Very few weekday rounds for me. My wife is ready for a break but the time I get off work. I usually play sunrise on Saturday to get home by 11 so my wife can sleep in now that the kids are old enough to take care of themselves in the morning. Goal for 2021 is to find a way to work a weekday morning round into my work schedule.
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I try to do Friday afternoons whenever possible (maybe once a month) and try to do weekends when her mom is around. Even then, itās a stretch.
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Friday is my go to. A great month for me would be 1 uninterrupted Friday round and 1 weekend round with grandma coverage.
Grandmas may actually be the key to my golf game
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This is a good āfirst postā for me on the forum, so thanks for starting it. Iām Matt by the way - hi 
This year was a good one. I took my first group golf lesson in Oct 2019 and bought 8 clubs the following Black Friday. And then I played my first par 3 in March, just a couple weeks before my state locked down.
Since then, Iāve played maybe two to three dozen 9 and 18 hole rounds on my local par 3 courses. Iāve taken five 1-on-1 lessons in which my coach helped me make massive improvements to my swing. And I recently played in a 18 hole best ball / scramble tournament with a partner (who I didnāt know beforehand), which was a lot of fun and a good learning experience.
Now, Iām working my way through the Strike Plan, hitting balls into my net in my garage, putting on my Perfect Practice mat, and getting out to play when itās not raining here in the PNW.
To say Iāve been bitten by the golf bug is a massive understatement. I havenāt been hooked on a hobby like this since I played poker several years ago.
My goal for next year is to get my swing dialed in a bit more, get a couple more lessons to learn how to use my driver, and play my first full round on a regular course sometime next summer/fall.
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2020 was of course strange for me as it was most people. I had high hopes and aspirations for playing lots of golf, improving my handicap and getting some more tournament experience. I was able to make all that happen without much of a problem.
My handicap started at 10.5 and the closing revision is at 7.8 I believe. I shot some of my best rounds of my life this year breaking 80 three times.
I worked - at work- through the shutdown so no extra time for me to work on things. NH closed golf down for the beginning of the shutdown but opened it up so we only missed about 3 weeks of time after the snow and ice was gone.
I played in as many tournaments as I could and I loved it, almost every one was pushed back into July or later. I am in the process of learning how to do better under pressure. The state mid am I shot 99, then 85 the next day. I finished well below the cut for the state am qualifier. I am hoping that I can improve on this in the future. I am seeing a coach consistently now and we have a lot to work on and talk about.
I have improved my mental game and I hope to continue with that over the winter and early spring next year. I want to play golf, not āgolf swingā which I am guilty of sometimes. @jon has some fantastic resources on here and I really appreciate the insights that come from practical golf.
I am lucky to have a wife that supports my golf habit. We have 4 kids and two girls under 2 1/2 it can be tough but we make it happen because golf is important to me.
Best moments:
Hole out from 126 for eagle
Shooting 78 on a course playing for the 1st time
Playing a scramble with some new friends- 4th place finish
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Haha you are correct.
Grandma here in town plays more āgolfā than me. I use āgolfā lightly based on having watched her attempt to play before. Her idea of golf is going to play 9 holes in 3 hours and never practicing to attempt to get better. Has some phobia of going to a driving range or putting green, even though she doesnāt work and has all the time in the world to do it (yet complains that sheās not getting better).
Thankfully she only plays with grandpa who is a walking rain delay so just be sure you donāt get stuck behind them!
Haha, my parents play 18 in about 2.5 hours if the course is open, or if itās backed up theyāll play 9 holes with 2 balls in 2 hours or will skip around til they find an opening. They donāt practice, but do play 2-4 days a week.
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thatās tremendous progress! congrats
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Glad to hear you have started to enjoy the game! Have you played any āregularā courses, or has it all been Par 3s? Itās not a bad way to learn, as building a good short game is one of the keys to succeed in golf.
Any goals for your game? Any thoughts on what you want to improve on or develop in 2021?
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All par 3s. In fact, I donāt even use all of the eight clubs I bought 
I couldāve gotten away with just a putter, 9i, and 7i.
Iāll probably continue to play par 3s well into spring and summer until Iāve had a lesson or two with my coach on how to use my driver/3 wood. I might experiment a bit with it on my own, but I donāt want to develop any bad habits either, so weāll see. Iām in no rush.
