Season in Review: 2021

General Discussion
#1

I understand most people are still playing, but my season came to an end with a bunion removal on Friday. So as I’m sitting here dreaming about playing golf, I was reminiscing about my 2021 golf season. Here’s some thoughts I’ve had, and invite everyone to some introspection when the time comes.

Overall, I had a pretty solid year. I opened the year with my lowest handicap ever, but I didn’t think it was sustainable. It ballooned up as predicted, but then came back down to a number I think properly reflects the state of my game (11.7). For most aspects of the game it was my best season ever. Far and away my most consistent putting season, same for short game. My approach/ballstriking was a little more strikes and gutters, but lessons at the end of the season have me headed in the right direction.

While that was positive, the biggest negative was my off the tee game. Driver was once my favorite club in the bag, long and accurate. I’ve lost both. I’m hoping the swing changes I’m working on will also help in that area and think they will. But it’s the biggest thing holding me back from my goal of reaching a single digit handicap. The Arccos strokes gained metrics rank me as a 19 handicap driver, that HAS to change.

On the goals front, I completed my “par every hole challenge” the earliest I ever have. I also birdied more holes at my home course than ever before. It’s the first year I ever tracked my birdies for the season, so I have a benchmark to try and surpass next season.

I hope you all have many more rounds to play before putting your 2021 into review!

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#2

This was a strange year for me – my handicap went from a 6 up to a 7, but I also played some of my best golf ever. Broke par for the first time ever (twice), and made my first hole in one. And got to play at Pebble Beach where I started the round birdie/eagle.
But, I’ve been struggling a bit lately, so I’m hoping the weather cooperates a little while longer so I can get a few more rounds in to end the season on a positive note.
My iron play is as good as it’s ever been, and I’m way better at partial wedges now.
Driver is too streaky, it’s either really good or really bad. And need to keep working on my putting, it’s definitely a weakness.

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#3

I’m hoping to keep playing for a few weeks and maybe then sneak down to southern Utah during the winter to get in a few rounds…but I love this thread idea.

I started the year at a 12.4…got down to a 10.8 (my best ever) late summer when I was playing the most, then snuck back up to 11.4 right now. I’ve noticed how profoundly my scoring is connected to how well I drive the ball. Irons and short game are pretty consistent…not always good, but consistent…but the driving is really the difference in what my score ends up.

Started playing for the back of every green with the irons and had my first full year of “heads up” putting. Happy with the year, but didn’t get in as many rounds as I’d hoped…part of that due to covid crowding, part due to some family health issues.

Headed down to Florida in a few weeks and hope to squeeze in a few rounds there between trips to Mickeyland. I’ve really loved this forum and the “Sweet Spot” podcast…in helping align expectations, focus on double bogey avoidance, think about shot dispersion, etc.

Thank you all and @jon for this amazing forum.

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#4

Hoping to play a bit longer here as well, but the weather this week doesn’t look to good. I played better overall dropping from 18 to 14 and I won a big tournament and cashed a bunch of skins and other things this year for more pro shop credit than usual.

I got a bit of distance back this year due to workouts and swing speed training last winter. That certainly helped, but I also put in some practice around the greens. I still need a lot of work, but I started pitching and chipping more like I used to when I was abut a 12. I didn’t keep stats on it, but I felt like my putting was actually worse. It was probably about the same, but I can’t recall ever lipping out so many putts lol.

I decided to try something a past club champion suggested and mainly targeted the front of the green. I know hackers are supposed to target the back, but I think that’s partly meant for hackers that aren’t honest with themselves about their yardages…I have almost no ego about that. Also long at our course is dead on pretty much every hole…you’re in the woods, OB or just in a horrible spot. Maybe it was the improved short game, but targeting middle to short worked much better for me.

Will be figuring out a workout program for this winter and dusting off the swing speed sticks. Still have my Rukknet for the garage along with the PRGR and some foot spray powder. I want to work on tempo and not over swinging again and try to tighten the swing up for more consistency.

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#5

Given those conditions, doing what you can to not be long sounds much better. But those conditions aren’t what most mid-high handicappers are facing. Christ, though: that would be frustrating. “I hit it perfectly, taking the smart club here, and my reward is OB?!”

Also, I’m not sure if it’s so much a case where duffers are lying to themselves about their yardage. Instead I’m wondering if it’s that many of the irons they play, don’t feel that much different for moderate toe or heel mishits, yet still take 10 or so yards off the carry when that mishit happens. Better data collection, to assess the actual frequencies of those mishits, would really help.

Oh, and IME, having tried foot spray vs dry-erase on the back of the ball, I got much better results with the dry-erase. Though it is slower having to draw the dot on the back of the ball.

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#6

To answer the question nobody is asking, it took 3 days of being couch-bound before I hobbled downstairs to my putting mat and rolled some putts.

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#7

I have now played the same number of rounds as last year 367. Not 367 rounds but 367 scores.
Compared to last year I have had 523 more pars and 70 more birdies and lowered my average score by 1.9 strokes. I broke 80(par 70) 14 times compared to only once last year and I only had 10 rounds over 100 compared to 35 last year.I changed my swing to cure my shanks and had the added bonus of straightening out my hook. So I have played more consistently and my best round of the year was not my lowest score. In winter the course was saturated with lots of soft mud and I shot 83 hitting the ball first every time. An amazing ball striking round. Last year my easiest hole was the 7th a 275 par 4. This year it is the 11th a 149m par 3. A direct result of being able to hit straighter iron shots. All in all a big improvement over last year.

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#8

Million dollar question…

How many chip ins?

#9

Only 48 chips, 7 pitches and 2 bunker shots compared to 59 5 2 last year. Every year since I started playing again I hole less shots around the green but I think this is because hitting greens keeps improving and I have less chipping opportunities. Thanks for asking.

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#10

I love your improvements and showing the value of copious data…but even more so, your dedication to playing the hell out of this game!!!

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