect in 2015. Already I changed my swing to mostly hit draws and have the club on plane (now my miss is a hook, when I stop turning, or lack extension)... I also wanted to improve my putting a bit (from 32.5 putts per round on average and 9% of 3-putt) and to that effect already got a new putter better fit for my stroke, my eye, my grip, etc...  The numbers have already improved to 31.4 putts per round and 7.5% of 3-putt, but I can probably do better still.  So, my goals for 2015 are:

1) Get the index under 8.0 and stay at least below 9.0 for at least a couple of months.

2) Shoot 10 rounds in the 70s

3) Shoot a personal best (currently 77) on a par 70 or higher course, meaning 76 or better.

4) Get the GIR to 45%

5) Get the putts to 30 putts per round on average with less than 5.6% of 3-putt (i.e. less than one per 18 holes on average)

6) Have a personal best putting round at 25 putts or less (probably scrambling quite a bit).  My current best is 27 which I reached several times last year and already once this year.

So, the goals are set, the first steps are already under way.  The key is goal #4. If it is met, the rest, except the putting goals, will probably take care of themselves.  Also, I will re-read and apply the principles in LSW more (work on the higher SV skills, be more precise with the game management concepts).

[golf-noob-bruce]

Pretty modest goals this year:

1. Break 100

2. Take a few lessons specifically on hitting my driver.

[jmsage]

Get to a 0 HDC

[Chad Ryan]

Big goals

Shoot even par or better for first time.

Reduce handicap from 2.7 to closer to 0

Little goals

Increase GIR's from 56% to 70%

Decrease average putts

[onthehunt526]

Well my '15 goals are very structured as follows, 1) Get HI back around 6, more practice on short game should help this. 2) Shoot level par or better at my home course (my best there since my accident is 74, with a double at 18) 3) Limit my big numbers and get the ball back in play and take doubles and triples out of play... 4) find a way to practice about an hour a day 3 times a week, and maybe play 3 times a week 5) Stop trying to fix everything myself and actually take a couple lessons... 6) have more fun 7) play one round of golf with only 3 clubs 8) I want to try to get into good enough shape to maybe attempt speed golf 9) I need to get a more forgiving set of irons (I hit my V-blades solid which are fit to me, but My misses are inconsistent 10) Play other courses than Newman, I got out to Hollybrook down in Spencer this year, but there are more courses around here I'd like to play, I think I can get 3-5 different courses in this year... 11 and 12) get my wife and daughter to play, Alina is a daddy's girl so Alina will probably be easy (though I'll probably wait until at least July or so when she's a little closer to 2), my wife Maybe the tricky one though, I can't explain how to swing the club to her, because I have never really even taken a lesson myself, so maybe I can get her a lesson or two before I take her out to the course...

Updated goal: try to play 60 rounds this year, I've been stuck in the upper teens in rounds played the last few years, hopefully with a membership I can squeeze in this goal... One more... actually play around the summer solstice, and attempt to get in 72 holes in one day walking, thinking I might organize a fundraiser for a junior golf program at Newman or something to that effect

[phillyk]

My initial thought for goals is nothing.  I obviously want to get my game more consistent with the swing changes I've made this winter.  But that's as far as it goes.  The problem is I don't know how good I can get with this new swing.  I was able to get a 64 and 65 last summer with the old swing, so I'm hoping this new swing gets me those scores more consistently.  I definitely feel a stronger golfer than I was last summer.  One goal I definitely have is to play better in the US Qualifiers than I did last year (if I play in it at all).  I do want to try and play in more competitive events, and place high.  But most of all, I want to enjoy golf more this summer and enjoy the ride of seeing how great I can get.

[ay33660]

Very simple ..... get to a single digit handicap.

Jan 2014 I was a 16.6 index. Finished in Dec 2014 as a 10.7 index.

I know it is not going to be easy to drop into the single digits but I am game.

[dkolo]

My goal for this year is a sub-15 handicap and breaking 85 on a par-72. Last year I wanted to get to below 20 and break 90. I got close on the handicap (got down to 22 from 30 in May when I started keeping track) and squeezed in my first 89 right after Christmas, so got it in just under the wire. I think the 85 is more realistic than the 15 handicap, but I think they're attainable now that I'm hitting driver instead of 3W on tee shots (first day of gaming driver again was the first sub-90 round, and I don't think it was a coincidence, haha).