Another way of making resolutions

Tour pro Marcus Mohr on how he sets out his goals to make strides in the game

There’s a lot of talk about resolutions at this time of year and how we’re going to stick to them or not. I’m not one for setting goals unless it’s a metric weight that I’m planning on being able to lift in the gym. 

For me the obvious goal is to win on tour and that’s what I dream of doing one day. But goals can very easily be too big or too small so, in my opinion, it’s more important to have an honest conversation with myself about every aspect in my life.

And I set it out like the picture above...

In the golf section I will write every aspect of the game and, in orange, I will put where my level is at now and, in the blue part, I will write what am I going to do to improve. 

For example I’ll break it down into the different areas of the game. So if I’m doing my irons in the orange part I will write down what the flight looks like, what shape I am hitting and what do I find difficult to hit or certain flags positions?

If I’m only able to hit a fade then the left pins are difficult but I do know that I can hit it straight at it and it will go at the pin or fade to the middle of the green.

So the plan for the blue column will be to work on that flight. If my posture is a little bit too much leaning forward that has an impact on everything else. When I have good posture I can hit a nice tight draw. So I’ll hit a certain amount of balls with just posture in mind and then put it into play. 

With putting so much of it will be about the roll of the ball and the strike and then 99/100 I’ll then spend time on my start line, posture and fundamentals. 

It makes things very clear for me and I’ll do the same with my family, friends and those relationships and the same with health. 

Then, with an open and honest reflection of what’s going on and what makes me up as a person, I can have a plan for every aspect of my life. It’s a very personal and introspective time where I can point out what and where my attention needs to me and it’s a lot easier to be honest when you’re putting it down in pen rather than just thinking about things. 

Like a lot of people I’m an extremely good doer when I have a plan or I will follow any orders to the letter. But I’m not great at creating a plan so this is where I speak with my coaches because they know more about me than I do and I trust them.

Along with this, at the end of every day, I will write in a small black book three questions; 

Good - what did I do good today? 

Better - what could be better? 

How - how am I going to make it better? 

I’ve now done this for over 10 years and I have over 40 small black books full of notes. It’s obviously highlighted my strengths but, more importantly, also my weaknesses. I suffer from a severe form of dyslexia and, having this, it has given me the will and drive and the get up and go to do what I do. If I’m told to do 100 press-ups I’ll do 200. If my coach says hit 50 balls with a certain drill and then play nine holes then I’ll hit 200 balls and play 27 holes, physically doing things is my strength.

If I have a flop shot and no green to work with the tests say that I can do it very well. If I have a 10-yard chip-and-run with an 8-iron then I’m terrible as I switch off and that is my make-up.

If I have to do six sets of dead lifts then the fifth and sixth set are going to take everything I’ve got but the hardest sets will be the third and fourth as know I can lift the weight but it’s just a gap filler and it’s boring.

I’ve learnt a lot about myself by keeping all these notes and, for me anyway, they really help to make some proper improvements on and off the course.