How much have you improved this year?

I saw this discussion on another forum and thought it might be interesting to have it here as well. The question is simple: how much have you improved this year, what area has improved the most and what did you do to improve?

Personally, I've lost about a stroke, going from around 9.5 to 8. I attribute this to using almost all my practice time (what little I have) on the putting green and short game area and almost none at the range. I also think that if I hadn't been such a lousy putter (I am averaging 36 putts per round), my handicap would have gone down more this year.

For next year, the focus will remain on putting and short game and I will also concentrate more on course management (avoiding blow up holes).

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Regards, Peter

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Regards, Peter
(WITB)

I've not actual improved my handicap at all this year. Although i feel more confident and I'm more consistant than a year. I know i'm going to score mid 80's when i play now. A year ago i wasn't sure whether i was going to score 81 or 95. I'm enjoying the game more now too because of it.

Increased constistency is also improvement and something we often forget when we are talking about getting better.

If I could improve my consistency to the level where my best hole today would become my normal hole tomorrow, I would be a scratch player without actually becoming better at shot-making!

Food for thought...


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Regards, Peter

My last few rounds i've not anything worse than a double bogie. And I've only had a few double bogies. Even when i've hit a penalty shot I'm sometimes still getting away with only a bogie.

We all know we can make pars and birdies on every hole we play. Throughout a season looking at your eclectic score you'll have pars and birdies throughout the full 18. It's just doing it on the same day thats a problem.

Handicap wise, I've brought it down 5 strokes, mostly due to better ball striking.

I've gone back to my 'natural' putting stroke, and used it to make 3 birdies yesterday (including one from 18').

Unfortunately, having not worked on my short game at all this year, I don't get up and down very well.

Ive gone from shooting high 70's to low low 70's and I shot -2, 2 days ago.

I was hoping to be a category 1 golfer by the end of this year but my handicap is 6! I am quite dissapointed with this but it is mainly because I hadent found my swing! Now I have found my swing next year I am hoping to break par VERY OFTEN! I was hopeing to do that this year but it didnt work out!

My handicap as gone from 5.1 to 5.5 this season so that's disapointing but my overall averages are better.

2005 2006

Fairways Hit 79% 84%

GIR 49% 56%


Putts per round 31.5 31.8

Average Gross 75.9 74.47

Comp ave gross 78.06 75.5

So everything apart from putting as improved !

Ha ha, that reminds me: I played a medallion with a friend a couple of days ago and I made my first double on the 14th (hit my 2nd into water). He looked at me with a smile and said "About time, dude!".

We laughed about that for quite some time.

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Regards, Peter

I had 6 months off this year, but I now drive the ball straight, instead of a fade, My irons have gone from a slight draw to a bad hook, but my putting game is much better and my chipping is more consistant since using the same stroke as my putts, but still need more practice. But over the next 4 weeks, I am going back to the driving range and this time next year I will be in single figures with my handicap.

Another thing on importment guys, I am into 10 pin bowling. Early in the year I made a swing change, and over a period of 8 weeks my scores dropped. On the 8th week I was talking to a few of my competiors, who would all comment on my improvement on my swing but not my scores, they were all laughing as I was down to 13th position. I just said the scores will come, I felt my game had improved and it was only a matter of time. The scores have now come but the best thing is my game is consistant and I am now up to 2nd spot I have a very slight chance of winning the comp but only have 9 weeks left. But I have the highest game with a 300, and highest series with 759.

I have made dramatic improvements this year - but not on the scorecard, which is really frustrating.
I have achieved every single individual challenge I have set for my game
- hit under 36 putts more than once. I was averaging 34 putts for a few weeks and actually hit 32 putts on two occasions. Last year I had a few rounds of 43 putts - so goal well achieved
- Hit the Driver consistently. I was very happy to achieve this as it was a club I didn't have in my bag a year ago as I just couldn't hit it, whereas now I can rely upon it for a good 230/240 of carry.
- Start getting 3 or 4 up and downs in a round, which I've done. I've even got a handful of up and downs from bunkers...
- Start hitting 6/18 (33%) of GIR. Last year I'd be lucky to get 1 GIR in a round. The last round I played I had 8/18 GIR (44%)
- play a round without loosing a ball - which I have done on a few occasions

However, last year my best score was 93 - with no GIRs, probably over 36 putts, only 1 or 2 "lucky" up and downs etc, etc... So I thought if i was capable of all of the above it would be easy to break 90.... But no, I've hit a few 91's even hit 90 once, I rarely ever fail to break 100 - so I'm more consistent than I was that way. Last year I was capable of 110 or 114 if things got bad, whereas that isn't happening now.

Basically I'm not putting everything together.
My last round was typical of that, even though I hit 8 GIRs, I somehow managed to hit 41 putts - and lost 2 balls OOB and ended up with a score of 96. The 2 OOBs and 5 extra putts (above 36) give me 9 extra shots that I should be avoiding! But the day I hit 32 putts I will have a nightmare with my irons and hit no GIRs but putt great and drag out a 94.

I know it's all in my head at this stage.... Hopefully I'll be able to get the monkey off my back soon!

I started playing almost a year now. I love this game, so I also became obssesed - couple weeks ago I broke 80 for the first time, so I'd say I've improved rather well. Now I just need to work on distance and lowering the score a bit more - target - break 70 early next year.

My biggest improvement is in the fundamentals
because of that my distance and accuracy have improved so much so that i can now draw my driver rather than slicing it all the time and getting more GIR's per round

I've improved 11 shots on the handicap.

Best of all, stability has increased greatly. It's beginning to LOOK like golf !

I have taken lessons weekly at the driving range all summer. I fixed a few “fundamentals” and at “driving ranges” I appear to be dramatically better than I am.

Although I have been out playing golf much less this summer, my driving range & lessons haven’t parlayed into a better score card. I think, since I took so many lessons, I put pressure on myself to achieve a lower score card and that pressure backfires. The golfing season is almost up here, and I am working on reducing the tension in my swing – until very recently, while golfing, I would focus on every aspect of my swing – ball position, where the weight is the angles, etc. The next time I am out, I will think differently and see what happens. I think the latter is a major factor. A few times I hit a really bad shot – annoyed I dropped another ball and hit it quickly – and the second shot was dead on and for the second shot I had no swing mechanics going through my head.


James

My handicap has dropped by 5 strokes. This is mostly due to a putting for proper distance show that I paid a great deal of attention to on the Golf Channel, chipping technique that I garnished from my brother and getting the proper flex shaft in my driver that has me hitting almost every fairway(no trees or water since) and averaging around 320 yards.

Next season I'm gonna work a lot more on my chipping and also getting a proper read on the greens.