my goals

wull

wull

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after reading the thread started by "justone" about getting to scratch it got me thinking about what my goals are and have been since taking the game back up this year.i replied to his post by saying that i would love to spend a whole year just concentrating on golf and nothing more because that ultimately is where i want to be.i'll explain why...

when i started playing again this season i was obviously wanting to see how good i could get,i played as a junior from 1996-1999 and then gave up.i managed to get down to 7 as a 13 year old and was doing very well in most junior competitions winning a lot home and away.playing for the stirling county etc so for the last 12yrs i've always been thinking about the "what ifs"...

so i'm now back and at first it was a slow process,it took me a while to get back into the swing of things and towards the end of the season the good play started to happen,being under par quite a lot but falling away.i feel it's so close to clicking and with a full season behind me i hopefully can start well next season and come down quite considerably.

so as it stands my goal is to get down to scratch and take it from there...if i get to scratch with shooting lots of low scores and if my stroke average is low enough i will go for Q school....

that is my ultimate goal and i know it's tough,it may never happen.i hope it does though and just the experience is good enough for me.i've missed out on 12 yrs and now it's time to make up for that.
 
i put in 3 cards in at the end of april and got my handicap at the start of may.they gave me 9.0 which was fair enough because i was not playing very well and actually struggled to play to that at first.

another thing that bothered me was a junior who was a few years older than me once said to me that she would make it and i wouldn't turned out to be true:(

she continued and got to +3 and she is now a pro and doing relatively well.i think she is going for the Q school next year.she had a 93 round east kilbride back in 1997 in the weetabix championship and won the u15 section.i was 11 at that time and won the under 13 section with a 87.....
 
Certainly a different set of goals than mine. I'm just hoping to still be interested in playing this time next year.

I'm at a funny stage in my sporting life though. I've played cricket since I was 11 (I'm turning 28 in January) and while I am pretty good at that, I feel I've reached my peak. I took up rugby the past five years as a way of keeping fit during the winter and again feel I may well be reaching my peak as although I've learnt a lot in a short space of time, I'm obviously missing the experience of developmental years (compared to others) and you don't tend to get better at a sport like rugby once you get past 30.

Therefore, do I retire from the others and take up a completely new challenge, or do I continue as I am and aim to be a one round a month golfer? Interesting times.
 
excellent goal Wull, you HAVE to go for it or forever wonder what might have been, it's best to try and fail than never to try at all, you will be richer for it no matter which way it goes.
Maybe we can get together in summer for a few games.
 
I actually only took up golf with a couple of guys to pass the summer afternoons round the par 3 course. Thinking it would be good exercise. 1 gave up and the other moved to a more expensive club with his father in law who paid his entrance fee.
I made many new friends and have become great friends with the pro who has the shop at our range.
I became quite addicted and after the first lesson he gave me and seen how dedicated and how quickly I picked it ip made me his pet project.
Now I am setting my sights on single figures. Started with 28 hcap which I couldn't play to at all. Then each time I reached buffer level the pro built another piece to my swing and then I would play bad for a while until I got it and when I started to buffer again he added another bit and that's how my first season went.

Managed a cut to 26.9 late August and then a slight shoulder injury set me back a month and got a couple of buffers and season was over.

Then about 6 weeks ago everything just finally clicked and I gained alot of power and distance though a slight hooking issue due to coming across the line at the top and shutting the face which I have been working on the past couple days.
My short game seems to have improved massively as a result of the huge confidence boost from the swing consistency and results.
2nd week into our winter league and I'm in 2nd place out of 54 and had my temporary winter hcap cut to 24.5. Hitting far more fairways and GIR and had 3 birdies in last 2 weeks. Plus had 6x1 putts on Sunday when a few months ago it would have been great if I'd had a 2 putt let alone a 1.
Playing WL again tomorrow for this week and then it's off til 3rd.

So my plan is to hit the gym hard over next few weeks get over the aches from starting without it affecting my comp scores and then keep it going the rest of the winter and more to try to improve my fitness, flexibility and lose weight before the proper season starts on 31st March, as my pro has said that this is all that's going to hold me back. He believes that I will be able to shoot a gross 80 by the end of the 2012 season.

Most of the guys that I play with will slag me when I say that to them but after the 2011 season of them seeing bad scores I put in I guess I can't blame them. However they just thought I was useless and didn't realise I was working on a goal to get a good consistent repeatable swing and not focusing on hcap reductions by making do with an imperfect swing model.

I am going to set myself an extremely hard target of 9 and try and get as close to it as possible. Perhaps it's too much but I can play 2 comps a week at my place which is approx 55-60 opportunities to get cut.

So fingers crossed and good luck to everyone with their goals for the 2012 season. I hope we can all achieve as close to them as possible.
 
I am going to set myself an extremely hard target of 9 and try and get as close to it as possible. Perhaps it's too much but I can play 2 comps a week at my place which is approx 55-60 opportunities to get cut.
Click to expand...

If you're starting next year off 27 and you are trying to get to 9 in one season I would say good luck.
Not may will be able to achieve that. But you may be the one who can, who knows.
I would suggest a target more achievable. Say 18.
Then, if you do reach it you'll be happy and if you get below it, even happier.
Just play and practice and see where the h/cap finishes up.
 
I've got to agree with bob here, 26/27 to 9 a year is huge, I set a target of 15-12 this season and know I've done 2 lots of 5 lessons played 75% of the comps that were available, complete swing/grip rebuild in jan and I only just made it. I've improved by 20% this season and it's been hard, your looking to improve by around 60%.……

There was a thread here a while back with people stating how much their hc had moved this year, I think the last time I viewed the thread either stayed the same or -1 shot off were most popular answer

27-18/19 is still a massive improvement but the cuts it cat4 make it pretty easy to do, but with your buffer getting smaller each time, and the cuts getting smaller each time I think anything less than 18 is almost a sure fail, sorry.
 
