Evaluate then improve your game
Most of us want to improve at many things in life including golf. Golf can be frustrating while trying to improve if you don’t have a way to measure your improvement. It is hard to measure improvement and evaluate our skill sets if we don’t start with a baseline. This is essential in improving your golf game and enjoying the progress. It is very common for a player to think they are at a certain skill level, improve at that skill and think they are not making progress. A proper self evaluation should be conducted before you start the journey of improvement. 
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Most golf instructors can share many stories about many players that tell us that they hit their irons great and their drives far. They then tell us that they are a very good putter and have a pretty good short game. The next question is what do you normally score with the answer typically between 88 – 105. It is hard to understand how you can be a good driver of the ball, good irons, good short game and a good putter and shoot over 80? For most of us who teach golf this assessment is far from accurate and makes it difficult to measure any improvement. This can really make improving frustrating and not fun for the student also.
Self assessment is typically not something we enjoy. When things aren’t going great is when we really don’t like to self evaluate but this is one of the best times to go through the process. For tips helping you with a self evaluation click the links below;
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So let’s try something new this year. The golf season is about to start for most us so lets do an honest assessment of our games from last year.
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In each category mark from 1 being poor to 9 being tour level
Driving distance 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Driving accuracy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Fairway woods 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Long Irons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Mid Irons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Short Irons 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Chipping 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Bunker play 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Putting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Mental game 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Decision making 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Practice 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Smart player 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Body health 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Flexibility 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Total Score _________ out of 150
I took this assessment and scored 101. This indicates I am playing at 67% of my golfing potential and that feels about accurate. My current index is +1 and my areas to improve most include chipping, practice, short irons and putting. If you can take an honest look at your strengths and weaknesses in golf you can then make a plan to get better.
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So take a look at your game and make a plan on working on your three biggest weaknesses. This game never gets boring because we can always improve. This starts with being honest with yourself. Make an honest assessment , make a plan and then execute!
Sincerely
Jim Hartnett