As for goals - become a scratch golfer. I decided that golf is going to be my sole hobby for the foreseeable future. I work from home on a flexible schedule and have no kids. Between that and the net/putting mat in my garage and several options nearby (including a par 3 with a separate dedicated practice course), I can practice several times per week year round.
For 2021, there are several things Iād like to improve.
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Continue improving my ball striking and ground contact. Iām still hitting a touch behind the ball on occasion (1"-3") and all over the face (though more heel dominant). Iām working on drills for that stuff now from the Strike Plan.
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Reducing the slice I have (which is going well) and the open face I have sometimes on contact.
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Becoming less mechanical with my swing, which is a bit tough to do at the moment with everything Iām working on. I think this will work itself out a bit the more I play.
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Taking everything Iām practicing to the course. Thatās definitely not happening, as I learned the hard way in the tournament I played
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Learn how to use my driver and play my first regular golf course/round in late summer/fall.
Other than that, Iād like to make incremental progress across the board. Since Iām new, thereās plenty to learn and itās all uphill. Thatās one of the great things about golf - thereās always something new to learn and improve.
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Just remember to have fun while doing all this! Honestly, Iād recommend starting hitting the driver sooner rather than later. Itās not so different from other golf swings that it should give you much issue, and hitting drives is FUN. (hitting driver is also a requirement to getting to scratch unless you have some extreme talent elsewhere)
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How do you like perfect practice? I see fb ads all the time and one time actually put it in my shoppi g cart but didnāt pull the trigger.
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Absolutely. I find practicing and improving (the journey to playing scratch) the āfunā part. Iām pretty laid back when I play and donāt take things like mistakes too seriously (i.e. have total meltdowns).
Iām definitely going to learn the driver ASAP, as Iām sure the bigger courses are much nicer and more interesting than the par 3s. I might experiment with it a bit before seeing my coach or scheduling a lesson with him sooner than I planned.
Thanks for the advice!
I like it. Iām building a site (similar to PG, I guess) where Iāll review products, like several putting training aids and mats. That said, the Perfect Practice mat is the only one I foresee keeping/using.
What I use it for most is for practicing my starting line. That IMO (FWIW, since Iām new to golf) is where youāll see the most carryover. In fact, if I knew I was going to primarily use it in my garage, I wouldāve gotten the 15 footer instead of the 9.
There are a couple downsides IMO. For example, you can hit the ball pretty hard and itāll still go in. Since thereās the ramp there (which, I think, is supposed to train you to putt a little harder and not leave your putts short), Iām wondering if itās training you to hit your putts too hard. I think Iām going to work on hitting them to just fall in or maybe split it power-wise between trickling in and hitting the back of the cup. But thatās just my $0.02, again based on limited experience.
Overall, I love mine and would buy it again. I definitely recommend it.
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Lol.
Iāve had both bugs. Itās a consequence of both being great games.
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Definitely. I wish I could like this post twice!
Thanks. My miss is always short of the hole. I was thinking the ramp would help me try and get it there. Never up, never in!
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Yeah, I think itāll definitely do that. The āputting too hardā thing might just be me. Plus, the ramp is nice because you can hear the ball drop, which is great if youāre trying not to move your head too soon after you hit the ball.
I think the hill is there so they can fit a hole and have it run back to youā¦ but 8 foot putts should be going past the hole most misses. Leaving a putt short guarantees itās not going in, so itās better to aim past the hole, as long as you are confident your miss will end up within āgimmeā range. (In other words, lag puts should be targeted AT the hole.)
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Played a ton of golf thatās for sure. I had a few goals that I achieved:
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Win our club championship stroke play (my flight). Managed to do this starting off with a very sketchy 46 came back with a back nine 38 and second round 79 to win it on the last hole.
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Break 80 in a tournament round. Did this three times in various club tourneys.
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Break 80 on a course I donāt regularly play. Did this twice.
So was able to check these goals and in that sense it was a good season. However at the back-end I think fatigue started setting in and I lost a little focus especially in my ball striking. Ended the year with the highest hcp for a couple of seasons but thatās all right. We have a great group that I play with and I truly enjoy getting out there even if I donāt play too well.
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