What Are Your 2016 Golf Goals? Official Thread

[DrvFrShow]

It's complicated. I have an instructor. Do I need a lesson? Asking the question - am I hitting target? If I go by Tuesday, I was hitting within a reasonable distance of target both laterally and short - long. I was getting the "whump" on the mat making solid contact with my irons. So no. Not at this time. Driver? That's going to take some more practice. But onto my goals.

Improve the number of GIR per round. I currently hit 4 GIR per round, and two are on par 3s. I would like to improve that to 7 next year. According to "the chart" I should be scoring around 85-89 per round. I'm not. My scrambling sort of sucks. I get on the green on the following shot and two putt instead of one putting.

Some holes I'm chipping back out onto the fairway which is essentially a "penalty shot" and then hitting my approach shot ending up either on the green or near a par 4 green in 3 and then two putting or chipping then putting out which can either be a bogey or double depending upon how good my chip is. The insight here is that I, like most bogey golfers are over reliant on the short game for scoring. Pros miss with their approach shots, too, but their misses rarely are short or long, and rarely are wide left or wide right. 

I have come to the conclusion that while I'm hitting the ball a reasonable distance and making solid contact that my focus needs to be as follows:

* over the winter focus on approach shot accuracy by hitting 9i (125 yds), 8 iron (143 yds), and 5 iron (170 yds) to the target flags on those "greens". 25% 9 irons, 25% 8 irons, and 10% 5 irons.

* since the tee shot sets up the approach shot and accounts for about 25% of the shots for a scratch golfer, I think the driver should account for 25% of the shots I hit at the range. The posts at the back end of the driving range (250 yds) are 15 yds apart. Pick one as my center target and try to keep my drive between the outer two. I will take my time hitting them to make sure my technique is correct so I am not just hitting balls. I usually end up in a stall next to the same golfer who was scratch in his younger years and has beautiful form and watching him reminds me to get my hips square to target which seems to result in the greatest distance and best accuracy for me.

* over the winter, spend about 15% of the time hitting lob shots 40 to 60 yds. to targets.

* if for some reason it becomes difficult for me to hit target, and I start getting a disproportional amount of mishits and can't figure out why, take a lesson to get back on track. That's what my pro is there for. I trust him.

When I mention accuracy with irons, I'm looking at both lateral and distance control. With my driver, I'm looking at lateral control and ball flight, with carry distance as far as I can hit it - I may have to start with a slower speed and work up here.

 

Edited December 3, 2015 by DrvFrShow

[JetFan1983]

Oof, I've got a lot golf goals for myself in 2016, but to summarize: rehab some injuries, get in shape this winter, then get back into the game by starting off with some good instruction followed by intelligent practicing. Then have some fun playing this crazy game!

[Osnola]

1.  Play 52 rounds in 2016

2.  Average score of 90 on all rounds played by the end of 2016 (Current average is 94.6)

3.  Play at least 8 different courses during the year

4.  Par all par 3's during a single round

5.  Par all par 5's during a single round

[alleztom]

Golf Goals 2016

1. HI Below 10 (from 16.4) - will do this by improving ball striking through practice, lessons.

2. Score an eagle in a 'tournament' - made my first eagle and only eagle in 2015 in a friendly game.

3. Play 9 holes at or below even par - +3 is my PB - will do this by improving ball striking through practice & lessons. 

4. Beat my record of 11 GIR in a round - will do this by improving ball striking etc.

5. Have a round of 18 GIR & nGIR holes.

[DrvFrShow]

We probably should bookmark the page where we posted our goals since Mike or Erik will probably have a post-mortem thread next year about "did you succeed in your goals.

[Lihu]

19 minutes ago, DrvFrShow said:

We probably should bookmark the page where we posted our goals since Mike or Erik will probably have a post-mortem thread next year about "did you succeed in your goals.

Yeah, good idea. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out what to write, as in more meaningful yet realistic goals. . .I seem to be more confident in the swing, chipping and putting skills, but scores are not really dropping drastically. Plus, I'm way more confident when I hit a tree or another fairway.

[Pretzel]

I want to get to a handicap of 0.0 over the 2016 golf season. It's been a lifelong goal of mine for a while and it's finally potentially within reach.

[Lihu]

5 minutes ago, Pretzel said:

I want to get to a handicap of 0.0 over the 2016 golf season. It's been a lifelong goal of mine for a while and it's finally potentially within reach.

Improve your putting?

[Smidd4]

My goal is to be a 5 or less this time next year and to shoot an even par or better round. Increasing my strength and flexibility this winter should help me gain some yards to make more manageable approach shots. 

[esayers]

My goal is to break 90 and average at least 94 or less . I will do this buy getting at least 5 lessons and working everyday on my game .

[awmgolfer]

1. Get my handicap around a 1 or lower
2. Win the club championship again
3. Qualify for the Maine Amateur Open

[Pretzel]

42 minutes ago, Lihu said:

Improve your putting?

