By Alan Watson, President, GOLF+ Dothan and PCB
Many remember that from 1999-2009 Tiger Woods won golf tournaments at a 34% clip. One out of every three tournaments he played in he won … for ten years! Quite impressive. He has majors, repeat wins, and the second-best professional record of all time.
But for most of us golf isn’t about winning majors or even competing at the highest level. Some of us don’t compete on any level. So then what do we have to compare ourselves to? What goals or standards or statistics are we striving for?
I think the average golfer should have some goals. Everyone talks about shooting your age or making a hole in one, and those are great however to shoot your age you have be at the very least in your late sixties or beyond. And hole in ones seem to be more luck than skill from what I’ve seen in forty-plus years of playing.
What kind of goals can a normal golfer set and hope to achieve?
• Breaking 100 (while following the rules of golf)
• Breaking 90
• Breaking 80
• Breaking 70
• Making an eagle
• A round with no 3 putts
• To win a tournament
• A round with no double or triple bogeys
• Playing a famous course
• And so on…
Goals allow us to have something to strive for and something to measure ourselves against. We may never be able to beat the club champion at our course but we just might be able to knock a few other things off our golf bucket list.
Several years ago I decided to test my skills by playing tournament golf on the Golf Channel Am Tour. We were divided into handicap flights for each tournament by 4 points in each division. 0-4, 4-8, 8-12, 12-16, 16-20, and then beyond. I was just under an 8 at the time so I played in the second group. I wanted to improve and to win but I was at the back end of my flight. I started practicing my chipping and putting four days a week for nearly a year and I cut my handicap down to just under 4. The work was hard and the concentration and skill that I developed really shone through in my casual rounds and in my tournament rounds. I eventually won a tournament in Pensacola Florida in a playoff. Without the practice, my goal of winning a tournament would not have happened. I am sure of that!
For me after forty-plus years on the links, I still have zero aces. That’s right. Not a single hole in one after thousands and thousands of chances. I’m not exactly broken up over it but it would be nice, particularly since I’m in the golf business so I get asked about it several times a year. I did have six birdies in one round once so that’s a goal now to have seven or more in a round. I’ve had an eagle so next is a double eagle. I have met par many times but never broken it so that remains another goal. Even after years of golf I still have goals for my game and I believe you should too! Fairways and Greens!
