The holiday season means it’s time to take stock of what’s really important:
Playing golf with your best friends.
So I want us to do something before the end of the year to better prioritize for 2026.
I saw people posting their USGA GHIN Rewinds (if you download the GHIN app presented by Sentry Insurance, log in and press “More” you should see your “2025 GHIN Rewind” in the list) and so I dialed mine up — only to be devastated by what I found: Just seven rounds of recorded golf.
Here’s the thing — I love playing golf. And I think it’s good for me, too. Good for my body. Good for my mind. Good for my friendships. Good for my balance of life. Good to get away from a screen for a few hours. And throwing down just seven rounds is particularly embarrassing because I work in golf and barely even have a real job.
I’ve got excuses, like we all do. A young kid I like to hang out with. A substantial amount of work travel. A full-day golf commitment can feel like a lot. I also should point out that I did play more than seven rounds; I live in the state of Washington, where if you’re a determined mudder the actual playing season is longer than the handicap season. Still, I didn’t play enough. Golf is one of my favorite things in the whole world, it’s one of my favorite ways to spend time with friends, new and old, and I want to do it more.
So for 2026 I’m declaring my intentions. And here’s where I’m going to start: By making a list of non-negotiables, people who bring my joy to play golf with. I’m going to text those people. “Let’s find at least one time to play golf next year.” And then I’m going to think hard about where I want to play and when works best. I’ll ask you the same thing I’m asking myself: Where can golf fit comfortably into the rest of your life? Do you have flexible hours? Are weekdays the move? Early mornings? Twilight rounds? Would joining a league give you a reliable nine-hole weeknight that would spark joy? For me, I think leaning further into morning weekday rounds could be one unlock, but I’ll be using the holidays for further brainstorming.
Then there’s the buddy-trip question. Do you live apart from your best golf friends? Do you need a weekend destination trip to get together? It doesn’t have to be Bandon. It could be Biloxi. (Seriously — Biloxi intrigues me.) One particularly obvious idea is just to pick a standing weekend every year — think the second week of October, the first weekend of February, something like that — and then you and everybody around you will just know you have a golf trip on the books.
So send your buddies a text. Get the ball rolling. Then get specific.
Here are a few other goals for my new golfing year.
1. Make sure I get credit for the rounds I do play.
One of my biggest Rewind regrets is that I failed to post from my most frequent stop: the glorious par-28 haven that is Interbay Golf Center. Interbay has been rated and eligible for a couple years, and the GHIN has new rules around nine-hole rounds. Take advantage.
2. Keep my clubs at easy access.
Unless you have an airtight garage I’m not sure my bosses would like me officially recommending keeping your clubs in your car (proceed at your own risk!) but you should make it as easy as possible to head straight to the course should the opportunity present itself. If you have your clubs plus a change of clothes stashed in the corner of your office, for instance, it’s a heck of a lot easier to squeeze in nine on your way home from work.
3. Remember: Golf can be fast.
Golf’s recent boom has clogged up courses at certain times of day; Saturday morning at your local muni is inevitably stop-and-go traffic. But what about Tuesday? What about 5 p.m. in the summer? What if the weather’s marginal? What if you drive an hour to a smaller-town, lower-demand option? You can have a glorious eight-hour golf day, full warmup through post-round grill-room hangout. But you can also get plenty of golf in two- or three-hour increments, open tee sheet willing.
4. Seriously — make some plans.
If it wasn’t already obvious, this entire piece is just a pump-up talk to myself, a notoriously horrific planner.
5. And text your better-planning buddy.
Every group has someone who’s logistically inclined. You can be the ideas guy; let them take the baton from there.
