2022 felt a bit like running on a Mobius strip. There was a lot going on, but I ended at the same place as 2021. At different points in the season, every part of my bag was completely lost. Generally speaking though, the driver let me down the most. It got so bad I went full Bryson jumbo grip, turned the loft down, and hit low cuts to run it down the fairway and fight that left pull hook. As mentioned in my Year in Review blog, my handicap went on a roller coaster ride through the year before settling back just slightly higher than the end of 2021 at 5.1. Even with an objectively successful competitive golf season (Club Championship A-Flight win again, Amateur Series Championship berth again), I’m sick of the big numbers and craters in between bouts of brilliance.

2023 is the year of consistency.

Everyone has played with those guys who hit it a mile, make the crazy recovery shots, drain a couple long birdie or eagle putts in a round, shoot a career round right in your face, and take your money. Then, the next time you go out they can’t find the club face and barely break 100. Inevitably, they are on your team that time.

But everyone has also played with the grinder. The guy that doesn’t do anything flashy. He’s never out of a hole. It seems like on every green you’re asking him if that 3-footer he has is for par, again. These guys just grind you down with their relentless consistency. They are not going to beat themselves. They are going to let you beat you.

I am done trying to be the first guy. I am committing to being the second guy. I got caught up in the strokes gained and speed chase that has filtered down from the professional ranks into amateurs. Now, I am not discounting the tenets of either. If you are faster, you have the potential to be better. No doubt. If you hit it further and closer to the hole, you will make better scores than someone who doesn’t. People like to complicate strokes gained stats and try to discredit them, but it’s super intuitive. Where I think some amateurs get caught up is penalty strokes.

For the pros, they are already so accurate that adding speed and being more aggressive makes sense. Their bad shots mean they are in the rough instead of the fairway or 30 ft from the pin instead of 10 ft. My bad shot has me re-teeing or dropping by the red stakes. That is a score killer. My mantra for the year has been around forever I’m sure, but has been popularized by the DECADE golf system: Aggressive swing to a conservative target.

2023 Goals:

75% of Fairways Hit and 75% of Greens in Regulation

Fairways and Greens. Fairways and Greens. It’s a common refrain on golf courses across the country every day. I’ve said it to myself and playing partners countless times. It’s obviously easier said than done. In 2022, I hit 62.2% of fairways and 58.6% of greens in regulation. This might be a bit of a stretch goal, but I think it will be good to focus the mind on something other than score. Instead of thinking on the tee, “I need to crush this, so I have a wedge and I get a good look at birdie.” I will be thinking, “Hit the fairway to work towards that 75%.” It will also make me happier to layup and be happy with par instead of trying to hit the hero drive for birdie and inevitably turning an easy par into a double. To go along with the fairways, I raised my threshold for GIR. I feel confident I can hit 75% of greens if I have an iron in my hand in the fairway. My iron play is by far the best part of my game. I so often give myself no shot to even take a look at the green on my second shot. Even just being in play more off the tee even from the rough will naturally raise my GIR. Add in Whitmoor’s massive greens and this is more doable than it appears if the fairways happen.

Average less than 1 penalty and 1 double bogey per round

I averaged 1.3 penalties and 1.7 doubles per round in 2022. A sizeable proportion of those are OB’s off the tee which are just round killers. Like I’ve said before, this is all about not trying to do too much. Just hit the fairway. Or don’t try to hit the perfect shot over the creek off the awkward lie. Just take your medicine and be OK with bogey. Don’t compound errors. Whitmoor has trouble alongside every hole and multitiered greens, so these won’t be easy but they give me something to play for other than par and keep me grinding.

Average less than 1.9 putts per hole

I wanted a putting goal, but the 18 Birdies app isn’t great for tracking it if you aren’t doing strokes gained. I wish 3-putts were tracked better. I would have to go into each round and add them up. The real goal is to average less than 1 3-putt per round. I 3-putt way too much. Whitmoor is conducive to 3-putts with the huge multi-tiered greens. However, I go through unfocused stretches where I hit bad lags and miss easy-ish shorter putts. I am the poster child for streaky putting. I am going to be more consistent in 2023.

Get fit again

Getting fit for my putter last year was a gamechanger. It frees up your mind. You know it’s not the club. It’s you. Read the putt, align correctly, put a good stroke on it, and the putter will do what it’s supposed to do. I have a Club Champion gift card burning a hole in my pocket, so I’m going to go sometime this spring after all the new equipment launches. I just got a new hybrid and driver and turned up my 3-wood. I am going to give it a few months and see where I need help before the golf season kicks off in earnest.

Finish the year with at most a 3.5 index, win my flight of the Club Championship, and Top 10 in each of the Amateur Series Events

I am grouping all these together because they are ultimately less important this year because they are achievement goals. I would classify the others as process goals. They are in-round goals. The low scores will come if I even get close to these goals and with them the handicap will come down. I can’t control which flight I will be in in the Club Championship or who will enter a given Amateur Series event. A plus-handicap is going to beat me badly most of the time in these gross events. I can tip my cap to a better player who plays up to his potential. If I don’t, that’s when it will feel like a failure. Winning the A-Flight this year felt good because I scored better than I did last year and had to come from behind after Day 1. A month later, I had the driver yips and I lost badly to everyone at the Amateur Series Championship. I think everyone else in the Open Division was near scratch or better, so even with my A-game I probably still finish last or near last. I never win. However, showing up with my D-game and not being able to grind out anything better than a 92 both days shows an embarrassing lack of grit. Being in the Top 10 throughout the year shows my game was consistent, and I was consistently grinding out there to pick up points.

Outside of golf, I want to continue the theme of consistency. I am going to write every day. I got a dog in November of 2021and most of my paying work is not actually writing. It has fallen by the wayside. There is no excuse not to bang out a blog on here or somewhere else every day. I am going to read more fiction and actual books this year too. I read pretty much constantly all day whether it’s twitter or short articles or even a lot of longform. But that’s just not the same as a real book. Every time I read fiction I like it, but I almost always will just throw one of a billion new shows on and scroll twitter or youtube instead of sitting down and just reading a novel. This year that changes.

Good luck with your own goals this year, and remember:

Process over results. Just be consistent.