With a new year comes a new set of personal goals, but somewhere between your resolutions to finally clean out your garage and start getting into meal prepping, remember to make room for setting goals to reinvigorate your golf game.

Just like in life, it’s important to set goals that will help you improve your game because you gain direction and focus in your practice sessions, you’re more likely to create strategies to reach those goals, and you’ll be more motivated to accomplish your goal once it has been made official.

But, when it comes to goal setting in your golf game, you might not be sure what to work on first. This is where a  performance profile comes in.  So while you’re waiting for the greens to thaw, start 2019 with a bang and revolutionize your golf game with this quick and easy performance profile.

What is a performance profile?

A performance profile is essentially a visual way to track your skills and progress on areas that are critical to your game. You’ll brainstorm the areas of your game that are important to you, then you’ll rate how well you’re doing on a scale of 1-10, so you can decide what you’d like to work on.

Creating your own performance profile

Take the time to brainstorm at least 10 areas of your game that are important to you; don’t worry about how well you’re doing in each just yet. Your list can feature mental, physical, or any other aspect of your game. Be as specific as you want; for example, confidence (overall) or confidence off the tee, short game, puts for par, etc . . .

You might have a list of more than 10, and that’s okay. For this exercise, narrow down your list to the most important 8-10 areas of your game. If your list is shorter than this, that’s okay too. To get some ideas or try to work on more advanced concepts, check in with fellow golfers or a golf professional to find out what areas of the game they’re focusing on this year.

Once you have your list, rate how well you’re doing on a scale of 1-10,1 representing skills where you feel you’re not doing well, or are extremely inconsistent, and a 10 representing skills you perform perfectly every time (PS no one is a 10!!).

Do your best to rate yourself on each area and don’t worry about having low rankings across the board or creating a perfectly accurate representation of your skill level. You may have to give a rating to something that may not always be quantifiable. In this case, use your best judgment.

When you come up with the list of areas and your scores, you can write them down or type them out as a note on your phone for easy reference. Committing your goals to writing allows you to revisit them, keep them top of mind while out on the course, and makes them feel more achievable.

Set your goals and work on them

Now that you can see your strengths and areas for improvement, you can narrow in on what you’d like to work on first. Pick one or two areas that you’ll set goals for, keeping in mind that you don’t have to start with the lowest rankings: you can start with what you think is the most important to your game, so you can start with the areas that will have the biggest impact.

Then, come up with specific strategies for how you’ll improve on your current rating by working with a golf professional. Each month, come back to your profile and re-rate yourself. It can be fun to see your progress!