Help with pretty permalinks and pages

I am still learning WP anad trying to change a site (https://www.criticalgolf.com) from the default permalink structure to pretty permalinks.

When I choose a new custom structure like
https://www.criticalgolf.com/%year%/%postname%
I get something unexpected…no year, and then I am not sure how it is determining the postname. I don’t actually use Posts, only Pages.
I have read on the forum that it is best to start with something like …/%year%/ to keep the site running quickly.

So when I activate this custom structure:
the overall ranking page (https://criticalgolf.com/?page_id=769) URL becomes https://criticalgolf.com/gpsrangefinders,
and a sub-page like the golfbuddy (https://criticalgolf.com/?page_id=523) becomes https://criticalgolf.com/gpsrangefinders/upo-golf-gps.

So in this example the URL picks up the name of a product on another page. I don’t know if I need to add a custom field for each page on the WP Admin Write Page and then reference it in the custom structure somehow, or something else. I like to believe I’m close…
I went back to the default permalinks structure since it was creating URLs that didn’t make any sense.

In an ideal world, the gps section would start with
https://www.criticalgolf.com/gps/…
same for balls
https://www.criticalgolf.com/balls/…
though I am not tied to that – if it needs to start with a year that is fine too. Just trying to make the URL look a bit “cleaner”

Oh – and if everyone hasn’t figured out…I’m not a programmer (shocking, I’m sure!) so speak loudly, slowly, with small words. LOL! Thanks much for the help!