It's 2026 now, which means you're soon going to be an entirely different person. 20 lbs slimmer and a golfer whose wildest dreams will soon come true.

In all seriousness, that's the mistake people make. They treat their New Years Resolutions with an attitude of wholesale change. They pick a goal that's too ambitious, commit, last for a couple weeks, burn themselves out then quit. Then they start again next year.

Progress, in golf and in life, so often comes down to consistency. Doing something productive that you can repeat so many times that it becomes boring.

With that in mind, here's a few smart-and-simple resolutions"

1. Pick one swing thing to work on

It's never been easier in the age of YouTube and Instagram to doomscroll your way to worse golf. There are an infinate number of golf tips out there and they all sound so convicing.

It's only natural that after enough time, you're going to find one that sparks your curiosity. You'll want to try it the next time on your range—the problem is, those doomscrolling tips rarely work.

So make 2026 your year of picking one thing that you want to change in your golf swing, and committing to fixing it.

Ideally you do this under the watchful eye of a coach who tells you the specific thing to work on. But even if you're not going to take that productive step, simply picking one thing in your golf swing that you'd like to improve, writing that one thing down somehwere, and working on it over and over will probably land your swing in a better spot.

There'll be points where you feel like it's become monotonous, and that you've already fixed it, and now you're ready to work on other things. But while that may be true, that's often the gateway drug for doomscrolling for new and interesting golf tips. Accept that you can't change everything all at once, accept that your swing will never be perfect. But also accept that you have the control to choose one thing to get better at.

I'm a little biased becauseGolf Digest has a partnership with Mustard, which is how I tried the app in the first place, but I can vouch as a user that it's good at exactly this. It'll pinpoint one movement to focus on, then hep you fix it.

2. Track your misses to understand the cause

Hopefully you're keeping some form of stats already (if you're not,I highly reccomend Arccos). In 2026, it's time to go one step further: Commit to keeping track of yourmisseson full shots.

What is the ball flight when you hit a bad golf shot?

If you're one of those golfers who says, "Well, my miss is everywhere when I hit a bad golf shot," that's a cop out. There are trends in everything.

This year, learn the difference between a block, slice, and a pull-slice. One starts to the left and curves to the right; the other starts to the right and curves more to the right. They're both caused by radically different things, and knowing whatyou'redoing will lead you down the correct path in fixing it.

If nothing else, being able to correctly describe the problem saves whatever coach you go to having to decode the problem themselves. Now, you can get right to work.

So after every bad shot, ask yourself:

• Where did the ball start? Left, right, or exactly where I was aiming?
• Where did the ball curve?

Make a mental note. Do that all year and you'll start seeing some trends that will help you fix the worst shots in your game.

3. Plan your practicesbeforeyou get there

I started working out a lot in 2025, and a common piece of advice in the fitness world is that you should knowexactlywhat you're going to do in the gym—weights, sets and reps—before you get to the gym.

More golfers should apply it to their own games. Specifically when it comes to the driving range. Whether it's just to warm up or to sneak in a practice session, you should know exactly what you're going to do there before you even get there.

So if you have 30 minutes to warm up before your round, in 2026, plan out specifically what that warm-up looks like before you arrive.

For instance:

• 5 minutes: Short putts
• 5 minutes: Long putts
• 5 minutes: Wedge shots
• 5 minutes: Iron shots
• 5 minutes: Drivers
• 5 minutes: Buffer time

Golfers who don't do this tend to think they're practicing everything, but in reality spend 10 minutes hitting pointless 15 foot putts, no time hitting short putts, then bang a bunch of 7 irons and head to the course. That practice doesn't hep them, and they have no idea why.

Ryan Pyle

4. Play boring around the greens

If your goal is to shoot in the 80s—or even to break 80—one of the biggest ways people bleed shots is with disaster shots around the greens. Flubbed chip shots or thinned bunker shots. Essentialy, shots that start near the green, but don't finish on the green.

90s shooters have about 2 of these around the green disasters per round. Because amateur golfers miss more greens than pros, these around the green shots are especially important. So in 2026 make it your resolution to be more boring in these situations.

Understand that while it might not be sexy, aiming away from the pin, even on chip shots and bunker shots, into the fat part of the green will actually gain you a lot more strokes than you think. If you're in the fairway but off the green, maybe instead of automatically reaching for the wedge, just grab a putter and roll it onto the green. These are pretty low stress and yes, boring ways of avoiding disaster shots and gaining strokes incrementally.