Hope it happens for you. I am going to try and get down from 8 to 5 which I think will be a major achievement with only 0.1 coming off the handicap at a time. We shall see. If you get down to scratcch let us all know. Good luck
 
bobmac said:
If you're starting next year off 27 and you are trying to get to 9 in one season I would say good luck.
Not may will be able to achieve that. But you may be the one who can, who knows.
I would suggest a target more achievable. Say 18.
Then, if you do reach it you'll be happy and if you get below it, even happier.
Just play and practice and see where the h/cap finishes up.
Click to expand...

I hope I can do it too Bob. If I get anywhere between 18 and 9 I will be happy but I need to set myself the hard target to ensure that I dedicate myself.

Oddsocks said:
I've got to agree with bob here, 26/27 to 9 a year is huge, I set a target of 15-12 this season and know I've done 2 lots of 5 lessons played 75% of the comps that were available, complete swing/grip rebuild in jan and I only just made it. I've improved by 20% this season and it's been hard, your looking to improve by around 60%.……

There was a thread here a while back with people stating how much their hc had moved this year, I think the last time I viewed the thread either stayed the same or -1 shot off were most popular answer

27-18/19 is still a massive improvement but the cuts it cat4 make it pretty easy to do, but with your buffer getting smaller each time, and the cuts getting smaller each time I think anything less than 18 is almost a sure fail, sorry.
Click to expand...

I get what you are saying mate, I don't know if 9 is attainable but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. Just for the fun of it.
The difference I think between you and I though is that I have had my swing built over the 2011 season and it has just clicked recently, now it is more a matter of keeping up the practice over next 15-16 weeks to get the repetative consistency level improved. But already I am realistically playing to much lower than the 27 hcap I have. So the first cuts should be quick and easy fingers crossed.

The biggest obstacle for me is the fitness side of things. Which then leads to poor concentration towards the end of the round due to severe fatigue. But I am really going to get weight off and work on fitness levels and flexibility over the next few months and try and keep it going during the 2012 season.

Either way I will enjoy the challenge and experience from doing it. Then try to focus on any weaknesses for the 2013 season.
 
Good luck with that Wull and you Phil.

I'm in a slightly similar situation to you Phil in that I keep getting told that I have good scores in me but am playing off a high handicap at the moment. I'm slightly behind you in that I still have one important piece of the swing to ingrain but looking at video in my lesson yesterday it is a move I'm capable of making.

For me I think a target of 18 by the end of next season will be hard enough to keep me practising and focused but ultimately is acheivable.
 
I shall be given it a real push to get down to 9.4 or less and then try to maintain it for a season which will be my first in the 'seniors' category. Good luck to Wull, work hard. Phil2511, best of luck, but wow thats some goal,
 
Good luck Wull - if you don't really give it a go then you'll never know. My favourite mantra when running was "only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go" (T S Eliot).

For me it's year 3 of the 5 year plan and a playing handicap of 12 by the end of 2012.
 
Phil2511 said:
I get what you are saying mate, I don't know if 9 is attainable but I'm going to give it a shot anyway. Just for the fun of it.

The difference I think between you and I though is that I have had my swing built over the 2011 season and it has just clicked recently, now it is more a matter of keeping up the practice over next 15-16 weeks to get the repetative consistency level improved.

Either way I will enjoy the challenge and experience from doing it. Then try to focus on any weaknesses for the 2013 season.
Click to expand...

I rebuilt mine over the winter of 2010/2011, and have had another course of 5 lessons trying to maintain it, this isnt taking into account 1 sometimes 2 range sessions a week and also playing at least once a week.,im also not counting the amount of 15 min free lessons and tweeks the pro has given me through the year. Im all for someone setting a achievable goal..... and if you do it then ill take my hat of to you, but thats a mission and half.

Lets base CSS as par -1 meaning you basically have to shoot 2 less than par before you will see any cut at all, At cat 4 21-28, if you take the average cut of 2 shots (0.8), you need to shoot 3 less than par for 7.5 rounds to get cut to 21. (27-21=6 6/0.8 = 7.5) so if you play in a comp once per fortnight (2 per month) that's 4 months. (now 1st may)

Assuming you got to 21 you are now cat 3, meaning a cut of only 0.3 per shot under CSS, working on the same average of 2 shot cut, and playing the same, a comp every other week, to get to cat 2 (12-20) you need to get cut 8 shots (8/0.6=13.33 rounds) so you need to shoot 3 less than par for 13 rounds to get there. this should take around 6-7 months (1st november)

Now this is assuming
A) that you play a comp every other week at a bare minimum
B) that every time you play you shoot 3 less than par, taking into account your hc on that day (which according to your numbers will need to drop atleast once a fortnight by atleast 2 full shot cuts.
C) any adverse weather conditions
D) Illnesses that may have you off your game slightly

thats just to get to 12...

if you get there,... i suggest GM run a feature on it... because that is going to take some shooting.
 
Last edited:
Oddsocks and Phil, just get yer willie oot and measure, the biggest wins!

:mmm:
 
Just to give an idea of how easy or hard it would be to get down that quickly, I just went through my qualifying scores this year and worked out what I would have got down to if I started on 28.

I had 24 qualifying rounds and would have made single figures after the 17th one. Final h/c would have been 9 (8.7)

My actual handicap is 8 (7.9)
 
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