As we turn over the calendar to a new decade it is time to to take stock and set goals for the next year. Starting this blog is one of those goals.

I have been a “professional” writer for nearly a decade. It will be a true decade this fall. In that time I have fallen in and out of love with writing a dozen times or more. I’ve wanted to be a sports writer or broadcaster from the time I knew the professional sports angle wasn’t going to work out. I was pretty realistic, so I knew I wasn’t going to the majors pretty early on. But, because of the teams I played on and the caliber of players I played with (Two people on my high school team my senior year were drafted. One, Dillon Maples, made it to The Show and has stuck with the Cubs.), I thought I might play college ball. It wouldn’t have been Division I, so I quickly turned away from that idea and went to Carolina.

I have been very competitive in everything my entire life. Losing baseball as that outlet was tough honestly. Golf helped fill that. It is an unmasterable game, so you always have something to strive towards. In a single round, you can compete against your playing partners, your best round, par, your last round, or even your last shot.

Simultaneously with me playing more golf when I moved out to St. Charles, I began writing more and more professionally. Originally, that was all about sports, and it was a lot of fun. I was credentialed for all of the minor and semi-pro teams in the region, while writing about the MLB Draft on the side. Over the last couple years however, I have gotten away from the local stuff in an effort to actually make money and have been doing more copywriting and ghostwriting which fills the bank account, but is not exactly fun. This year I have made a commitment to myself to have fun writing again. To make that happen I will have to use my time more wisely which would in theory cut into my golf time. However, I came up with this idea to make all the hours I truly enjoy on the course into a simultaneous effort to get closer to mastering golf and writing more.

So these are my goals for 2020 with my golf and this blog:

Maintain this blog CONSISTENTLY

The key to writing and golf is consistency. If you don’t do it everyday or at least multiple times per week, it atrophies and you regress. I am going to write on this blog every time I play golf and hopefully everyday. I should see an improvement and sharpening of both throughout the year. Synergy, baby.

Play 100 Round of Golf

Honestly, I should blow past this. I am somewhat of a streaky person. I do things in streaks. I will do an activity a lot for a short period of time and then not do it for a while and try something else. I even do this with restaurants. I played golf a ton for a couple years and then basically quit. I then hiked and biked down the Katy Trail and the parks and trails around the area for a year. Two summers ago, I bought a kayak and paddled the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers constantly. This past summer, I got back into golf heavy after shooting my best score ever (78, handicap diff. 4.9) at the first course I ever played on– Old North State Club in North Carolina where my family has had a house since I was 5. I then came home and kept playing great and shot my best round in years on a crazy day at Pevely Farms (77, handicap diff. 3.6). Needless to say I was hooked on golf yet again. I played 55 rounds and a charity scramble after just June 1st of last year. Playing all year, I should have no problem getting to 100.

Break Par

What is the point of playing all that golf if you’re not going to improve? I am currently an 8.1 index under the old handicap system. My goal for the next year is to break par at least once from the tips (furthest marked tees on the course that given day). I will be tracking this in Quest for Par. I think this is an achievable goal. I think I could do it rather easily if I played up on some courses because I hit it relatively long compared to the average amateur golfer and have a really good short game when it’s on. By adding in the tips, I am going to have to improve my accuracy and consistency with the driver to accomplish the goal. My weakest part of the game is consistency of strike especially with long irons and woods. I will need to improve those to accomplish this goal. If I hit this goal, I will move onto handicap, but we can reassess halfway through the year.

Win the Kingdom House Charity Golf Tournament

This is the only golf tournament I play in every year. I have missed a few, but I have played in it each of the last three years and a couple before that. It’s a four-person scramble I typically enter alone or with my uncle (who isn’t a golfer but just retired so he’s trying to play more) at Forest Hills Country Club every summer. I am therefore put in a group with two or three typically senior golfers of varying skill levels. The fact it is a team game really brings the competitive juices out more than it probably should for a charity tournament. I led our group to an A flight win in 2017. The last couple years we fell between flights and came up short of that sweet, sweet shop credit. My goal this summer is to have my game, especially driving, approaches into greens, and long putting to a place where we can win the tournament outright.

I look forward to the year and you guys following along with the journey. Let’s get after it.