Golf Resolutions

When we look back at 2008 how many of us made Golf Resolutions and goals for the year of 2008? What was your success rate and how did you accomplish or not accomplish them?

JB said:

When we look back at 2008 how many of us made Golf Resolutions and goals for the year of 2008? What was your success rate and how did you accomplish or not accomplish them?

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I didn't even think I was going to golf in 2008 so I made no resolutions! Jacqui asked if we could start golfing in April or May and since I hadn't played in 5 years I had no idea what to expect! It turned out better than I expected though, since I broke 90 a few times and only had a couple over 100 (on a VERY hard course). So, no success rate other than it was my best year of golf I ever had, hands down. My second best year (which could have been about any year between 1985 and 2003) was not even close to the year I had last year.

That is great to hear Smallie.

I just started playing golf again back in June after not playing for 8 years, so my goals were just to find my swing again.
I did that and last year was the best golf of my life. I got my first par, first birdie, first-chip in, broke 100 for the first time and started to get a lot more consistent with my irons and began to understand how to self-diagnose my swing and fix faults as they come and go.
Id say it was a very successful year for me as far as golf goes.

That is great Bakemono.

Yeah, now if only I could learn to hit my driver and 4-wood consistently Id be really happy with my game.
Im pretty good with my putting, wedges and short irons; but when you hit a 100-yard worm burner or a slice that goes 50 yards into the rough off the tee, you cant expect your shortgame to always bail you out.
Even if I could hit a 200-yard tee shot that lands in the middle of the fairway most of the time I could shot a lot better.
Im hoping my 12* driver and 4-wood will help with that.
When I get kinda down about my game I just consider the fact that I just started playing again back in June and that I cant expect to become even halfway decent at this game overnight.
Im leaning to throttle back my swing a bit and to make sure I do a full shoulder turn before I start my downswing. I think that when I hit my driver, fairway woods and longer clubs Im anticipating the shot, tense up and rush the shot, not allowing my shoulders to turn on my backswing, which gets my shoulders ahead of my hips and causes me to hit the ball before my hips and back to square, which makes the ball go right.
Im learning to relax, swing easy and try to turn my back to the target on my backswing, which really seemed to help reduce the push/slice that I used to hit all the time.
Its a process that takes time, but I do sometimes get kinda down about it. I know that golf is a very difficult game and your body has to do a lotta little things just right with near perfect timing for a shot to go where you want it to, but its irritating sometimes.
Thats one of the things I love about golf though: its such a huge challenge and its so very difficult to be good at this game.
I think that sometimes I expect too much of myself on the golfcourse. I expect myself to at least make pars all the time, but Ive had a lot of other people comment to me how good I am considering Ive only been playing since June, which is nice to hear.
I sometimes play golf with people I work with (sort of an unoffical company golf league) and those people have been playing for years and can absolutely crush the ball off the tee, but I destroy them when it comes to shortgame. A lot of them have been playing golf for years, if not decades; so it gives me hope that maybe someday I can be a single-digit handicapper if not a scratch player. I know those are pretty lofty aspirations, but if youre gonna dream, dream big...

Bakemono said:

Im hoping my 12* driver and 4-wood will help with that.

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I got a 12.5* driver for Christmas and the first time out hit it better than any driver I ever had before. More backspin = less sidespin. I even hit a couple over 240 (checked on my gps) which never happens for me. I probably averaged 220 on the day, which is close to 20 yards improvement over last year).

I was always too proud to go with anything over 10.5 which, in hindsight was stupid!

Yeah, it seems like every magazine says that if you are struggling with your driver that you should go with more loft and a softer flex shaft.
Ive got a 12* with a light/senior shaft, so we'll see. If I start hitting hooks/pulls with it, I could always get it reshafted.
Every driver/fairway wood Ive ever owned was a stiff shaft and I hit slices/pushes with them, so hopefully this new driver will work out for me.
It got to the point last year where I was hitting 5-iron off the tee because at least that club gave me about 180 yards in the middle of the fairway.

hmm my goals.. I'd have to say is to get down to a 6 Handicap and to play over 30 games this year.

Getting my handicap down will be hard because I'm not specifically going to play one course anymore. I'll be playing a huge variety so if anything It will probably go up.

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Both were accomplished, I set pretty easy goals for myself last year. Thisyears are harder, posted in the Goals thread here about them.

I didn't start to track my handicap until much later in the season, so I don't know how much it changed. Since June, I've gone up 2.5 on my handicap (ouch!)

I did drop my average score per round by 15-20 strokes, and broke 100 several times. I was hoping to break 90, but just didn't get enough play and practice for the last couple of months of the year, so it never happened.

This year, I plan to drop another 10-15 strokes off my average score, and consistently shoot into the 80's.

I've been tracking my strokes on the course, and where they're spent, which has helped me determine what needs the most practice.

Right now, I'm really struggling with my wedges, can't get anything to stick on a green, and doing dumb stuff like decelerating on impact leaving the ball short, and another wedge, or long putt to make up for it.

My average putts have stayed pretty consistent, but my misses are getting closer, so that's promising. I'm hoping to see a real breakthrough with that soon.

I just got new irons, and I'm excited and nervous about that all at the same time, this is my first foray into the world of 'players irons'.

Well, when I sat down and looked at the 2008 season I realized that I simply needed to increase my consistency. I started off really, really well then the proverbial wheels fell off for sure. I have made some progress this offseason and am eager to play with JB in Tampa and see what the time off has brought

last time i posted goals/success i got neg repped. i will just say i played a lot of golf

Drop my handicap and shoot in the 60's consistently by the end of 2009.

resolutions

resolutions

Bakemono said:

I just started playing golf again back in June after not playing for 8 years, so my goals were just to find my swing again.
I did that and last year was the best golf of my life. I got my first par, first birdie, first-chip in, broke 100 for the first time and started to get a lot more consistent with my irons and began to understand how to self-diagnose my swing and fix faults as they come and go.
Id say it was a very successful year for me as far as golf goes.

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wow blakemono after 3.5 years I've finally started to break 100, it took just 1 summer for you ? after 8 years of not golfing impressive, maybe an additional goal of mine will try to get at least 5% of my legs and hips involved with my CP it's kind of hard.

My goals for 08 weren't too difficult to accomplish. Play some of the nicer courses around such as Wild Rock, Trappers Turn, Lawsonia, etc & have fun.

I don't ever have any goals of reaching a certain handicap or shooting a particular score. Just enjoy being outside & having fun.

My goal is simple. To play smart instead of trying to just bomb every shot.