I did a little review of my golfing skills last time, and there isn't much more to tell, really. That's not enough reason for me to keep from plowing on anyway.
The short version is that I'm your average beginning high handicapper with a soul-crushing slice off the tee. Add to that a pretty severe push with my irons and you have a pretty good idea how my average round of golf is. I'm going to separate my goals into the three physical aspects of this sport we call Golf: Power Swing, Finesse Swing, and Putting.
Power Swing:
This is, of course the "full swing", and golf shots that are, as Dave Pelz defines it, more than 100 yards from the pin. As I am left-handed, my push and slice are sending these shots WAAAYYY left. I've hit the driver as much as 100 yards left of my target. I know enough about golf to know that the slice comes from an open clubface and the push comes from the head of the club moving on an inside-out path when it strikes the ball. I knew this even before I asked some of my golfing friends for advice, but that's all they could tell me. What I need to figure out is how to fix those swing faults so that I can begin to play and not get discouraged by shooting double par on every hole. As i am at the end of my rope in dealing with my swing, I will soon be calling in the cavalry (which is to say that I'll be searching for a teaching pro, signing up for lessons, and begging for help.
Goals: Get rid of my current swing faults, develop a controllable shot shape which I can hit consistently, and chart how far I hit each club.
Finesse Swing:
Shots from inside 100 yards. I'm actually somewhat satisfied with my current abilities here. No need for a crash course in the short game. That isn't to say that I don't need to do a lot of work in the short game. I do. However, the issue with the short game is distance control and the path to figuring that out is fairly well documented by Dave Pelz and others. Hopefully I'll be able to work out my short game for 60 cents in overdue charges at the library instead of paying $100 an hour for lessons.
Goals: Apply principles of the "clock" method for wedge shots and chart the distances with each wedge.
Putting:
As with the other two phases of Golf, there is significant work here, too. My putting is erratic, to say the least. I need to work on speed and reading greens. My feeling is that reading greens will come with time and paying attention to my putts as I play. This might be wishful thinking, but if I'm not fuming about how it took me 5 shots to get the ball onto the green I might be in a calmer mental state as I'm putting. It should follow that I can concentrate more on the speed and trajectory of my putts.
Goals: Get properly fit for a putter, develop a feel for the "speed" of my putts, and concentrate on 2-putting on most holes.
Overall Objective: Have a handicap (besides golf itself), consistently score less than 100 during a round of 18 holes.
As I review what I've listed as goals for this year I might have bit off more than I can chew, but I believe that most of these goals are attainable. Possibly even all of them. Realistically, I hope to at least see some improvement in each aspect of the game and a measurable drop in score.
Coming soon: The quest for a teacher begins.....
