Golf Goal Setting – Indepth For Lower Scores
You could set goals for every aspect of your golf game. Just think, here’s some categories you could set goals for:
- Driving distance
- Driving accuracy
- Greens in regulation
- Up and down percentage
- Putts per game
BUT…
There’s one goal that I think is way more important than that. And that is your average score.
Because what you score on average is made up of your driving stats, your greens in regulation, up and down percentage and putting etc.
On the one hand you could say that if you improve each different aspect of your golf game, then you’ll lower your scores. But this is what I believe about that…
How you perform in each category simply matches up to what you believe (conciously or sub-conciously) your score should be.
So you’ll putt, drive the ball, and play your short game all to a level to keep yourself in your “comfortable” scoring range.
So out of the two goal settings options, to improve your golf game I believe you should start with setting a goal to improve your scoring average.
To do this you need to know what your scoring average is.
And if you don’t know what your scoring average is for say, your last 10 games, then how do you expect to improve?
You can’t.
So first, find out what your average score is for the last 10 games.
Then when you’ve got that information you then need to set a global scoring goal.
Let’s say that you average 90 for your last 10 games of golf. What is a good scoring goal to achieve within, say, 6 – 12 months?
Well, I would suggest about a 5 shot improvement.
That’s an average score, not just one game. That’s a pretty good guide.
And here is guide to how much I think you should look to improve your golf game in 6 – 12 months, depending on your current scoring range:
Current Average Score Range – Last 10 Games | New Goal Average Score Range For 6 – 12 Months | New Scoring Goal For The Next 6 – 12 Months |
100 – 110 | 90 – 99 | Average 10 shots less |
90 – 99 | 85 – 90 | Average 5 shots less |
80 – 89 | 76 -85 | Average 4 shots less |
79 – 75 | 75 – 72 | Average 3 shots less |
74 – 70 | 72 – 68 | Average 2 shots less |
69 or less | 68 or less | Average 1 shot less |
Find out what scoring category you fall into for your last 10 games, and then set a scoring goal in a time period that you decide upon.
The next step would be to take action, right?
WRONG!
You see, when you do this you’re going to run into one big problem. And that’s your self-image.
Because if you see yourself as a 90 shooter and you want to shoot in the 80’s consistently, the only way that is going to happen is if you start to see yourself as an 80 shooter.
A simple way of doing this is to visualize yourself writing down scores that you want to shoot.
If you do this enough then your self-image will start to change. Also, you need to talk about yourself how you want to perform.
So if someone asks you what sort of golfer you are… you respond that you’re an 80 shooter, or you’re on your way to shooting in the 80’s consistently. This is the first step towards goal setting so you improve. Do this and reap the rewards.
And this advice obviously falls into the mental aspect of golf, which is hugely important. If the mental game is a weakness of yours and you want to make a focused effort to improve it, go here to get my step-by-step program that will help you to become a mentally tough golfer and achieve your scoring goals.
