Help me set some goals.

[autocrosscrx]

I played several tournaments in 2022. I planned to do the same in 2023, but ended up only playing in one. I enjoy tournaments, but I get more enjoyment playing on my own terms. With that said, I really enjoy playing tournament style rounds and tracking scores, seeing progress, and setting and achieving goals. I also really enjoy following things like the "Break 68" series on Foundation.

I play around 15 different courses regularly, but I play the shortest layout at 3 courses most frequently - Tommy Schumpert, Victor Ashe, and Claytons. In 2023, improved by best at each of those courses by 3 strokes. I haven't really seen any quantifiable max distance increase in years, but I'm seeing subtle improvements in my golf distance and added a more viable forehand. And that is how I found my improvement.

In the next year, I plan to play 100-150 rounds. I see a lot of opportunity to improve my forehand. Other than that, I don't have a lot of plans to make changes to my backhand or putting. Field work will be minimal and generally focused on testing discs and dialing in my bag. Same for putting. I may have a handful of 10-20 putt practice sessions per week. I'm working hard on strength and flexibility at the gym. But for the most part, I just like to play rounds.

With all of that information, what are challenging but realistic goals for 2024? Was a 3 shot improvement at each course good for my experience level (6 years) and described commitment level? Should I expect or shoot for the same for 2024? More? Less? How do you set your goals?

 

[ru4por]

I generally set my expectations at ensuring I thoroughly enjoy each opportunity to get outside and throw. Focus on spending a few moments each round to appreciate the incredible natural beauty of my surroundings. Focus for a few minutes in appreciation of the terrific friends I get to spend some of my life with. I try to remember that a round is a few minutes of golf and a whole lot of minutes walking in a park. I play quite a few tournaments and leagues, but my goals for those is to also seek more joy in the activity.

 

[Sheep]

Just a thought for a different focus because the "score" focus to me is really bad. And I actually get annoyed playing with these guys on a regular basis. They are so concerned with their course score that they rarely are actually 'practicing' anything while on the course, but then complaining about not getting better.

To keep it more in the "fun" zone for practicing and improving.
Look at course score like this, ignore your shots on target. Track your "bad holes" only.
And that doesn't mean "I didn't birdy so it was a bad hole."

A bad hole is where you made a mistake and didn't recover.

A good hole is a good scramble shot to save par.
A great hole is a birdy.

When you know the holes you are consistently weak on, you can focus them down vs trying to focus on how many birdys you made.

Because in the end, its not about how many birdies you make, winning is about dominating the course to the best of your ability, even if its even par at the end.

 

[HyzerRoc]

For this year I wanted to break a certain distance, play a certain score once at my local course and win a disc at the weekly handicap league. The most ambitious of them was probably the distance goal and Im happy that I made all 3 of them.

If you are just gonna play rounds then setting a score as a goal is a good idea. I dont think it makes sense to set an average score as a goal as that might make casual rounds frustrating as bad or fun ones pull your average up, but aiming to play a certain score once in a year doesnt sound like something that would choke the fun out of rounds but rather something to look forward too. Dont set the score too high tho, it should be a realistic goal.

Personally I would add some sort of goal in form. Be it distance or learning and solidifying a move you want to integrate into your game. Until this year I struggled with rotating on my heel and it wasnt good for my knee. So stuff like that could be a good thing to go for.

 

[autocrosscrx]

For this year I wanted to break a certain distance, play a certain score once at my local course and win a disc at the weekly handicap league. The most ambitious of them was probably the distance goal and Im happy that I made all 3 of them.

If you are just gonna play rounds then setting a score as a goal is a good idea. I dont think it makes sense to set an average score as a goal as that might make casual rounds frustrating as bad or fun ones pull your average up, but aiming to play a certain score once in a year doesnt sound like something that would choke the fun out of rounds but rather something to look forward too. Dont set the score too high tho, it should be a realistic goal.

Personally I would add some sort of goal in form. Be it distance or learning and solidifying a move you want to integrate into your game. Until this year I struggled with rotating on my heel and it wasnt good for my knee. So stuff like that could be a good thing to go for.

I don't give average a ton of thought to average, but I'm not sure that I agree personally. The best way to improve your average is to "raise your floor". Minimize damage and avoid total blow ups. One of the courses, my best is -4 and my general target is par or better. I had a round late summer where I was +4 thru 14. Just wasn't my day. Missed shots where I had chances to score and my bad shots were punitive. The last 4 is the toughest stretch for me. I finished the round par, par, birdie, birdie. And was as proud of that round as any of my under par rounds.