Tangible & Intangible Goals
Day 5 from “Own Your Game” by Dave Stockton
The Golf Book Club: Every day, we share a mental game lesson inspired by great golf books—stories and strategies to help you think better so you can play better.
We love BHAGGs: Big Hairy Audacious Golf Goals. Today, we’ll get a fresh perspective on how to make those goals more attainable—and more satisfying.
Dave writes, “You need a combination of tangible and intangible goals, as well as a combination of relatively easy-to-achieve goals and some that are a stretch.”
For example, when Dave played on the Champions Tour, he had three goals:
One: Enjoy himself. That’s an intangible goal.
Two: Lead the birdie statistics. That’s tangible and a stretch.
Three: Improve his misses. That’s tangible and relatively easy.
“Notice,” Dave writes, “I made my list short and totally focused on positive outcomes.”
Keep Moving in the Right Direction.
Let’s take a closer look at Dave’s goals.
One: Enjoying himself.
“This goal,” Dave says, “had nothing to do with statistics, but it was the most important one.”
Why put in all the time and work to play well if he wasn’t having fun?
Dave says, “That meant playing practice rounds with people I liked and refusing to let bad holes or rounds carry over in my attitude.”
Wow. I might have to borrow that goal from Dave and add it to my own BHAGG.
Two: Lead the birdie statistics.
“If you want to make a lot of birdies,” Dave explains, “you’re going to have to go at some pins that will produce bogey or worse if you miss.”
This is a stretch goal because it branches into smaller areas of focus: accuracy off the tee for better approach shots; chipping around the green; recovering from the bunker; and of course, putting.
By defining each area of focus, he can work on them one at a time.
Three: Improve miss tendencies.
That simply means paying attention. He writes, “If I was missing a lot of fairways to the right, I notice that trend and change my aiming point. If my shots aren’t consistently pin high, I notice and adjust my club selection.”
After your goals are set, you need data to track your progress. Dave recommends starting with the basics: the number of fairways hit, the number of greens hit, and the total number of putts.
You can add more later. But tracking just those three stats will tell you a lot about the shots you’re hitting and the decisions you’re making—and that will keep you moving in the right direction.
Football coach Lou Holtz said, “If you’re bored with life – if you don’t get up every morning with a burning desire to do things – you don’t have enough goals.”
Plug the word “golf” into that quote and it gives you a lot to think about. That’s why Dave’s perspective is so helpful. So check your BHAGGs against Dave’s list.
Do you have both tangible and intangible goals?
Are some goals long-term stretch goals while others are relatively easy to achieve?
What stats are you tracking to learn about the performance, decisions, and attitudes that are helping or getting in the way?
This is one of the most basic but important things you can do for your game. According to Dave, the only bad golfer is the unaware golfer.
That’s all for today. Tomorrow, we’ll ask golf’s version of the age-old question: What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Until then, keep imagining what’s possible.
Today’s Photo
Royal Auckland and Grange Golf Club, New Zealand
