Targeting targets

I watched an interview with Padraig Harrington towards the end of 2008, reviewing his amazing previous 18 months where he won 3 major championships.
He was asked about what his targets were going forward, and he said something along the lines of ‘You always have your targets, but I don’t make them public. If I say I want to win all 4 majors next year, and I win 3, people will say I’ve failed against my targets, where in actual fact I’ll be the happiest man alive if I win 3 majors next year.’
Now I think Padraig Harrington is a fantastic golfer to model yourself on, mainly due to his mental aspect and the methodical way that he looks at things. In his world he is under intense media scrutiny, but there is a key element that he has missed out in his statement.
Any targets, whether in golf, work, or life in general, should be SMART. For those of you not familiar with management or training jargon, SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-Based (although there are a few different variations of each of these).
Padraig’s example of winning 4 majors in a year may be specific, measurable, achievable (in theory), and time-based, but it is not realistic.
To that extent, I am going to deviate from my usual mantra of ‘Do what Padraig does’, and set out my targets for 2010 publicly.
I wrote yesterday about my Majors in 2010, and I now have targets set for each of them, which are as follows;
- Worman Sword – top 12 scratch (out of about 72)
- Forfar 36 Hole Open – top 6 scratch (out of about 90)
- Middlesex County Championship – top 16 scratch (out of about 72)
- Club Championship – win (out of about 60)
- Montrose 5 Day Open – last 16 matchplay (out of about 150)
- Monifieth 18 Hole Open – top 10 scratch (out of about 150)
- Craw’s Nest Tassie – last 32 matchplay (out of about 350)
Whilst they are all individual targets, the overall target for 2010 is to achieve 2 or more of the above statements, or 1 or more if the 1 is the Club Championship.
Anything less than that would be an unsuccessful season, hitting the overall target or better would be an ultimately rewarding season. Hitting them all (which is theoretically possible looking at each one on its own), would be an absolutely fantastic achievement, and in the process would help me get a lot closer to the goal of playing off scratch. But like every other golfer in the world, form comes and goes over the course of the season, it is not realistic to expect to perform to the top of my game for an entire season.
Looking at each target in isolation again, most of them may not look that inspiring, top 10 here, top 16 there, and to that extent I can understand why Padraig doesn’t make his targets public. He would get slaughtered by the press if he was to be targeting top 10 finishes instead of aiming to win every tournament he enters.
But with my targets, they are realistic, and if someone was to tell me now that I’d achieve two or more of them, then I’d be happy. All 7 would make me happier though.