What Are Your 2015 Golf Goals? Official Thread

[rkim291968]

Current HI = 19.  2015 HI target = 16.   Keep total putts per round = 32-, GIRs = 4+, Driving average = 200+, number of OBs = 1-, number of pars = 5+

Win a club tournament.

Make a hole in one or get an eagle.

Play Bandon Dunes.

Get custom fit golf set.

Don't kill myself when 1 - 5 ends in utter failure.

Quarterly update above.   Bold is added.   Strike thru items are done.   Hope to revise my HI target ti something lower than 16 in the next update if things go well.

2nd quarter update.  More strike-throughs.

[onkey]

1. Get my handicap to single digits, even if it's only fleeting.

2. Avoid my yearly slump where I completely forget how to play the game.

3. Beat my brother in the majority of our matches (30 years of getting it handed to me is enough)

I plan on reaching these goals by becoming a better student of the game.  I'm going to spend more time learning my own abilities and limitations to cut down on the number of stupid things I do on the course.  I also intend to gain a better understanding of the physics of golf so I can develop potential improvements.

1. Attained - my handicap has been in the single digits since the first of May and is currently at 7.9

2. So far I only endured a couple of rounds of feeling lost but was able to right the ship fairly quickly

3. My brother doesn't want to have anything to do with playing against me right now

I cannot overstate the value of lessons from a the right professional.  My handicap has dropped 3 strokes this year and a total of 5 over the past two years. I am thinking less and swinging easier with more power and accuracy than I've ever had.

[kpaulhus]

Here are my 2014 stats and scores.

My 2015 goals are:

FIR: 55%

GIR: 40%

Putts per hole: 1.6

20 rounds under 80

5 rounds under 75

Hopefully <5 Handicap. Currently I am an 8.1.

Here is my mid year update. Not playing as much golf as I would like (only 28 rounds YTD). With 5 months to go, I think I can get another 40+ rounds in.

FIR: 43.4%

GIR: 34.6%

Putts Per Hole: 1.8

3 Rounds Under 80

1 round under 75

Still an 8.1 Handicap , though it slipped up for a few revisions.

[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).

Another update. Some good, some not so good.

1) The index got down to 8.8 for one revision, but as crept again to 9.3.  Still, it has been under 10.0 since May 1st, so that goal hasn't been literally met, but I am just off by under 1 point.

2) I have 8 rounds in the 70s thus far, so I feel confident that this one will be met by year end

3) I did have the personal best a couple of months ago with 75 (par 72)

4) The GIR has been regressing lately (to under 30%), but at least the short game is picking up the slack, with better scrambling and up-and-down percentages.

5) The putting has improved a bit lately, but still above 31 putts per round. The 3-putt stat is at 7.5% currently, but it was under 5.6% for a month or so a couple of months ago.

6) Met the goal of a round with 25 putts.  Ironically, it was on a day that I hit zero greens, none, zip, nada, zilch!  It was a good scrambling day though (with 11 1-putts and 7 2-putts).  Also had a couple of more "normal" rounds with 26 putts...

So even the goals I had set were fairly ambitious (for me), I feel like I am almost there meeting them. Gotta keep trying some more...

[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 ...

5 down, 7 to go it's August 10 I want to go play Soaring Eagles and Cornell damn it...

[Helmet]

Heal as quickly as possible from a torn ACL so I'm not beefing my swing.

[jbishop15]

General Goals:

- Beat my lowest score ever (73).

- Get to a three handicap (not doing so great).

- Play three times a week (almost there!)

- Practice four times a week (erhm...)

Specific Goals:

- Keep backswing from getting too shallow (varying degrees of success)

- Swing more left (same thing)

- 90% sand-to-green ratio (actually some good improvement there)

- Increase shoulder turn (success!)

I can probably do all of these except the handicap one. Dicked around too long with other goals. Next year!

[Psyber]

To be able to practice several days a week. Currently not possible due to constantly injuring myself from making some seriously hard ground contact with my iron shots. Out of a bucket of 100 balls I'll chunk at least 15-20 so bad that if you put my hands in an MRI machine they would look like one giant bruise internally haha.

[b101]

Originally Posted by b101

Quote:

Originally Posted by b101

As a teacher, mine's really based around holiday time, but there's a few:

Skill-wise

- have better control of distance with wedges; i.e. sort out the 3x4 method once and for all. I reckon a couple of days' serious work should do this. - getting there, but needs checking after changing my technique to use the bounce better.

