2015 In 6 Achievements

It is that time of year when it seems every magazine and television program does a review of the year so I have decided to join in. This has been my best year yet and here are what I consider my most important golfing achievements from 2015.

• My handicap has dropped from 5 to 3 and while I always want more this represents solid progress. My main goal this year was not to lower my handicap but to play more competitions and to gain experience. Due to this I have played a lot of rounds at courses I have little experience of and in some cases I had never played before. If I had stayed at my home club as I have in the past I may have got to a lower handicap but I know I would not be as complete of a player.

• Towards the end of the summer I set the goal of getting to scratch. Prior to this I doubted I would be able to get anywhere near scratch. Sports have never been an area where I have excelled in the past and I had let this affect how good I thought I could become at golf. For me just setting the goal and committing myself to it required a level of belief in myself that I had never had before.

• This summer I was able to win the club championship at my home club. I have never been a particularly competitive person so for me winning represents what I can do if I put my mind to something rather than showing I was better than other people. While getting a trophy and having people recognize the effort I put in is great, the real victory was proving to myself what I can do.

• I am also proud of the way I have started entering open competitions this year. This has not really been a golfing achievement but an achievement in pushing my comfort zones. I have always been a quiet and anxious person so I am pleased that I was able to enter a completely new environment and become comfortable in that situation. I can say that I am a more confident person having done this and I can use that away from the golf course as well.

• This year marked the first time I have played rounds under par. I had shooting an under par round as a goal coming into the year and looking back that was probably not the best idea because it put a lot of pressure on me whenever I got into a good position. This goal is one of the few things that has frustrated me this year, particularly after I lipped out twice in the same round to shoot my first under par round. Ultimately though the pressure and frustration made my first under par round more rewarding when it finally came.

• Helping my club reach the final of our county scratch knockout competition was another proud moment this year. As a team in division 3 this was definitely not expected of us and along the way we were to play against some very good golfers at some of the best courses in the area which is always a bonus.

There are many other moments I could have put on this list but I feel the more I pick out the less special each one will become. Following over the next few days will be a post about my plans and goals for 2016 when hopefully I will be able to reach a scratch handicap!