Recap Your 2016 Golf Goals

[iacas]

With the year coming to a close, it's time for our yearly self-assessment thread. Here's how this will work... 

Quote your post in the 2016 Golf Goals topic right here in this topic, then write something below your quoted post to let everyone know how you did!

Please keep replies to a minimum. Use your Member Swing thread for deeper discussions about your goals and how well you achieved them.

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P.S. To quote your post from another topic, you can do one of two things:

1. Quote it, select it (with the little + sign in the top left corner), and paste it into the reply box here.
2. Click the "+ Multi" button on your post in that topic, reload this topic, and quote it directly into a reply here by clicking the "Quote 1 Post" button/overlay that should appear.

[JonMA1]

On 12/12/2015 at 9:12 PM, JonMA1 said:

1. Hit 6 of 18 GIR, 5 or more times (preferably at the beginning, middle and end of he season).

2. Shoot in the 90's from >6,000 yards, 5 or more times.

If I don't hit these goals, TST Mods and Forum Leaders get to change my avatar to anything they want for the entire month of January, 2017.

1. Succeeded. Not only met this number, but averaged it throughout the entire season. 

2. Failed. While I averaged below 100 for the season, most rounds were from shorter tees. Broke 100 from this distance only 3 times.

[Fairway_CY]

On 12/3/2015 at 11:54 AM, Fairway_CY said:

I always love this topic.  It's nice to look back on towards the end of a year and see what goals, if any, I have reached.  

1. Win a Tournament

This has been a goal of mine for... just about ever.  Some years, I play in more than others, but... I've yet to win one.  The club I play with averages about 20 entrants in the flight I compete in per tournament.  You'd think that winning one wouldn't be so difficult, but... closest I came last year was a T3 finish in a 2 day tournament.  My handicap is lowering, and hopefully, following the holidays, I can get back out and start playing again and that'll have me ready for the first tournament in February.

2. Increase my Fairways Hit Percentage

Last season, I hit only 37.1% of fairways from the tee.  This cost me in a lot of ways.  Towards the end of the year, I was hitting closer to 45% of fairways... but I'm going to need to continue that trend.  My scores when I hit 42% or better were about 5 strokes better than when I hit less than that.  

3. Increase my Up & Down Percentage

For my statistical purposes, if I hit a green in 'regulation plus one'... I consider it an up & down attempt.  My percentage in 2015 was 28.2%.  I'd like to get closer to 40% if possible.

Overall, I'd love to improve enough to be competitive week-in and week-out.  I had way too many tournaments where I was out of it before I made the turn.  The last 2 goals I listed will help me to remain competitive every time I tee it up.  

I hope to be able to practice more this year... even if it's just swinging a club in my garage.  I told my wife I wanted Optishot for Christmas... it's just a matter of if she listened or not.  I don't expect it to help me with every part of my game... but, to be able to grab a club and swing with a purpose will be helpful.

CY

1. I actually won 2 tournaments this year.  Both were with pretty good scores (85 and 83).  I also posted a 2nd place and 4th place finish in 2 of the 4 majors this year.  

2. I succeeded, but barely.  I went from 37.08% in 2015 to 37.12% in 2016.  The season is still not completely over for me, so this could swing, but... I'm gonna call it a success. 

3. I totally failed here.  I went backwards in a pretty big way.  I dropped from 28.18% in 2015 to 25.20% in 2016.  Part of it is that I played a lot of solo rounds in 2016 and it led to some rushing instead of taking my time over 6 foot putts, but... I just need to get better.  

Here's to a successful 2016 and an even more successful 2017!

CY

[alleztom]

On 04/12/2015 at 9:12 AM, alleztom said:

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.

1 - Failure - Came down to a minimum of 13.6.
2 - Failure - 2 lip out eagle putts. Scored 1 more in a 'non tournament'.
3 - Failure - 1 over was my best with a missed 7' for level par
4 - Failure - Didn't do this
5 - Failure - Best was 17.

All of these represent progress, and I have 2 more rounds before Christmas to try and make a couple of these. Am certainly a better golfer than a year ago.

[dennyjones]

I didn't post my goals earlier:  

Play more golf:   I played over 75 rounds an increase of almost 40 over 2015.

Lower my handicap:  I dropped my handicap almost 4 strokes from 2015.

Improve GIR:  still need work.  nGIR wasn't too bad.