I know the biggest improvement that I need to make is short game. I'm terrified whenever I miss a green that I won't be able to get up and down because my scrambling percentage is currently a bit under 50%. Putts in the 5-10 foot range need improvement as well, but I thankfully anticipate a much greater amount of time to practice next summer when compared to last summer so I'm hoping I'll be able to shave the last stroke from my handicap.

I also plan to just generally dedicate much more time than I did this last year. This last year I only dropped from a 2.5 to a 1 (compared to the drop from a 8.4 to a 2.5 the prior year with a mid-year low of 1.7) because I was playing twice a week rather than every day. I also went for a stretch of two weeks early in the year without golfing due to a broken finger (dropped a 50 pound barbell and tried to catch it...) and another two weeks in July due to a broken toe (from it catching as I walked down stairs). Next summer I plan to golf every day if possible. I will buy a junior golf pass to a course 15 minutes from CU Boulder (Indian Peaks) for only $250, which allows me free unlimited golf and range balls on the weekdays at a very nice course, which is a fantastic deal since I'll still be 17 come January 1. I also plan to work at another city course, which would give me free access to another 3 courses that I could play. That would mean I have access to two parklands courses (one par 72 and on par 70), a short and very tight 9 hole course, and a longer open desert course for free all summer long. If I go out and practice (with purpose) and play every day over the summer I anticipate reaching my goal. I also plan to use the handy-dandy Stable Stick I received to help me document my progress and improve my swing as I go.

[RH31]

Drive it straighter and longer. I drove it well enough towards the end of the year, so If I can keep that swing going, maybe buying a more forgiving driver will get me over the hump.

[GangGreen]

Main goals is to get the HI down into the 12-13 range. 

To get there I plan on:

1.  Stepping up the flexibility/strength training in the off-season.  Started last off-season, really helped eliminate a lot of the nagging little injuries this year and I think gave me a few extra yards of distance.

2.  Keeping up with the lessons.  I've started each of the last 2 seasons with a handful of lessons from a great instructor, seems to get me headed in the right direction each year.  Might add a mid-season lesson or two just to make sure I don't stray too far as the season progresses (I tend to hit a wall mid-August and usually start falling into some old bad habits). 

3.  Playing more courses.  I tend to play 70% of my rounds on my home course.  It's a good challenging shorter course but I tend to struggle when I play "away" especially on longer courses.  I think my overall game (and scoring) will improve if I add a little more variety and challenge myself a little more regularly.

Certainly other things I plan on doing, but those are the main ones.

 

[Abu3baid]

My goal is the same as 2015, to shoot an average score of 85.  I will detail my plan later in my thread.

 

[Lihu]

16 hours ago, Lihu said:

Yeah, good idea. Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out what to write, as in more meaningful yet realistic goals. . .I seem to be more confident in the swing, chipping and putting skills, but scores are not really dropping drastically. Plus, I'm way more confident when I hit a tree or another fairway.

My goal is to get 2.5 keys. Any combination or set of them, as long as they add up to 2.5 I'd be happy. Not sure how realistic this is, but it's a goal.

 

1 hour ago, Abu3baid said:

My goal is the same as 2015, to shoot an average score of 85.  I will detail my plan later in my thread.

 

It's very realistic, but takes a lot of time and effort. . .

[inthehole]

continue to get better at putting.   Give 2-3 footers absolute full attention (look on both sides); get lag putts to 4 ft; and really be careful to not run putts by & leave long comebackers which all too often lead to un-necessary & frustrating 3 putts.

 

The common thread to every single good round I've had recently is it was an above average putting day.   The rest of my game is pretty much what it is & fairly consistent ... putting seems to determine a stellar round from an average round.

 

2016 WILL BE THE YEAR OF THE PUTTER FOR ME

[JBailey]

Goal:

Handicap down to single digits.  Sounds easy from 10.8, but I'm not really playing to that.  I had a hot streak that brought the handicap down considerably.  I'm really playing at 12-13 and if this weather holds up and I can play some more this year, it will probably end up that way.

Plan:

 a. I took a lot of advice from this forum about how to pick a putter.  That was the weakest part of my game.  I had a lot of 3 puts.  I did a lot of research and a lot of demo's.   I bought a new Odyssey mallet (I resisted mallets for a long time because I hate looking at them) and I'm now averaging 32-33 putts per round with very few 3 putts over the last 3 rounds.

b.  Going to play a bit this winter by going on a golf vacation to Alabama in January.  This should be me a good start and something to look forward to in the Spring.  I'm also going to make use of golf simulators during the winter. 

c.  Series of golf lessons in February.  Gonna' work on accuracy and consistency.  At this point I'm way shorter than I used to be, but that isn't hurting my scoring so much has OB's and hitting behind (and in) trees.  Accuracy and consistency is where it's at for me.

I hadn't played for 20 years until this year.  I feel pretty good about how I'm playing in my retirement.  I was a solid 5 handicap back in the day.  With the advantage of being retired, and playing smarter, I believe I can approach that number again.

Later,

John