- markedly improve ball striking with irons - definitely getting there thanks to evolvr lessons.

- improve lag putting - putting in general needs work, but after a recent lesson, this should improve. I want to make sure I track my progress with the short game better than I do currently, and that will include lag putts.

- ideally be able to draw and fade the ball when needed... I can now draw the ball occasionally, but I wouldn't say it's always controllable. Still something to work on.

Handicap

- Down to 10 - running out of competition round chances for the year to get the cards in annoyingly. I'm at 11.9, and to be honest, off 11 would make me happy.

I'm going to add one more - have at least 5 'specific' lessons. The first I had this year really kick started things with the driver and the next will hopefully do the same with wedges under 100 yards. - signing up to evolvr has kind of negated this, but I'm also taking some more short game lessons. So far, I've had two great lessons with the putter and one for wedges - the next will be bunker play to improve distance control here.

Progress in red

[krupa]

Quote:

Originally Posted by krupa

As this is the start of my 3rd season, my goals are very simple:

1.  Improve my swing

2.  Learn to use all the clubs in my bag.  By the end of last season, I was doing all right with my 5I - LW.  I couldn't hit hybrids, 3 wood or driver without horrible results.

3.  Get to the point where I'm willing to keep score.  By the end of last season I saw some encouraging improvement.  I made a couple solid bogeys on par 4's by using 5I - 5I - wedge, putt, putt.

So, how to get there:

1.  Take some lessons.  I wasn't thrilled with the instructors I tried last season.  There are only a few around here so I'm not sure what else to do, short of driving over to Erie (something I haven't ruled out.)

2.  I just ordered the 5SK dvds and will work with that

3.  Spend more time at the practice range than on the course.

I have already been working on slowing down my practice time at the range and focusing on small parts of the swing.  Yesterday some guys in front of me bought bigger buckets than I did but they were long gone when I still had 10-20 balls left.

I have been working on my swing at the range and home.  Played a 9-hole round a couple weeks ago and 18 this weekend.  I didn't keep score playing 9 holes but was encouraged to keep score going forward.  Played 18 with my friend and carded 111.  Not great, but in 27 holes, I haven't lost a ball which is a record unto itself.

Now I'm wondering if I could break 100 this year...

There's about 2.5 months left to the golf season.  I think my swing is getting better.  I'm hitting my driver and 3W better, still slice but doing it less.

I think for the rest of the season, I'm just going to focus on practicing my putting; it's very frustrating to get nGIR and need another 3,4, or 5 strokes to get in the hole.  I got the Game Golf tags for Android and I average close to 3 putts per hole over 9 holes.

[pecos24]

1) Get my HI below 30

2) Multiple rounds under 100

3) Finish top 3 low net in my club tournament.

I need to become a more consistent ball striker.  I hope to accomplish this with lessons, feedback from the "My Swing" thread and practice!

An update on my 2015 goals;

1) My next revision I will be at 29.7, now I need to keep it there and keep it trending down.

2) I have one round under a 100 and flirted with a few others,  I am pretty sure I am going to accomplish this before the year is done.

3) I failed on this one.  I finished in the middle of the pack at -2 net over 36 holes.  I probably would have accomplished this one barring a huge blow up on my very last hole.

[LeftRightLeft]

Hmm.  I'm coming off of a bad round two weeks ago, so not feeling very positive.  Meeting the 2014 goals was not very successful, so 2015 will be more of the same.

2014:

1)  Play at least 20 rounds.  Only 15 rounds, so far.

2)  Play new courses.  Played 4 new courses.

3)  Get HI to under 15.  It dropped from 17.3 to the current 15.6.

I realized HI might be an inadequate measurement given that I have rounds from last year still affecting my HI.

Perhaps goals related to ball striking improvement like Fairways Hit and Greens in Regulation (and perhaps a reduction in blow-up holes), would be better measures of progress for 2015.

1)  Increase Average Fairways hit to around 7 (50%).  (Last round I only hit 3 fairways;

most misses weren't close)

2)  Increase Average Greens in Regulation to around 6.  (Last round I only hit 2 GIRs)

3)  Reduce severity of my worse miss (a bad pull hook).  (This bad swing really messes with my head)

I would think improvement in these areas would get me to the low 80s.  I'm working on my golf swing (I just videotaped it for the first time).   I think I have a good idea of what happens, so we'll see if I can get the changes I'm working on to stick.

Not very good.  Not meeting goals due lack of practice/effort.  Playing too much soccer, not enough golf.   Just ten rounds so far.  Hoping to get to 15 rounds.

