Many of us reach the end of December and set overly optimistic resolutions for the year ahead, most of which are broken pretty early into January as life returns to normal following the festive period.
While this process is carried out with the best of intentions, sticking to a goal for 365 days is hard work and takes real resilience if you aren’t passionate about making a lasting change.
Luckily, I am obsessed with golf, so setting a goal to secure a lower handicap was a no-brainer. I started out in the depths of winter golf, during a particularly snowy January, with the intention to reach a 20-handicap index by the end of the following December.
After dedicating time to practice each week, taking lessons and tracking my own on-course data, I’m happy to announce that – I failed! But, it wasn’t for want of trying and I actually did something even better…
Some of the lessons (more on that later) that I learned along the way in my pursuit of progress helped to re-shape my outlook on the game, and I feel like I am entering 2025 in a much more positive relationship with golf.
My over-arching feeling towards the last 12 months is one of pride, and these are the four reasons why…
I Fell Back In Love With Golf
I am sure there are plenty of amateur golfers who can relate to the deflation and despair experienced when things are consistently not going well on the course, and for beginner golfers this can be enough to cause an irreparable fracture with the game.
I spent most of 2023, my first year as a ‘golfer’ and a club member (after years of playing football and other sports), engulfed in what I would describe as the ‘pit of doom’. I struggled to see improvement, was embarrassed by my erratic inconsistency and almost gave up all together.
Then came the start of 2024 and some encouraging improvements, which were almost immediately followed by a second-wave reality check reminding me that golf is hard and there is a very long way to go.
My attitude toward the game swiftly returned to one of general apathy and often loathing, but with some proactive changes that I will outline later, I managed to address my unhealthy mindset towards the game.
As we enter 2025, and I remind myself that I am not yet a 20-handicap golfer, I can confidently say that the highs and lows are much more…
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