I'm A Golf Coach And These 7 Tips Will Set You Up For Success In 2025

A new year offers a fresh start and endless possibilities, making it the perfect time to reflect on your past season and set fresh goals for 2025. If you are fairly new to golf or have never fully committed to improvement, fear not I am here to help provide some guidance of where to start on the road to your best golfing year yet.

Find Your 'Why'

In his 2009 bestselling book, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, Simon Sinek emphasises the importance of focusing on your purpose or your "Why" rather than solely on what you do or how you do it. Finding your “Why” for golf will not only give meaning to why you play but more importantly it will give you purpose and clarity on what type of golf you enjoy and what to strive get better at.

For example if I do this exercise...

Q Why do I play golf?
Me: I play because I enjoy the challenge, I enjoy the results of playing well from hours of practicing.

Q Why?
Me: I take pride in being good at a difficult game. I enjoy the solitary elements of practice and being under pressure in competition.

You can keep going by asking yourself ‘Why?’ to really help you gain clarity and understanding of what motivates you. So for me I know that I love practicing for the purpose of competition. However, you may discover that you don’t actually like competition but enjoy the social aspects of the game more. Give it a go, find your golfing ‘Why’ for 2025.

Set Goals

The beauty of setting goals is that they are completely unique and personal to you. They can be big or small, serious or fun. What matters is you feel good about striving to achieve them. A good system to consider when setting goals is to follow the SMART method which is to make them:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Timed

I would only look to set yourself 3 goals for the season, here are some different examples that fit the SMART method:

Play in my first stroke play competition by May
Reduce my handicap from 25 to 20 by September
Practice Putting for 2 hours a week.

These goals aren’t going to set the world on fire but that’s the point. They are simple, clear and achievable.

Follow The Stats

It's important to find a system that works for you, is quick and efficient. The last thing you want is to hold anyone up filling out your golfing statistics. The good news is there are lots of ways available to help you do this, from shot trackers that you place in the end of your grips, or playing maps where you mark down your shots. AI apps are also available for inputting stats and receiving feedback on your weaker areas.

Any system can be beneficial, it’s just finding one that you will stick with. Be careful not to get too bogged down in stats, as this can take the fun out of golf. Like counting calories, it’s a good exercise to take stock, even if only for four or five rounds because it removes the guesswork and feelings of what you need to work on with cold hard facts.

Get Serious About The Short Game And Putting

If golf was actually practiced in relation to where you hit the most shots, driving ranges would look very different and there would be more facilities dedicated to practicing the short game rather than the token chipping and putting green.

When you practice it can feel like it takes herculean strength to prize yourself away from smashing drives, but it’s absolutely worth your time. So, flip your current routine around to 70/30 short game to long game and hit the chipping and putting greens. For quality putting practice you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your own home. My dad, who is an excellent putter, even if he says so himself, swears by his putting mat and ball returner for being solid from 8 feet.

Marginal Gains

Dave Brailsford is a famous advocate for the power of marginal gains. He famously took on the Sky cycling team and deep-dived into finding and making small changes for improvement. His belief is that through simple changes you can get 1% better in a number of different areas and those improvements will compound to make a big difference to performance. Here are some examples that I suggest to my clients for marginal gains.

Clean clubs
Energy snacks and hydration for the round
Weather appropriate clothing
Improved sleep
Warming up properly

Individually these are fairly simple and low ways to improve, but when combined could lead to great improvements.

Change Of Scenery

They say travel is good for the soul and one of the most beautiful things about golf are the different experiences to be had by playing a variety of golf courses. If you have found yourself getting slightly bored with your home course and playing the same old shots it might be time to spice things up! Pick three courses play that are very different from your home course. Going from a compact parkland to a links can almost feel like playing a different game entirely! It’s a great way to freshen things up, try new shots and ultimately challenge yourself.

Why So Serious?

This may sound counterintuitive to the premise of this piece. but honestly I come across too many people who ruin the game for themselves and others by taking themselves too seriously. In every round you play, you will likely three-putt, top a shot, hit a raging slice or duck hook, it’s part and parcel of golf.

Have goals, have things to strive for, but unless you are paying your mortgage with your monthly medal winnings, don't stress! It can be all too easy to lose sight of how being fit and well enough to play golf is such a privilege in itself and not something we should take for granted, so embrace the chaos, the bad shots make the good shots feel all that bit better!

I hope the above has inspired you to reflect on your golf and have some aspirations for the upcoming season. If you need any more help with setting targets and goals don’t forget you can always go and see your local pro for help. Have a great 2025 season all.