At the beginning of this year, I decided setting goals was important and wrote a blog about what those goals were. This is my first look at how I am progressing on those goals after four months.

Maintain this blog CONSISTENTLY

I have done a pretty good job with this one. I have been good about getting up my recaps of rounds pretty quickly. It’s pretty quick and easy, and I think I am getting some benefits of being more analytical about my round rather than just putting the score into GHIN and moving on to the next round. I am also doing a good mix of Going Low and Quest for Par which I like.

I do need to do more reviews. I was purposefully waiting for the courses to get closer to peak form. After playing a lot in the cold this winter, I also decided to wait to review golf balls because they perform so much differently on winter courses and in the cold air. Going forward, I need to pick it up with those.

I also have not done any of the daily deals I had planned on doing. It didn’t make much sense to do them during the winter because you couldn’t or wouldn’t want to play half the days or more. Then the Coronovirus hit and all the Illinois courses closed and the Missouri courses were hit or miss. Now with everything opening back up and the weather being better, it makes sense to start these. By the next check-in (possibly next month), I need to have started doing these DAILY.

I am also going to try and get some videos up. I bought a mini tripod and the Shot Tracer app, so I want to do some experimentation.

Play 100 Rounds of Golf

This might be the resolution I am thus far most likely to complete. I have already played a ton of golf this year and we haven’t even reached the peak season and are in the midst of a global pandemic. I played 37 rounds through the month of April. 25 of those rounds came after March 1 when the handicap system opened marking the beginning of golf season in Missouri.

By month my rounds played are as follows:

• Jan.- 6
• Feb.- 6
• March- 13
• April- 12

I took nearly two weeks off in the middle of April due to the Coronavirus and less than ideal weather. Any other year in which there wasn’t a once-in-100-years pandemic I would have had more than 15 rounds. Even with that break, I am well on pace to break the 100-round barrier. You need 8 rounds per month and 4 extra rounds to reach 100 in a year. I need to average a little less than 8 per month the rest of the way to break 100. The slight complication is I have to run up my rounds played in the next few months in case we have a particularly cold or rainy fall.

Barring some (very possible) drastic turn after Missouri and Illinois reopen with Coronavirus, terrible weather, or injury, I get this done. I am planning on playing at least 3 times per week, so that would have the target set at the beginning of September.

Break Par

This one might be the most up in the air right now. If I string together a perfect round, I have no doubt my best is good enough to get this done. The problem has been my consistency. My driving, ball striking, and putting all have been on different schedules. I generally have two working well enough which is why I have dropped my handicap down to 5.3 from over 8 from last season. I have dropped it over a stroke in just the last month from 6.5. However, I haven’t really flirted with breaking par from the tips. Going Low was supposed to breaking par all the time, which is why I specifically set the tips as the goal. However, I haven’t even broken par from the up tees. One round at Bear Creek was the closest. I had a par putt on the 18th to shoot an even-par 72 on my birthday. I got a little yippy over the 5-foot slider and pushed it just past the hole.

You can see from the stats breakdown below I am improving as the season progresses.

18 Birdies Stats through March 31

18 Birdies Stats through April 30

My greens in regulation rate was the thing I identified early on that I would have to improve. I can get up and down better than most amateurs because my wedge game is usually good, but it will just make it harder on myself if I have to do that 10 times per round. I got new irons at the beginning of the year, so getting used to them might have been part of the issue because the last 10 or so rounds I have averaged well over 50 percent.

My driving is also the best it has ever been. I am crushing the ball. I have replaced the fade (read: slice) with a beautiful high draw. When I try to step on one, I hit 300+ yard arrows. Between getting my path in-to-out and the work with the speed sticks, I have more than enough distance for the tips.

I still think it will take a hot putter day to get this done, and it has been streaky of late. I am working with the PuttOUT to try and sure that up every day.

I am far far from scratch because I have a tendency to lose it for holes or sides at a time. However, I still think one day I will just go unconscious and throw in 4 or 5 birdies, avoid the blowup hole, and get this done. St. Peters, Golf Club of Wentzville, and Links at Dardenne all feel like top contenders based on past scores.

Win the Kingdom House Charity Golf Tournament

Welp, here is the one that already has failed. It isn’t my fault though. Holding a giant charity tournament with a bunch of people over the age of 60 that includes dinner, happy hour, silent auction, and live auction during a pandemic is probably not a good idea. LifeWise STL (Formerly Kingdom House) wisely canceled the June 1 tournament in the last week.

I definitely am disappointed even if it’s the right decision. I felt like my game just in the last couple of weeks had gotten to the point where it was perfect for this scramble format and Forest Hills Country Club. I was bombing my driver — my most important contribution given the usual length of my teammates — and doing everything else good enough. With another month of polishing, we might have played my ball from tee to green throughout the round and only had to have worried about draining some putts, which the old guys are typically great at.

I have some other ideas for benchmark challenges to replace this. I might play a captain’s choice with two of my balls. I might try the PAT (Player Ability Test you have to take to become a PGA Professional) on my own. (I might take the PAT for real next year or when I move back to North Carolina regardless if my game keeps progressing.) I might enter one of the Amateur Series Events offered by my E-Club I get my GHIN through. Maybe I’ll find something else. We shall see.

Overall, barring the tournament getting canceled which is out of my control, I am happy with my progress on my resolutions. The important thing now is just seeing them through. Golf has been great for me through this crazy time. I don’t know what I would have done without it. I can only hope it doesn’t go away.