Putting:  OMG...I took the Aimpoint class and definitely improved my green reading but I 3 putted way too many times.    Lag putting has to improve. 

[MacDutch]

Quote

On 27-2-2016 at 8:56 AM, MacDutch said:

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Get down to 7.x  so I play my countries senior championships (only to be in the field would be huge for me).

Reach the cut in the strokeplay, matchplay and foursome championship of my club.

Win 75% of my matches in competition.

Got down from 8.5  to 7.3, but did not play in the national championship. 

Made the cut in two out of three club-championships. Fourseome was a nightmare, hooked my first three shots in the water. Playe the semifinal of the matchplay championship and lost on the first playoff hole.

Scored 12 points out of 16 in competition, which is 75%. One loss, two halves and 5 wins.

All together very happy with my results this year. 

[treebound]

(I give up trying to quote from the 2016 goal thread with my android phone browser.)

Basically my 2016 goals were to play more than 2015 and try to budget some golf funds to allow me to play.

Summary: due to illness and hospital stays for a family member, and due to doing some significant work on our house, I was only able to get to a driving range a few times and never did get a round of golf completed. Bummer, but golf took a lower priority in 2016. Life goes on....

[Valleygolfer]

Quote

07/13/2016 at 1:45 PM, Valleygolfer said:Stay healthy, be a consistent ball striker (if I could stop trying to improve and change my swing) and get to a 10 cap.

I managed to stay healthy and barely make it under a 10 cap. Fortunately everything is trending upward and hopefully I will be improving more so next season. I'm am really not excited about taking the winter off.

[saevel25]

On 12/3/2015 at 11:34 AM, saevel25 said:

1. Make by backswing piece a non-priority piece
2. Get my short game up to 50%
3. Make at least 90% of my putts inside of 5 feet
4. Shoot under par for the first time for 18 holes
5. Lower my handicap to under 2 
 

1. I did achieve this by switching to a transition downswing piece

2. Nope, this will be for 2017

3. I'm not sure

4. This did not happen

5. I got to the mid 3's

[mcanadiens]

I honestly couldn't remember, but on further review, I made no goals in that post. ... And maybe it showed in how the year went.

In my usual aimless way I've dicked around with my swing. In general I've gotten a bit longer and a bit wilder. It's been frustrating. I lost any sort of a short game a few months ago. My temper problems receded and returned and receded again.

Really, it's a lot of treading water.

 

[bkuehn1952]

On 12/3/2015 at 11:30 AM, bkuehn1952 said:

1. At some point in 2016, I will get a full club fitting.  I suspect I am not getting as much from my equipment as I could.  If nothing will help as far as equipment changes, then at least I will know.

2. Our "Club Without Real Estate" runs 13-14 handicapped tournaments each summer.  I would like to win one.  I played extremely well in 2015, placed in the top 5 a lot, but never made it into the winner's circle.  Winning in 2016 may be near impossible, though.  We instituted the "Knuth Tournament Points System" and my handicap is going to get chopped in half as a further "reward" for my sterling play in 2015.

3. Qualify for the Senior City Championship's "Championship Flight".  I have done that a few times but it has been a while.

4. Get my handicap index up to about 15.0 (ha ha ha - see #2 above)

1. Fail

2. Fail - best finish was 2nd

3, Incomplete - I was injured on the eve of the tournament and had to drop out.

4. Fail - still between 8.0 and 9.0

[dave s]

My 2016 goal from 2016 thread:

Woodshedding fairway woods and longer clubs.  Although not long, I'm contentedly consistent from tee to fairway.  Best part of game is 150 and in.  Good around and on greens rarely giving away shots there.

It's the par 5s and long par 4s where covering 150+ yards is the pathetic part of my game.  Will practice those 200 to 150 shots a BUNCH this season.

Results:  I added Ping G30 5- and 7-woods and ditched the #3- and 4 hybrids.  The new Ping G-30 fairway woods have produced much more consistent results in terms of ball flight and advancing the ball at predictable yardage numbers. The overall result has been lowered average scoring on par 5 holes, but no significant improvement on the par 4s that are 360 and longer.

