Trying to break 70!

[jackass]

Right now I'm really trying to set goals for this season. The last couple I really haven't had any. My senior year of high school (two years ago) was to make it to state. I made it to regionals where I played well but didn't even come close to making it even though I did play well (I shot 73 and needed to shoot a 69). I then passed my PAT the very next day on my first try. I played in one more tournament that summer where I shot my best tournament round of even par 72 on a moderately difficult course I had never played before. This was all by about June 14th 2010.

After that I don't know why but I really kind of lost interest in going to the golf course and playing in tournaments. I spent a lot of my time at the shooting range (not driving range), the beach, and hung out with friends and just enjoyed my summer before college. Once I got to college I played a little golf but not a whole lot. Last year I worked at a golf course for the summer. Working 42-48 hours a week really made me not want to go to the course very much and I didn't really have anyone to play with so I barely played and didn't really care a whole lot about how well I played.

Now I want to get back to playing like I was before and break 70 this summer. So far this year I've found that if I play well I shoot around 75-76. If I play poorly I'm around 79-80. I'm trying to set goals for myself this summer as I have found that setting goals is what helps get me to the golf course and work hard on my game.

My #1 goal for the summer is to break 70. I know I'll have to work hard to do it but I believe that it's an obtainable goal. The place I'm working at this summer has 36 holes and an instructional school with full driving range and short game area as well as Trackman and and V1 software. I also probably won't work any more than 40 hours a week unlike the 42-48 I was working. Having all this stuff at my disposal I feel that with hard work I can break 70 this summer. My #2 goal is to shoot par or better on both 18 hole courses. What smaller goals would you guys set? Also does anyone have any tips for really breaking through and shooting in the 60s? I've broken par before just not in tournament rounds.

Thanks

[Pete Hurrikane]

Hi Jack,

I would try to find simple and more attainable goals. Your present goals are very performance orientated and many tour pros would struggle with this particular train of thought. Also - I have discussed this in another thread, see: [a href="gogolf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=it&action=display&thread=7"]gogolf.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=it&action=display&thread=7[/a] - be careful just how deep you get into the scientific stuff, e.g. Trackman.

I would work on something like enjoyment. Your goal should be something like to simply enjoy the effort you are putting into your game. The more you enjoy something the more you want to do it, the better you get. Try this, I'm sure Timothy Gallwey's Inner game stuff suggest similar guidelines:

Before you work on anything in particular on the range, as a sort of warm up, simply grade how much you are enjoying your swing. Do this without a ball at first and give simple grades using numbers from 1-5, with 1 being low enjoyment and 5 being high. Once you are achieving good swing enjoyment levels without a ball, start hitting some but keep your intention for the grades based on swing and not on results during this warm up.

You will be quite surprised how this simple exercise improves your ball striking and frees your mind of performance criteria. If you can bring the same intention on to the golf course, I'm sure the performance will take care of itself. This is a proven formula:

Improved Enjoyment = Improved Learning = Improved Performance