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2025 will go down as a year in which I played fewer rounds of golf than when I started tracking my golf via spreadsheet in 2016. I might eke out 70 rounds before the year closes. Still a great number, I know, but there's no way I'm ever likely to eclipse the 100-round mark again - 117 rounds in 2018, 114 in 2019 - for a couple of decades.
And I'm 100% fine with that.
This was the year my family threesome became a foursome, as my wife and I welcomed our second daughter in October, just three days before my 36th birthday. We were already busy after our first was born in June of '21; now it's all-hands-on-deck for the foreseeable future.
The result is that I have become twice as picky about the rounds of golf I do play and ten times as grateful when they come along. I have also taken to heart the wise advice I received before becoming a father from an all-time-great Philadelphia amateur and senior amateur golfer, the late David Brookreson, who told me that he actually played better golf as he and his wife had all five of their children in the space of seven years. He knew that every single second he was able to spend on a golf course had to be relished.
I really took that advice to heart this year, which has made trying to narrow down my favorite rounds both joyful and agonizing. Some days that would have easily made the grade in other years - a perfect walk around the newly-restored Dunedin, a fun match at the brand-new Kinsale Club in Naples in March, a qualifier for the state mid-amateur in April where I holed a wedge for eagle on the back nine and made the cut on the number - ended up on the cutting-room floor this time around. I am blessed to get to play golf and call it work; it rarely feels like it.
My 5 favorite rounds of golf from 2025
A viral moment
I started overseeing GolfPass' social media channels in late 2024, and had my first viral moment in June when I posted a video from the new Cliffhangers par-3 course at Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri. It was hardly any genius on my part that caused it; I had the good fortune of being one of the first people to showcase a much-anticipated new golf course, and I happened to catch it amidst an overwhelmingly beautiful summer sunset. I will take credit for the music selection, however.
Competition and camaraderie
Despite a lower total number of rounds, I managed to squeeze in 17 rounds of competitive golf in 2025, the most since 2018. That was the last time I teed it up in my favorite event, the Myrtle Beach World Amateur. Getting to return to a place I love and know well was a treat, and being paired in the final round with a colleague, Jesse Cameron, who writes our major championship tune-in articles, was a bonus. I don't even mind that Jesse beat me by a shot, with a rock-solid round of 72 at Wachesaw East Golf Club. I'm already looking forward to teeing it up in the World Am in 2026.
Much more than a golf course
Creative approaches to golf course architecture have flourished in recent years, and at the completely overhauled Storm King Golf Club in upstate New York, I learned just how well a novel design approach can pair with a noble mission. Storm King is set to become a hub of adaptive golf, as well as meaningful opportunities for combat veterans and first responders to gather around this great game. Proprietor David Gang knows just how powerful golf can be in this way; he loves to share Storm King with his son, Matthew, who has Down Syndrome. In June, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours playing choose-your-own-adventure golf, zigzagging the Storm King property and trying all sorts of fun iron, wedge and short-game shots as well as playing some cross-country holes. It was incredible.
Going old-school
As a left-handed golfer, I have long lamented the difficulty in getting golf clubs relative to the right-handed majority. One particular source of frustration is with hickory golf, which I've always sensed I would love trying, if I could ever find usable clubs. Enter Hickory Revival, which rents reproduction hickories to righties and lefties alike at Sand Valley Golf Resort in Wisconsin. I seized the opportunity to bust out a mashie and niblick around The Sandbox, Sand Valley's superb par-3 loop. I might step up to a bigger hickory challenge next time I visit.
My favorite round: no clubs necessary
I played a lot of golf this year, but my lasting golf course memory from 2025 will not involve hitting any shots of my own. Instead, it was the third round of the Cognizant Classic at PGA National Resort, which I attended with my wife and oldest daughter in February. It was their first glimpse of professional golf, and we had a wonderful time. At one point, a volunteer invited my daughter to help him place a small white flag by the golf ball of Russell Henley. Later on, as we were walking to our car, we ran into the same volunteer, who gave my daughter that little flag to take home. Great souvenir, great memory.
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