Added bonus: Since I hit the 5-wood much more consistently than my former 3-wood (ditched that as well) it has become a 'go-to' club on par 3 holes 180-200 yards and on any shorter, tight dogleg holes.  Very accurate with this club.  Still use the 7-wood as my 2nd shot club on most par-5s provided it'll leave me 110 or closer to the green.  Only on a really long 3-shot par 5 will I consider the 5-wood as a second shot club.  It seems to like sitting on a short tee for 'best results.'

dave

[Kalnoky]

Mine was simple, I wanted to break 100 on a Par 72 Course. I not only broke 100, but also broke 90 on the same day.

The most important thing that happened this past season is I started taking lessons. 

[Golfingdad]

Quote

OK, so I've set some fairly vague goals for the last couple of years - not necessarily easily achievable, just kinda boring - so this year I think I'll try for a bit more.  (Note to self: the handicap is 5.0 for the 12/15 revisions, and likely will be 5 on January 1.)

1. Continue improving my practice regimen.  I got better last year and it paid off, but I want to do it even more this year.  Try to meet the 5 minute monthly challenges as much as possible.
2. Continue lowering the handicap.  I know that as I get lower, the rate slows down to a crawl, so any amount is good, but I'm going to set the numeric goal at >1 stroke - Get it into the "3's."
3. Competitively, make sure that I prepare well for all tournaments, and leave nothing to chance.  Research, play a practice round if possible, fill out a yardage book, and stick to a game plan.  Win another tournament this year.
4. Swing-wise: Get and refine a flight pattern I can trust.  I'm kind of close to being able to eliminate the right side of the course, I am just not close enough to trust it yet.  It hasn't been that long since I was hitting cuts often and I still can't bring myself to aim right of center.  I believe that this can be a game-changer if I can get there.
5. On the fun side: Try and get my son (turning 7 in April) into it a little more, and buy my daughter (turning 5 in May) her first club to see if she might also catch the bug. :)

If I could give myself letter grades for each they'd go something like this:

1. D - never completed one month of the 5 minute challenge and then also stopped practicing very much at all from about September/October.
2. B - handicap continued to fall, even after I slowed down my practicing, which is part of the reason for the lack of motivation.  The only reason I didn't give myself an A is because I didn't reach my somewhat lofty goal of getting below 4.  Got to 4.1 at my lowest, which is also still my current index, so close but no cigar.  (My next round is a freebie, but after that I have a few good ones to replace - so if I play only once in December and play well, I could still reach that goal)
3. B - I didn't win any tournaments but I prepared well, including for a couple of qualifiers to try and get my feet wet.
4. B - There is a pretty high probability now that my misses are going to be to the left.  Aiming everything down the right side of the fairway really has opened things up for me.
5. C - Son did a clinic in August and he enjoyed himself, but we haven't gotten out to the course since.  Daughter has a set of plastic clubs (so does little brother now too) but she hasn't been to the range yet.

Overall, not horrible, but I hope to do better next year.  I'm considering now what my goals for next year should be, but they will definitely include playing more competitively, and getting back on the practice horse.

[Pete]

On 09/12/2015 at 1:22 PM, Pete said:

Go under par gross in a club competition. Only done this out of comps so far and one round level gross in a comp.

Nope. Overall better scores but no level or under par rounds at all this year even in practice rounds. I'll try again next year.

[CarlSpackler]

On 4/5/2016 at 1:41 PM, CarlSpackler said:

At this point, I'm just hoping to play a few times this year.

This was my goal. I did manage to play a few times despite a major life change. 

[Groucho Valentine]

I usually go into the year hoping to do well in Met, NJSGA and USGA tournaments. The only ones i even qualified for where the NJ State Am and Met Mid-Am, and i had to withdraw from the mid-am for family reasons. Crap the bed in US Open, Met Open, US Mid-Am and Philly Am qualifying. Didn't get selected for the Western Am or Crump Cup. I won a club championship this year, but I've won like 10 of those damn things so I'm not really satisfied when i do, anymore.

[rkim291968]

On 12/3/2015 at 9:08 AM, rkim291968 said:

I am going to keep this simple.

 

1. Get the HI down to 12 at least once in the year.
2. Get out of bogey golfer status - HI below 16 - by end of the year.

1. Didn't even come close to 12 HI.  The best I've got to was low 14.
2. Was at mostly in 14 - 15 HI until November.   I am at 16.4 now.   There are two more HI reports, 12/15 & 12/31, to go.   The goal is still pending but I consider my 2nd goal a success.