When first starting out, it’s easy to want to be able to keep up pace with other experienced golfers and get discouraged when you can’t yet. This hopefully gives you some ideas of what to set as goals for yourself until you get a few more rounds in.
- Make consistent contact: Sounds like common sense, but this is one of the most difficult things about golf and everyone struggles with it. Once you make consistent contact, then start thinking about playing a normal round, but until then, be very okay with picking up your ball and playing from someone else’s or play closer to the pin.
- Be okay with bad shots: I once heard you’re probably not good enough to get mad at yourself for a bad shot. And I loved that advice. It took off all the pressure and I was able to laugh off some embarrassing swings.
- Play a full round with scoring: A full 9 or 18 hole round is a goal in itself. It can be long and frustrating as you just start out, but keeping score will help you set goals and understand where your weak spots are. One goal my husband gave me was to try and remove your highest scoring hole (ex. try to shoot for a round without 8s). This drastically changed my overall score and it was rewarding once I hit that.
- Know your clubs: Another simple goal is starting to understand what’s in your bag! This might be more of a goal as you become more experienced and aren’t using only 3 clubs, but it’s a confidence booster when you don’t have to ask what club to hit at different distances. Know your bag and your game!
- Break 100: You’ll start hearing what people typically shoot, and depending on who you’re playing with, that can range anywhere from 70s to 100s. You’ll probably get discouraged when you’re in the 100+s but that’s where everyone starts! Your target should be lowering your score not matching anyone else's. If you break 100, that’s a huge accomplishment and worth being celebrated.
These are just some of the basic goals that come to mind as I started out, but there are so many you can make for yourself! The main thing is to have fun and don’t compare yourself to other golfers right away - you’ll be setting yourself up to never want to play again.
Let us know what you shot for as you were starting out!