We asked Darren Redwood of Leading Courses to give us his views and his approach to each new season.
At the start of each year, I always sit down to think about my golf and the expectations I have for the year ahead.
Of course, each year is different, but last year was a particularly tough golfing year for me.
I have been a ‘self-taught’ golfer for 20 years and played a lot of cricket, so hand-eye wasn’t an issue, but I decided I wanted some lessons with the ambition of;
1) Being able to hit a ‘draw’ consistently
2) Lower my handicap Index from 4.1 to 3.0
As I sit here in January 2023 my handicap is 6.0.
Despite not fully achieving my goals, what I have achieved (which wasn’t on my list) is understanding the golf swing a lot better.
I’m not saying I know it all, but through the bad times (of which there have been plenty, and I’m sure many more to come) I now understand the cause of my bad shots, which is a positive!
This year, my goals are to focus on playing more courses rather than trying to focus on my handicap.
With regular practice and less focus on it, I feel my handicap will (hopefully) come down (hopefully!).
The bucket list functionality that Leading Courses offers is a really simple way of adding courses to your ‘play-list’, which gives me a great reference and acts as a reminder.
I’ve added 18 courses to my Leading Courses profile bucket list, which currently covers 7 countries including England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal and Sweden.
If I can play 75% of these courses in 2023, I will be happy.
In a year’s time, I wonder whether I’ll be looking back on a successful year of golfing or not.
My advice to every golfer is to set some handicap goals and then review them every three months to see if you’re making progress (or not!)
