My Journey Trying the Daily Golf Thing
Alright, so I got this idea in my head a while back, you know, the whole “365 golf” challenge. Sounded straightforward – swing a club every single day for a whole year. I thought, “Yeah, I can do that. How hard can it be?” I really wanted to see if daily practice, even just a little bit, would make a real difference to my game.
So, I started. Day one, full of enthusiasm. Went down to the local driving range, bought a medium bucket of balls. Whacked ’em around. Felt pretty good. Did the same thing for the first week or so. Easy peasy.
Then, well, life started happening. You know how it is. Some days I finished work late, totally drained. Other days it was pouring rain. I remember one stretch in winter where the range was basically a frozen mud pit. Going out there felt like a massive chore.
Making it Work (Mostly)
I had to get creative. “Every day” didn’t always mean hitting the range or playing a few holes. Sometimes it just meant:
- Swinging an alignment stick in the backyard for 15 minutes.
- Doing putting drills on the carpet in my living room.
- Hitting foam balls against a wall in the garage.
The key was just touching a club, making some kind of swing motion. Some days, that was literally all I managed. Just five minutes before crashing into bed. It wasn’t glamorous, that’s for sure. There were definitely days I almost skipped, where I had to drag myself to do something, anything.
I kept a simple log. Just a checkmark on the calendar for each day I did something golf-related. Seeing the chain of checkmarks grow helped keep me motivated, especially during the tough middle months.
What Happened in the End?
Did I hit exactly 365 days straight? Honestly? No. I think I missed maybe 5 or 6 days scattered throughout the year. A couple of times I was traveling and just couldn’t make it work logistically. One time I tweaked my back doing yard work and had to rest for two days. So, technically, I failed the “365” part.
But you know what? I’m okay with that. Trying to do it forced me to be way more consistent than I ever would have been otherwise. My swing definitely got smoother, even if my scores didn’t magically plummet. I learned a lot about discipline, and about finding small pockets of time. I also learned that forcing it every single day might not be the absolute best way to improve – sometimes a rest day is needed. But the sheer volume of practice, even the tiny sessions, built up some muscle memory.
It was an interesting experiment. Glad I tried it, even if I didn’t nail the perfect 365. Showed me what I could push myself to do, and also taught me a bit about my limits and how to practice smarter, not just harder.