Avg Fairways Hit  5.5

Avg GIR     4.4

Still hitting the pull hook.  Had four my last round resulting in two stroke/distance penalties, and two lateral water hazard penalties.

Only good news is my HI is at 15.1, so I'm close to getting under 15.0.  Playing Saturday up in Tahoe on a narrow golf course.  Not likely the help my Fairways Hit!

[Fairway_CY]

It's always interesting to me to see what goals I set the year before and if I met them.  Last season was one that I didn't meet any of the goals I set for myself.  I had been relocated to the Charlotte area, and as such, I anticipated playing a TON of golf.  Unfortunately, my family stayed in New Jersey until July... so I spent a LOT of time driving back and forth from Charlotte to New Jersey, which meant not-so-much time on the course or at the practice facility.

Now that they're here, I will be joining the Golfweek Amateur Tour in the Charlotte area and I intend to play in a majority of the events.  So, I've got some more specific goals I'd like to try and achieve this season.

1. I still want to win a tournament - For years, I've entered tournaments... and though I've had a number of close calls, I've never 'officially' won a tournament.  For that reason, it still remains my number one goal.  As mentioned above, I plan to join the Golfweek Amateur Tour here in Charlotte, which should give me 10+ opportunities to play in some decent tournaments.  The thing I like the most is that it's flighted and stroke play, so while my handicap will likely start me off in the C Flight, I know I've got the ability to shoot a high 80s to low 90s score, which could be good enough to win me a tournament, hopefully!

2. Get my handicap back to a reasonable number - A few years ago, I was able to work my handicap down to about a 16.7 level.  I'm currently at about an 18.6 handicap.  The nice thing is that I tend to play much better when I'm in tournaments.  I think I just focus more and don't try any stupid 'hero' shots when I get in trouble... and that tends to save my scores.  The last 'real' tournaments I played in were in the summer of 2013.  With the exception of one poor round in the first round of a county tournament, my USGA differential for the other 4 tournament rounds I played was about a 16.6 or so.  I'm hoping that by playing in tournaments, it'll make me focus... and that should bring the index down.  I'd LIKE to get my index below 16.0 if possible, but we'll see.

3. Putt the ball better and break 30 putts for a round - This has been on my list forever.  I have still never done it.  The closest I've had was 31 putts.  I average about 3 three-putts per round, which kills me.  Those tournament rounds I mentioned above were some of my best-ever ball striking rounds.  I shot rounds of 88 and 89 on back-to-back days in separate tournaments... but both of them could have been WAY better because I finished both rounds with 37 putts each day.  PGA Tour players average about 28 putts per round... where I average just below 36 putts per round.  I will never expect to AVERAGE below 30 putts per round... but if I can close the gap slightly and average around 33 and have an occassional sub-30 round... I'd be happy.

That's about it for this year.  Every year, I say I'm going to play more... and it never happens.  Too many things come up with work and I just can't ever reach the levels I hope to reach, but... I believe all of the goals listed above are attainable.

Good luck in 2015!

I know it's not the end of the year yet, but... outside of a few rounds here and there, my golfing year is pretty much over.  So... now is as good a time as any to review my goals.

Edited October 20, 2015 by iacas
removed stuff.

[iacas]

I know it's not the end of the year yet, but... outside of a few rounds here and there, my golfing year is pretty much over.  So... now is as good a time as any to review my goals.

We will have a year-end review thread like we always have. Please do not recap your year here. 

[inthehole]

2016 goals:

- I broke 80 2X this year ... lets do it 3X in 2016.

- Improve accuracy of approach shots - more GIR

- Improve accuracy of tee shots

- Work on chipping over winter & get everything tighter to pin in 2016.

- Lose weight over winter

- 79 rounds YTD ... lets get it closer to 100 next year.

- Would like to get to single digit hcp, but don't want to jinx myself

[iacas]

2016 goals:

We will also have an official thread for that, too. In December or early January.

[GangGreen]

On 11/14/2014 at 9:57 AM, GangGreen said:

In order: 1) Get in better golf shape 2) Keep up with the lessons 2) Break 90 3) HI at or below 18 by season's end

Not bad, 1) I started a work-out regiment that I've kept up with so far and has really helped, 2) I believe I took 6 lessons early in the season, 3) had my first sub-90 round on the home course on May 1st (88), 8 rounds below 90 for the season, and 4) ended the year with a HI of 16.6.