Goals - helping or hurting?

This post is very much about my technical golf goals and less about my mental golf challenges (although there is some overlap). If you've read my Vision54 Senior Open post, https://golffindsdaily.com/post/my-vision54-the-senior-open%3C/span%3E%3C/u%3E%3C/a%3E%3Cspan%3E, you know I've set a lofty target of qualifying for the Senior Open by the time I'm 60. As I'm now just 54, I thought this gave me a decent timescale. I also talked about the secondary benefits I saw from the challenge. In hindsight, they almost read like consolation prizes designed to make me feel less bad if I don't achieve the end goal. Like I'm almost admitting the goal is unachievable before I've even started. So, is my Vision54 target good or bad and does such a lofty goal help or hurt my golf?

Instinctively, it feels like a poor goal as it remains too open-ended and doesn't provide immediate motivation. While it works as an ultimate ambition, defining several narrower, intermediate results goals that will combine towards the end goal feels like a better structure. This is based on the theory that having a narrower focus improves the chance of achieving the target. Results goals also help define the process goals required to reach the result.

What's the difference between results goals and process goals and how will this help me with the overall Vision54 goal?

Results goals:

• are specific, realistic and measurable

• have an outcome associated with them

• are finite - a quantifiable time frame

• are binary - you either achieve it or you don't
  

Process goals:

• are how are you going to achieve your results goals

• they are the building blocks of your results goals

• are softer goals and processes

• consist of actions, not outcomes

Results goals = (process goal + process goal + process goal)

Taking the ultimate Vision54 goal, while it satisfies some of the definitions of a results goal, I think it currently fails due to the time frame, and possibly realism too. As it stands, I think it has the potential to be demotivating and detrimental to progress. The purpose of this post is to set out some intermediate goals.

Results goal 1: halve (or more) my WHS index during the 2024 season (4.2 to 2.1)

Process goals:

1. Daily stretching and exercise routine to work on flexibility, strength and stamina

2. Putting practice - get that monkey off my back

3. Trackman sessions to nail down my carry distances

4. Distance and proximity practice to improve my approach play

5. Short game practice to improve my scrambling

6. Keep working on speed but watch the impact on accuracy

7. Course management - avoid the disasters

8. Self-management - improve my mental game

9. Love the process!

Results goal 2: become more comfortable with competitive golf

Process goals:

1. Play more competitions!

2. Be aware of booking deadlines for New Golf Club comps

3. Check Thursday comps for the Thistle

4. Check Wednesday and Sunday comps at The Duke's

5. Add pressure to "bounce" games by entering general play scores too

Results goal 3: get to scratch (or better) during the 2025 season (or sooner)

Process goals:

1. Repeat/continuation of all the process goals above

2. Play in as many over 55's Open competitions as possible. These tend to be early season events in Scotland, preventing me from playing many in the 2024 season as I'm not 55 until June.

Results goal 4: play in a Senior Open Qualifier

Process goals:

1. Repeat the process goals above paying particular attention to health and fitness.

2. Continue to play in as many Open competitions as possible to gain experience of performing under pressure at different courses.

3. Research the courses where qualifying will take place and target the best ones to apply for.

Results goal 5: keep playing into my old age

Process goals:

1. Keep following the strength and exercise regime

2. Keep competing

3. Accept the challenges that will come with age, but keep pushing forward

Monitoring progress

Handicap is the most obvious external benchmark but it is fraught with danger as scores are ultimately out of my control. All I can control is how well I hit the ball, everything else, including the result, is out of my control. If I put the work in, trust and follow the process, then I give myself the best chance and hopefully results will follow. However, if I can't reach the intermediate goal of getting to scratch or better the top goal is lost.

To help monitor progress and make it less about the score, I have started using an app called Tangent https://www.tangent.golf/. I will write a full review of it soon, but the skinny version is that it is excellent and I thoroughly recommend it, especially for Apple Watch users. It integrates brilliantly with the watch, is easy to use (watch or app) and provides great post-round information about how you performed (including strokes gained). What's unique though is that it also integrates with a practice section which suggests routines based on how you performed in the round just played. The watch/app then monitors and records your practice.

Managing my expectations.

What if I work through the process goals and don't achieve the results goals? Since I wrote the Vision54 note, my golf has been a real curate's egg, with some excellent social and matchplay rounds mixed with poor "counting" rounds. Combine that with good rounds dropping off and the result is that my WHS index has increased to 4.7 from 4.2. Not a great start! Becoming technically better at golf requires focussing on good practice plans and habits. But the hockey stick, or J-Curve, concept demonstrates that getting from 4 to scratch will be harder than getting from 10 to 4, as incremental gains become smaller.

The mental challenges of this journey are also going to be difficult. Keeping a quiet mind when playing, remaining grateful, cultivating awareness and dealing with the inevitable setbacks are just some of the things that lie ahead. Wyndham Clark has been quite open about the mental challenges he has faced on the course, highlighting that even the best in the world can struggle at times - see Full Swing 2 and https://www.golfdigest.com/story/wyndham-clark-cover-story-us-open-champion-profile.

While I'm aware that this might sound contrived, but, having written this post https://golffindsdaily.com/post/ctrl-alt-del-resetting-my-golf-brain%3C/span%3E%3C/u%3E%3C/a%3E%3Cspan%3E I feel like I have actually made significant progress with my mental game. I've not played much "counting" golf since I wrote it, but I have played several competitive rounds and done so with greater mental freedom than before. I believe gratitude and awareness have been key to my improved thinking and attitude.

"Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively" - Voltaire

Could these goals be unhelpful?

There are obvious similarities here to the things John Richardson talked about in his book, Dream On https://golffindsdaily.com/post/review-dream-on-by-john-richardson%3C/span%3E%3C/u%3E%3C/a%3E%3Cspan%3E It could be easy to get hung up on results, stop enjoying the process and loose my love for the game. However, I believe the key to good goals is having the right reasons for them. My Senior Open target is not just about improving my golf but is also designed to commit me to a practice and exercise regime that will hopefully keep me playing golf well into my old age. It's almost more about the process goals than the results goals in some ways. I'm getting older and it can easier to drift along with the tide than fight against it.

It was interesting to read interviews with Bob Macintyre about his goals when he was deliberating over his move to America. Having achieved many of his lifetime goals (like playing in the Ryder Cup), he was deep in the "What's next?" process of re-assessment. His new results goal is to win a Major and the process goals to achieve that require him to move to America in order to access to better courses, coaches and weather! His new Results goal determined the Process goals. He has made considerable personal sacrifices and I wish him all the very best.

Conclusion

This journey started by reading about Vision54 https://golffindsdaily.com/post/review-every-shot-must-have-a-purpose%3C/span%3E%3C/u%3E%3C/a%3E%3Cspan%3E but it also takes inspiration from people like Jon Sherman from Practical Golf (https://amzn.eu/d/dPIMy44), Tim Gallwey from The Inner Game (https://amzn.eu/d/bRMpZ4W) and Kent Osbourne from Scratch Attitude (https://scratchattitude.com/) along with many other. I also take inspiration from my fellow New Golf Club member and occasional golf partner, Freddie Lawrence (https://www.youtube.com/@FreddieLawrenceGolf) who is following his dream of turning professional this year.

Making a public statement and declaring a target like this is well outside of my normal comfort zone. I am usually a very private and reserved person who rarely talks himself up. Yet here I am saying I want to qualify for the Senior Open! This is not an ego project, but it puts me out there to be measured and held to account. I hope I find the right balance of improvement and enjoyment, without losing sight of why I fell in love with the game in the first place.

Wish me luck.