This year... since I want to update the blog more frequently, I figure I'll make a post about my goals. What I want to accomplish as far as scoring... improvement... mental game... etc. Those will all be items I post about down below. I will also list a tournament-by-tournament breakdown for the events that I'm committed to playing. Of course... those events could change dependent upon weather, personal life, work life or any other thing that could cause me to change a goal.
1. Improve my short game and putting.
Truthfully... this is an ongoing goal of mine. I am NOT a good putter. I have never really had a feel for the proper technique and I struggle on the greens. I feel like my green reading is okay (6 on a 1 - 10 scale)... but when it comes to execution, I push putts one day and pull them the next. The only metric I can use to tell if I'm getting better is putts per round. The stats say I'm improving but... I'm still not where I'd like to be.
The putting goal is to be below 33 putts per round. I'm not off to a good start. Through my first 6 rounds of 2020, I'm averaging 35.50 putts per round. It's early in the season, so... there's time to improve. What will help that, however, is improving my short game.
So... that leads me to the next part of the equation. I've got to get the ball closer to the hole when I miss greens. I'm a mid-handicap (13.8 index as of the time of this post). That means I'm prone to missing greens. That's fine... but I've got to become better at getting up & down when I'm around the greens. For the purposes of statistics keeping, I define and up & down attempt as hitting the green in regulation plus a stroke. So, if I'm on a par 4 green in 3 strokes (regardless of if I hit the green with a chip or a 200 yard shot)... my putt attempt is to get up & down. The stats show that I've improved year-over-year between 2016 and last year. I've become more comfortable over short shots... I've had fewer flubbed chips... and overall, I've become better at figuring out how much the ball is going to release with different clubs.
In 2020, I'd like to get that percentage closer to 37% (ultimately closer to 40%). That number should allow my scores to decrease and not put so much pressure on my putting because it would mean that I'm consistently getting the ball inside of 5 feet when around the greens.
So... that leads me to the next part of the equation. I've got to get the ball closer to the hole when I miss greens. I'm a mid-handicap (13.8 index as of the time of this post). That means I'm prone to missing greens. That's fine... but I've got to become better at getting up & down when I'm around the greens. For the purposes of statistics keeping, I define and up & down attempt as hitting the green in regulation plus a stroke. So, if I'm on a par 4 green in 3 strokes (regardless of if I hit the green with a chip or a 200 yard shot)... my putt attempt is to get up & down. The stats show that I've improved year-over-year between 2016 and last year. I've become more comfortable over short shots... I've had fewer flubbed chips... and overall, I've become better at figuring out how much the ball is going to release with different clubs.
In 2020, I'd like to get that percentage closer to 37% (ultimately closer to 40%). That number should allow my scores to decrease and not put so much pressure on my putting because it would mean that I'm consistently getting the ball inside of 5 feet when around the greens.
Targets
- Less than 33 Putts per Round
- Greater than 37% Up & Down Percentage
2. Become more consistent off the tee.
As with the first goal listed... this is an ongoing goal for me. I've struggled off the tee for what seems like forever. Just when I think I've got a consistent pattern... I'll suddenly start shaping it the other way which leads to terrible thoughts standing on the tee box.
Just like with my other metrics, there has been some improvement in my fairways hit percentages. 2017 was far-and-away the best year of my life off the tee. Not only was I finding the fairway more often... I was also hitting the ball slightly further and losing fewer strokes to penalties off the tee than ever before.
The following years saw a decline, but it was still better than where I was in 2015 and 2016. For this year, I'd like to find a way to top the 46.64% I managed in 2017. The problem is, I'm battling a wild hook right now. Through 6 rounds... I'm at 42.86% even with the struggles I've had, so... there's hope.
I figure more fairways means better looks at greens... which would hopefully translate to more greens hit in regulation... which will certainly translate to better scoring.
Target
- Greater than 47% Fairways Hit Percentage
3. Get my handicap index back down to a more 'B Flight' type of level.
Since July of 2018, I've been as low as a 9.5 index and as high as a 14.5 index. On the Golfweek Amateur Tour, the B Flight handicap allowance is 9.0 - 13.9 to be considered a B Flight player. My current USGA index is 13.8 while my GWAT index is 13.1 and trending upward.
There is nothing more frustrating than going to a tournament knowing that I'm not playing well enough to compete. Essentially, every tournament after February of last year... I've gone in hoping to just play well enough to not embarrass myself. In 3 of my final 4 tournaments (not including the National Championship)... I finished dead last twice and next to last once. It was awful going to events joking about trying not to finish last.
To truly compete in the B Flight... I need to be shooting scores below 85 in events. To win an event... I would need to see some putts drop and post something closer to 80. So far this season, through 6 rounds, I have only had 1 truly bad round. It was my opening round of the year and I had no expectations. Since then... I've posted 86, 92, 89, 90 and 89. I can say that in each of those rounds... I wasn't really on, so I've got some hope that my game is near the point where I want it to be.
I'm going to need to tighten up my driver and work on what I've posted above, but... I feel like I'm very, very close to competing again.
Target
- Get USGA and GWAT index lower than 11.
4. Win another tournament event in 2020.
I'm currently sitting at 4 wins in my GWAT 'career' so far. I won 3 in C Flight before being moved up to B Flight... then it took me over a year, but I was finally able to win a B Flight event late in 2018.
With the schedule I'm looking at for 2020... I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find another win at some point this year. No metrics... no excuses... I just want a win.
Target
- Win a 2020 Golfweek Amateur Tour Event.
5. Place in top half of each event entered in 2020.
This one is fairly simple. I embarrassed myself last season by finishing in the bottom third of 4 out of the 10 regular season events I played in 2019. I want to be in the top half in every event of 2020 and I'd like to post at least 5 finishes in the top ten.
Targets
- Finish in the top half of every event entered in 2020.
- Post 5 top ten finishes in 2020.
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With those 5 goals posted... I'll come back and revisit them at the end of the year following the National Championship. Below, I'm going to post my tentative tournament schedule for 2020 along with the scoring goals for each event. I'll have 2 numbers posted for my goals. The first number will be my goal as of the posting of this entry. The second number will be my goal within a few days of the event (based upon how I'm playing, expected conditions, etc).
As each event finishes... I will come back to edit this entry with my actual score and my final position.
... 'til next time!
... 'til next time!
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