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What Should My Post-Tournament Process Entail?
Your analysis should include more than just your score and finish.
In my nearly 15 years assisting families navigating junior golf and the college process, I have had hundreds of conversations with junior golfers after they have competed in a tournament. Initially, as we begin working together, their post-tournament feedback often revolves solely on what they shot and where they finished in the event. Certainly, your score is not to be ignored and can provide valuable feedback; however, whether you had a strong or poor performance, you’d be missing potential valuable insights if you didn’t look beyond the score. The score you shoot will continue to be a normal measure to evaluate tournament results but shouldn’t be the only way.
Looking back on all of my competitive golf experiences as a junior, college player, professional, and even college coach, the most asked question after the round was, “What did you shoot?” To this end, it’s easy to see why you might be hyper focused on the score and miss other meaningful takeaways. To ensure you get the most out of each tournament experience, good or bad, my advice is to also come up with a simple post-tournament evaluation system that offers more perspective. The “what did you shoot?” question is not going away, but you can create a new habit after each tournament and ask yourself other questions that will lead to insightful takeaways.
To this end, I’d suggest creating a tournament “journal” (your iPhone Notes app will suffice) that includes an entry after each tournament. (I also recommend you do the same after each golf lesson.) This entry should include the date of the event, course played, name of event, and what you shot, as well as answers to the following questions.
What did I do well? Focusing on some positive takeaways after each event, regardless of score, should be the first action of your post-tournament evaluation routine, as too many times junior players begin their post-round/-tournament with what went wrong. Examples could include a great warm-up routine, the way you handled adversity on a particular hole(s), a specific shot you hit, a great decision(s) you made, a particular aspect of your preparation that helped you during the event, how you improved from the first round to the last round, the attitude you maintained throughout the round, or an aspect of your game that was consistent throughout the tournament. Write down at least three things in your journal you did well.
What did I learn? What did you gain from the experience and where can you improve? Perhaps you spent too much time focused on technique and didn’t get out to play enough prior to the event. Maybe you need to develop a structured pre-round warm-up routine, or you need to take more detailed notes while playing your practice round. (See my previously written article, “Is Playing a Practice Round Important?” Would you benefit by developing a “go-to” shot? Perhaps you realized your lag putting needs more attention. Whatever the case, if you can learn something from each event, no matter your score, and then implement those lessons learned into your subsequent practice sessions, you have benefited from that tournament experience regardless of your score and finish. Then discuss these takeaways with your instructor at your next lesson and create new process goals for your next event.
What do my stats say? For any advanced junior player, I’d certainly recommend some level of statistical tracking to assist in your development and, specifically, your post-tournament analysis. Stat tracking is an integral part of most competitive college golf programs and continues to trickle down to the junior golf landscape. “Strokes gained,” among other stats, has become a tool for college players and professionals to evaluate the various aspects of their games. These stats can be discussed with your instructor and then lessons learned implemented for more targeted and deliberate practice. This analysis will allow you to be more prepared for your next event and also provide long-term benefits, as you will be more aware of the trends in your game. There are many quality golf apps (DECADE, Anova, Golf Metrics, and UpGame to name a few) that assist in tracking your stats and providing insight into evaluating the various aspects of your game. I recommend you search for one that suits your needs.
The “success” of a tournament is not just the score you shoot, but also what you can learn and apply moving forward. The aggregate of identifying what you did well, along with your lessons learned from each event, can ultimately produce great results in the score ledger. Become a student of your game through a practical and simple post-tournament reflection routine by asking yourself a few simple questions and utilizing statistics. Your journey in competitive golf is a process, and certainly being accountable for your score is part of the journey. However, a deeper audit of what you do well and what you learn after each event will provide you best practices to further implement into your routine and approach moving forward. As my dad always told me, “Keep sticking the tee in the ground.”
Make it a great day!
Coach Gleason