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There’s a lot of people who believe that when setting goals related to golf you don’t want to walk on to the course saying “I want to shoot ‘X’ number today”. This article will not only tell you why you shouldn’t do that, but it will also show you how to pick specific smaller goals that will help you reach a numeric milestone.

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Why not pick a number?

You want to stay away from picking a number for two big reasons: pressure & limitations.

Picking a specific number adds pressure as you progress through your round. Your subconscious golf mind will be aware of your position in relation to that score. If you get behind the pace needed to achieve that number, the pressure can mount quickly. Pressure leads to stress, stress often leads to tension, and everyone knows that tension leads to poor performance. (Insert your Star Wars dark side joke here) Even if you have successfully let go of all those issues you still are more likely to take overly aggressive risks that could lead to even more disastrous outcomes. (IE: going for sucker pins) Even if you’re doing great and you manage to stay ahead of the pace needed to achieve that goal, you’re more likely to rest on your laurels down the stretch. If my goal is to shoot par and I’m two under at the turn, it’s really easy for me to mentally take my foot off of the gas pedal and say “I can afford to shoot +2 on the back”. All of a sudden after the round is done I’m looking at missed opportunities that could’ve lead to a FANTASTIC round. My goal was even par or BETTER , not to just settle for even par and forgo anything surpassing that.

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How do I set a goal for a specific outcome?

My interview with George Roy provided a perfect example of how to accomplish this. George stated if you can hit 50% of your fairways, 60% of the greens from the fairway, and get up and down for par on 70% of the greens you missed you will end of with a good score. Assuming you two putt every hole (Yes, I realize how big of an assumption that is but this is for the sake of stats!) you would shoot +5 over 18 holes.

Here’s the math:

50% of fairways = 7

On in regulation from 60% of those 7 fairways = 4 G.I.R. (a.k.a. pars)

Getting up and down for par on 70% of the 14 missed greens = 9 par saves

Add that all up and it equals 13 pars and 5 “others”. Assuming you can keep those “others” to bogeys you’ll be on a roll!

By setting smaller goals not related to specific scores George has laid out an easier to achieve system of small victories that come together to form a numeric milestone that we can be happy with!

Here’s another example for breaking 90 (again, assuming two putts):

Hit 25% of your fairways = 4 (rounded up)

Hit 50% of those greens = 2

Get up and down for par on 25% of the missed greens (14) = 4.

This comes to 6 pars and 12 “others”.

If you can keep 60% of those “others” to bogeys you will be in great shape to break 90. (5 doubles & 7 bogeys would = 89!!!)

The more you can successfully maintain this mindset the easier it will be to keep the scorecard out of your head and have those little stepping stone goals lead you all the way to your numeric milestone.

I hope you enjoyed this new way to look at things and as always, I’ll see you in the short grass!

Marty

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