2018 Golf season wrap up and 2019 goals

This will be brief.  In 2017 I played 63 rounds.  In 2018 I played 23 holes!

My goal for 2019 is to play, period.  At this point I'd settle for 9 holes a week (and that would be a triumph!), but I just don't know...

Didn't play as much in 2018 due to lousy weather. Our spring was wet, cold, and it didn't warm up until a month later than usual. Rain all Summer, rain all Fall. Busy at work and didn't get any mid-week rounds in that I recall. Handicap ended up at 14.6, the lowest it was over the summer was 14.4. That is an improvement vs. last year due to getting my iron swing straightened out. I would have liked to have posted only rounds in the 80's, but lack of practice doesn't make that happen. I also lost some time due to my shoulder injury.

Next year I may need to change some clubs, my hybrids are really old. Hope to get to some demo days in the Spring. Realistically I think my handicap is never going below 12 with my schedule constraints. I would need to put in some practice time to get it down to 12, that is probably a realistic goal. Whether I can make that happen next year is unknown, since there are some things at work which may change and eat away even more at my time.

Hi all, Happy new year.

Started 2018 on 13.4 and finished on 15.6 so not great there. Didnt seem to play as often as I would have liked . Only played about 6 of my societys 13 matches and didnt play as much social golf either. I didnt  keep a track of my stats over 2018 so how i played is purely down to how I feel I played. I seem to drive good and straight but not too far about 220 yd is good. Irons are good on their day but bad on another day. Putting seems pretty good if greens are good. Short game is fairly good but not a great deal of up and downs. Bunker play is a weakness as the sand over here can be very different from course to course. How did my handicap go up when my game seems OK ? Probably a bit of bad course management , over abitious shot choice at times. I sometimes compound a bad hole with another couple rather than calming down. Should be easy things to sort out. Had a good 1st game of the year, came third and got cut back to 15.4 with a not bad 34pts. Had only 2 pts after 4 holes so good finish. No plan for any new gear although have started using a new ball lately. Wilson DX2. Good golfing CAC.

One more thing I am debating is whether I will renew my GHIN membership in 2019. Not that it is that expensive, but I have no plans to play competitively so I really don’t need it for anything other than my own edification.

What I wnat most for the 2019 season is to get back into decent shape, lose 20 pounds or so and get my legs stronger so I can walk 18 holes of golf and NOT get worn out. IF I can do these things I'd like to see if the new $500 TPT shaft I installed in a Ping G LST driver heas will give me all fo the proformance it should. IF it can consistantly out perform my old Cleveland Launcher 460 Comp. I'll be a very happy old golfer. Time to get on the exercise bike and get in shape for golf in 2019. 

Thaks Scott for your support. I'm right at 30 pounds over what I weighed 50 years ago. and no where hear as strong, so I have a lot to work on for spring time golf. Losing those 30 pounds will be a good start, but getting my legs and other body parts stronger will be what really will do the most for me over time. A few years ago I could walk 18 holes and NOT feel a bit tired on the 18th green. Now it's a challenge to walk much more than 3 miles at a clip. Losing the weight is easy. All I have to do is cut out the junk food in the evenings while watching Tv, and I can get the weight off. And IF I ride the exercise bike in the evening while watching TV, it makes it a lot easier to NOT eat the bad stuff. 

I live in The Villages, Florida and I play 3 days a week. Presently, looking for a driver that produces more distance. I'm 74 and hitting my driver 220 to 240depending on the firmness of the fairways. My driver is 6 or 7 years old. It's a Callaway x2 hot. Any suggestions? I've read the Maverik Taylor Made is hot, but it's a "little pricey."

Regarding a new driver, you should know that ALL drivers have been limited in terms of how HOT they can be. This limit have been in effect for over 20 years, so NO driver made today is any hotter than ones made since 2000 or there about. What this means to you is that a new driver that might coust $500 or more is NOT going to get you any more distance than one you have now. In fact, I'm still using a driver that was first made in 2006, and I get MORE distance with my OLD driver than I do with ANY of the new drivers I've it on DEMO days at my local golf courses. After I demp the new driver  side by side with my current old driver, just about every time the sales Rep for the maker of the club tells me to "Stick with what you have". Truth is if you want a better driver, your best bet would be to get fit for a driver so you have the best loft for you and than get an after market shaft for that loft driver that is properly Spine and FLO aligned before it is installed in the driver head. 

You might also want to hit some balls with your driver on a good launch monitor to see if you are hitting UP on the ball or DOWN on it. HItting UP a few degrees will give you MORE distance than hitting down on it. As much as 30 yards or more can be the difference. I would also recommend that you try a driver with more loft than your current driver. About 15 years ago I went from a 10.5* driver to a 12* driver and gained about 25 yards of carry over night. Like YOU , I'm not a YOUNG golfer, I'll turn 74 myself come April 16 of this year. So you are not much oder than me. I have also been building golf clubs for more than 18 years, so I know a bit about what works and what does not when it comes for golf clubs  and what may or may not get a golfer more distance or accuracy off the tee. 

 For what i'ts worth, my current driver is a 2006 model Cleveland Launcher Comp with 10.5* of loft, It has a Stiff flex 78 gram shaft and is 45" long. When I built this driver my swing speed was measured at 105-108 MPH and it have not changed much sinde then. Wehn I was fit for a driver by a highly ranked club maker in my area it was recommended that I go with a 75 gram shaft in a new driver. My first throught was that I would LOSS clubhead speed with that 75 gram shaft compared to the driver I was using that had a 65 gram shaft. So we did a test. I hit balls with 3 drivers, One with a 55 gram shaft, one with my 75 gram shaft, and a test driver with a 75 gram shaft. End result was I got the EXACT SAME speed with ALL THREE shaft weights. Since than I have repested this test hundreds of time over the years and I get the same spped no matter what shaft weight I have in a driver. I've tested other golfers as well, and I see NO reason to believe that a heavier shaft will give a golfer a slow swing speed. In FACT, the oppersiite is true for some golfers I've tested. One really good golfer that had been on a college gofl team in fact GAINED speed going from his current driver with a 50 gram shaft when I tried my driver with a 78 gram shaft. He picked up over EIGHT MPH with my driver compared to his. After that test he told me he was going to have a heavier shaft installed in his driver the following week.