I’ve been a PGA coach for almost two decades, and I’ve been working in the game for three. 2025 was different. Not because someone invented a new swing secret or released some miracle training aid. The stuff I’d been preaching to my students finally started showing up everywhere else. YouTube. Instagram. Reddit golf threads. Other coaches I know. Everywhere.
1. Fitness Became Non-Negotiable
I’ve been telling students for years that they need to work on their bodies, not just their swings. Most of them nodded politely and then never did anything about it.
That changed this year.
I coach competitive teen golfers, and I had a 16-year-old who couldn’t rotate past 70 degrees in his backswing. Yoga and core work before we even touched his swing. He gained 20 yards and his consistency improved dramatically.
What worked? Simple, sustainable stuff. Planks. Squats. Torso rotations. Basic yoga sessions at home twice a week. Things they could maintain during tournament season. The injury prevention piece mattered too. Those who committed to mobility work stayed healthy throughout long tournament stretches.
2. Data Replaced Guesswork
I bought a launch monitor three years ago. Best investment I ever made, but it took until 2025 for students to really understand why.
This year, something shifted. Players started caring about carry distance. Real numbers. Knowing your ball goes 175 yards downwind on a firm course doesn’t help you hit it close when it’s soft.
I had a junior who was obsessed with his swing speed, trying to get to 110 mph. Meanwhile, he was hitting 6 fairways per round. We pulled up his stats and he was losing 4 strokes per round to penalties. His swing speed wasn’t the problem.
I started making every student track their rounds properly. Fairways. Greens. Putts. Scrambling percentage. Once they saw their actual weaknesses in black and white, they stopped guessing about what to work on.
3. Mental Training Got Real Attention
I’ll be honest. 15 years ago, I didn’t give the mental game enough attention. I’m a swing coach. That was my thinking for years.
Then I saw a consistent pattern over the past few years: students who stripped it on the range every week would go shoot 80 or more in tournaments, even though they should’ve been shooting 72. Most swings were solid, little tweaks here and there for sure, but solid.
I started working on pre-shot routines much, much more over the past few years, but really turned it up in 2025. Breathing. Visualization. Same swings. Different brains.
I made pre-shot routines mandatory for all my students this year. Those who committed handled the pressure better. They didn’t fall apart after bad holes. Students who could let go of bad shots and move on scored better than the ones who stayed angry for three holes.
4. Course Management Trumped Hero Shots
I’d watch my students on the course and they’d try shots they had no business attempting — a talented 15-year-old trying to hit a 4-iron off a tight lie over water to a tucked pin.
The 7/10 Rule finally caught on this year. If you can’t pull off a shot 7 times out of 10 in practice, don’t try it on the course.
I started being more aggressive about this with my students. One junior kept trying to cut the corner on a dogleg with his driver. He’d hit it in the trees 6 out of 10 times. I made him hit a 3-wood to the fat part of the fairway for an entire month. He hated it. Year-end, though, his scoring average dropped by 2.5 strokes.
The ego management piece is real. Nobody wants to lay up. It feels like giving up. But students who embraced the conservative strategy when needed shot their best scores ever this year.
5. Practice Got Structured
The range used to drive me crazy. Players would show up, dump out a bucket of balls, and just start whaling away. No target. No purpose.
I changed how I taught practice in 2022, but this year, it was a real sticking point with me. Every student got the same structure: half their time on technical work, half on performance work. Technical means drills and working on specific moves. Performance means simulating the course. Pick a target. Go through your routine. Hit the shot.
The difference was immediate. Students who practiced with structure improved faster — quality over quantity. Fifty balls with full focus beats 200 balls on autopilot.
One of my juniors started playing an imaginary round on the range. Driver, then whatever club he’d need for his approach, then a chip if necessary, to the practice wedge range green on the back of our range. He’d keep track of proximity to the hole for each hole, write those numbers down, then go putt after his range session. He’d keep that score. He improved faster than anyone else I taught this year.
Where This Leaves Us
My students who improved the most were committed to building a complete game. These trends apply across all levels and aren’t going away any time soon. As you head into 2026, I’d encourage you to pick one or two of these areas and commit to them. You don’t have to overhaul everything all at once, but the golfers who embrace this approach even partially will separate themselves from the field.