2019 golf resolutions

[freehb]

1) practice 2times a week at course 75% short game
2) mirror work and stretching at home 2 times a week
3) pushups pull-ups sit-ups back exercises 2 times a week
4) win a major club event this year

[Duffer19]

1) forget about practice but increase my game from 2 times to 3 times a week
2) forget mirror work and stretching at home but continue my 'assisted stretching' at my gym at least once a week.
3) see #2
4) forget any win at club level but just my usual $20 Nassau, Hollywood or sixes and I am a happy man.
5) resist from buying or bidding more stuff at YJA.

[ian-500]

 A mixture of the above 2 posts 

[freehb]

1) forget about practice but increase my game from 2 times to 3 times a week
2) forget mirror work and stretching at home but continue my 'assisted stretching' at my gym at least once a week.
3) see #2
4) forget any win at club level but just my usual $20 Nassau, Hollywood or sixes and I am a happy man.
5) resist from buying or bidding more stuff at YJA.

That was my approach for 8 years...literally...including the $20 Nassau...except I always wanted and tried to win the club events...

That yielded one major win in the club events over 8 years...gonna do something different this year...surprising thing, my game improved more during 2018 than the past 5 years combined, only difference was lessons from a good teacher...I think there’s something to be said about good instruction and focused practice.  One more resolution:

Spend more on instruction than gear in 2019...

[Shacco]

How does play more and better golf sound like?

[95124hacker]

I need to suck less this year in my club tournaments (net) in particular.
I’m on the border between top flight & 2nd flight.
Whenever I’m in the top flight, there’s a member that’s just plain too good (won 5 out of 10 events last year). Even with handicap reduction, he beats us out. I hesitate to use the word sandbagger because he’s a good dude and a friend, but FK!
And whenever I’m in the 2nd flight, some random 30+ handicap shoots his career round... double FK!
Need to learn to play under pressure.

[freehb]

How does play more and better golf sound like?

It sounds great...I’ve said it at least a dozen times yet it rarely happens...I’ve been in the same hcap range (13~7) for the last decade...my game never got seriously better until this year...and only when I was taking a lesson a week and focused practicing twice...had a good run where a par round was a real possibility every time I tee’d it up...that’s never been the case for me...I’ve always been a grinder but I was a grind out 79 on a good day type player...of course I stopped with this in November and started sliding back to some old habits but I’m measurably longer 250 vs 235/240 drives and a better short game, much better putting...

I now have a dozen years of evidence that tips, gadgets, self directed practice don’t make me better...time to do something different, window is closing to have a real golf game...

[freehb]

I need to suck less this year in my club tournaments (net) in particular.
I’m on the border between top flight & 2nd flight.
Whenever I’m in the top flight, there’s a member that’s just plain too good (won 5 out of 10 events last year). Even with handicap reduction, he beats us out. I hesitate to use the word sandbagger because he’s a good dude and a friend, but FK!
And whenever I’m in the 2nd flight, some random 30+ handicap shoots his career round... double FK!
Need to learn to play under pressure.

I’m in the same boat...lotta guys at my club played college golf at serious programs...even net I can’t touch them...I don’t doubt their hcap though...I’m so much better than I was 5 years ago but my hcap is 9 right now and I was a 9 then...I’m not sandbagging, just much more conscious of the rules, no mulligans, no fluffed lies...I know so many guys who carry vanity hcaps...sure they look like a 4 for half a dozen holes but somehow they never beat me when the $ is on the line...

I moved up from 3rd flight to 2nd and got stuck in the 1st for one event...got killed in 1st flight net and gross despite playing some of the best golf of my life...played well in the 2nd flight, played clutch, just got beat by 2 better golfers...

I play with a guy who had serious, serious games at one point but carries a 5 hcap.  He’s not a sandbagger...he gets his game sharp and sober he plays like a +2...whereas I get my game sharp and I play sober... at my very best play to a 5...most of the year he carries a 5 and I carry a 9 and we both writ em all down and put em all in...he’ll stop drinking and smoking and practice and play for a month and he’s job st a completely different level...a coup,e guys like that at the club although I’ve seen it leave them...

Hacker, I’m guessing u came to go,f later in life like me...there’s hope for us but we gotta put the work in...

[95124hacker]

Yeah I used to go to the range 2-3 times a week, then last year they closed the only decent (grass) range near my office. I hate hitting off mats at the other range, so my only grass range time is Saturday mornings. I didn’t pick up golf until my mid 20’s and stopped playing for about 10 years in between.

I don’t mind losing to better players who are just more talented or put in more practice than me, but hate losing to guys who never practice and are happy taking their 1-2 strokes a hole on the rest of us.

[freehb]

Mats are a waist of good practice time...I now believe that if u want to shoot lower scores, skip the range entirely and chip, pitch and putt...no more banging balls for me, does more harm than good...warm up, tempo...fine but the 2 large basket sees ions I did for years did NoTHING to make me better..,just ingrained my slide and over the top move...scoring at our level or any level is all short game anyways...any fool can get a ball near or on the green in reg...a golfer gets it up and down more often than not...

[95124hacker]

I hear ya, H.
I guess there’s truth to what Hank Haney preaches:
1. Eliminate out of bounds & water hazards
2. Eliminate 2-chips
3. Eliminate 3-putts

The new 2019 USGA out of bounds rules will take some time to understand...

[freehb]

Nahh..much easier...just take line of flight or line from box to entry...pace of play...that’s the bottom line...common sense, pace of play, get er in the hole...simple...