It’s the beginning of a new year, which means there is no better time than now to start making plans for 2014. And that includes your golf games.

Creating a game plan is the single most important step to improving, and hopefully you are getting ready to develop yours for the upcoming year. Here are 10 things to think about when deciding what you want your focus to be on for the upcoming year. Trying to accomplish all 10 may be optimistic, but I recommend reading the entire list. Good luck and cheers to health, happiness and lower scores in 2014!

10. Evaluate Your Current Game and Progress

Before you can decide where you would like your golf game to go, you need to know where it has been and where it currently is. Not only will it help you set goals that keep you moving forward in your progress, but it is also rejuvenating to see that through the frustrations, hours of lessons and countless practice balls that were hit you in fact are getting better.

9. Develop Your Physical Fitness

It has never more obvious than now that golf is a sport. The best players in the world are world-class athletes who train like they aren’t just walking around a golf course and occasionally taking a break to hit a golf shot. They are doing workouts to increase strength, explosion, flexibility and cardiovascular endurance to help improve their performance. Consult with your coach or a certified golf fitness expert to learn about some of the exercises you can do.

8. Get Yourself Into a Lesson and Practice Routine

This is the first of what will be a couple different routines that you should start working on. The first is obvious: If you don’t work at the game, you will not get better. If you take lessons sporadically or not at all and try to work on your game, usually you will end up lost and in a bad mental state about your game with bad habits that are harder to break than learning the correct habits in the first place.

7.  Review Your Fundamentals (Constantly)

Hopefully, this is something that you do already, regularly checking your grip, alignment and posture. But if it isn’t, this is the year you will do it. Proper fundamentals are necessary to increase your chances of making a repeatable golf swing. You can’t just learn them and then forget them. Check them often, especially when you’re not playing your best.

6. Practice Your Short Game

The secret is out in golf. The fastest way to lower your scores is to work on your game inside of 50 yards. In downtown Chicago, one of the city courses along the lake has a practice putting green that is one of the best places to go if you need a moment of peace and quiet. The driving range down the street, however, is packed on both the lower and upper deck with people waiting for spots to open up. Everyone knows that a good short game means lower scores, but still nobody works on it. This year you will change that by devoting at least half of your practice time to the short game.

5. Develop a Pre-Shot Routine

Golf is a very mental game. Just ask anyone who has missed a 2-foot putt with the match on the line. When golfers get on the course, the tendency is for them to apply pressure to one particular shot giving it value over the numerous other times they have hit the same shot. Developing a pre-shot routine helps golfers make the shot they’re about to hit as pressure free as possible, which will increase the chances of success.

4. Learn a New Short-Game Shot

You’re going to practice your short game this year. Great! The short game is the area of the game that allows for maximum creativity and endless possibilities of ways to get the ball in the hole. Whether it is adding a lofted pitch or the hybrid chip, expanding your repertoire of short game shots not only keeps golf fun and interesting, but it makes golfers think about the fundamentals and mechanics required to hit each shot, which they will find are not that different from other areas of the game.

3. Develop a Go-To Shot

Everyone gets nervous out on the golf course. Whether you are playing in your first tournament or trying to set a new personal best, nerves are tough to deal with during a round that golfers believe “matters.” Along with your pre-shot routine, developing a go-to shot will help ease the pressure as you look to accomplish your goals. A go-to shot is a reasonable assessment of what the easiest shot is for you to hit. A lot of people would love to be able to hit the ball to any flag at any time. But the reality may be that when you get nervous, hitting a high draw over a water hazard to a tucked pin may not be the one for you.

2. (Again) Practice Your Short Game!

It lowers your scores the fastest! That’s all that needs to be said! Just go do it!

1. Have Fun!

Golf is a game, so treat it like one. You are deciding to improve your golf game, which is fantastic, but just a heads up… golf is a long road with many ups and downs, twists and turns and no end in site. The best players in the world work on their games and are always trying to get better. The process of learning will last a lifetime, which is why I love this game so much. Embrace the challenges that golf throws at you and enjoy the ride.