So, Whats Next?

/ The Grateful Golfer

If you ever watched the TV series ‘West Wing’, you will easily recognize the title of this article. This statement is made every time President Bartlett is ready to move onto a new topic. He is either tired of the old one or has spent enough time thinking or worrying about it. Well, I feel that way about many topics in golf; I like to change because I am tired of the conversation, have no solution, or another topic is more important to at that time. So, Whats Next?

Where does my game go from here? One of my goals is to be a scratch golfer. I have worked at this feat for years, but have seemed to plateaued. The closest I came was a couple of years with a 2.3 handicap index and that is where things stalled. Last year, was not as productive and the lowest my index went was 3.2. I know that most of you are saying those are great indexes, but they do not meet my expectations.

As I age, I find it more challenging to shoot lower scores. I am not sure the reason for this dilemma, but that is what seems to happen. I am physical as strong as always, I think I am smarter about course management, and I have great equipment. So, I am not sure what my challenge is and if I am really serious about reaching my goal, I need to shake things up a bit.

As suggest in many comments, it is time to take some lessons next spring. So, I am committing to taking 3 lessons early in the year. I have never followed this path, but Rick and Brian suggest that it will help. I think so too, it is time to change-up my routine and see if I can take a few steps closer to achieving my goal of being a scratch golfer.

So, ‘Whats Next” for you?

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!

Written by Jim Burton from The Grateful Golfer blog.

10 thoughts on “So, Whats Next?”

  1. Jim, I would suggest you dialog with your instructor some process oriented goals and let the scores and handicap index (results) take care of themselves. For example, you might want to “Make birdie on 25% of the approaches you hit a PW or less in.” Or “Eliminate your big miss, or reduce it to one per round.” Or you could go more granular and target a specific GIR average. Take em in small chunks and enjoy the ride!

    Brian

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  2. Jim, that’s cool you’re going the coaching route, I hope that opens up some doors you haven’t looked through before.

    I’ve never asked, but do you keep stats of your rounds? I’m SURE you do! GIR’s, fairways hit, missed left/right, putts/round, up/downs, penalty strokes, chips vs pitches vs 50-80 yard shots, etc.

    I believe if you focus primarily on your short game, you’ll get to where you want to go 🙂

    Be well, my friend.

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  3. It’s been a year since my lesson, so I’m about ready to go back for another one. It’s also time for another eye checkup soon and I’d like to see if I can get contacts or at least an extra pair of glasses with just the distance vision corrected. My glasses have progressive lenses and I think they throw off my reads on the greens sometimes when I’m not extra careful.

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      • I spent this past year carting an elderly relative back and forth to eye docs. She had 6 eye surgeries. Four for glaucoma and two for cataracs. Even if your vision is good a checkup might not be a bad idea. Glaucoma, which is pressure in the eye, can cause irreversible damage. I didn’t know this but our eyes have drains that can get clogged over time. When that happens, the pressure in them rises. If caught early, they can clear the passage with a laser. But if you wait too long, they might have to put in a new drain tube. Checking eye pressure is part of a standard eye exam. At our age, it’s a good idea.

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