Your 2026 Won’t Change Until You Choose One Goal

24 Jan

Let me ask you a simple question:

What’s the one thing you want to achieve with your golf in 2026 — where if you achieved only that, you’d look back and say:

“Yep. That season was worth it.”

Not ten goals.
Not a vague hope.

One.

Most golfers never pause long enough to answer that.

They drift between:

“I’d like to be better.”
“I should practise more.”
“I just want to be more consistent.”

But improvement doesn’t come from wanting.
It comes from direction.

Before we talk about how to improve at golf, we have to define what improvement actually means for you.

Why Do You Play Golf?

Almost every golfer fits somewhere on this spectrum:

Fun & escape
Social connection
Health & wellbeing
Getting outdoors
Family time
The challenge
Learning a skill
Personal growth
Competition
Beating your mates
Winning
Mastery
Being the best you can be

Some people play for joy.
Some play for connection.
Some play to compete.
Some play to master something difficult.

None of these are right or wrong.

But they lead to very different golf goals.

A beginner whose main driver is fun might set:

“Break 100 and enjoy every round without embarrassing myself.”

A club golfer might say:

“Break 90 consistently.”

A competitive player might want:

“Single figures and a top-5 finish in my club champs.”

Same game.
Completely different north stars.

And that brings us to the first real step of improvement:

Define your goal. Just one.

One Tree. Not Four.

There’s an analogy I love.

If it takes 60 minutes to chop down one tree, and you spend 15 minutes chopping four trees…

After an hour, you’ve chopped down zero trees.

Golf improvement is the same.

When your focus is split across:

swing
short game
fitness
mental game
putting
driver

…you often make progress in none.

One clear goal creates:

focus
direction
better decisions
better practice habits

It becomes your north star.

This is the foundation of any real golf improvement plan.

Is Your Goal a Feeling — or Is It Measurable?

Many golfers say things like:

“I just want to strike it more consistently.”

That’s a feeling.
And that’s okay.

But we can make it measurable.

For example:

Rate every shot A / B / C
Track how many “A” strikes you have per round
Set a target (e.g. 60% A-strikes)

Now “more consistent” becomes something you can see.

You’ll know when you’ve achieved it.

That’s how vague intent turns into real beginner golf improvement — and real progress for every level of golfer.

Big Goals. Small Habits.

One of the biggest mistakes golfers make is playing too small.

They set “safe” goals.

I actually prefer the opposite.

I like big, bold goals.

Because if you aim for the stars and miss, you usually miss high.

But here’s the key:

Big goals are achieved through tiny habits.

James Clear puts it perfectly:

“You don’t rise to the level of your goals.
You fall to the level of your systems.”

Think of your goal as your north star.

Your only job each day is to move one small step closer to it.

That’s how great golf practice habits are built.

My One Big Golf Goal for 2026

I’ll go first.

Last year, I can count the number of times I played or practised golf on one hand.

That wasn’t an accident.

With a young family and two boys — Max (3) and Cody (8 months) — golf took a back seat. Family came first, and I was okay with that.

My priorities were clear:

Family
My health & fitness
Coaching
Running the Academy
Newcastle United
My own golf

Now Max is a little older.
The “terrible twos” are (mostly) behind us.
And it’s no longer quite so embarrassing taking him out in public 😄

So my one big golf goal for 2026 is simple:

52 practice sessions.
One per week.
With my 3-year-old son.

No technical agenda.
No performance target.
Just showing up, having fun, and building a tiny habit together.

It’s time-blocked in my calendar and treated like any other non-negotiable.

Goals. Habits. Process. Not Just Scores.

If you’ve made it this far, you’re either:

Clear on your one big goal, or
Still unsure what it should be

Either way, that’s a good place to be.

Because your 2026 doesn’t start with a swing change.

It starts with a decision.

If you’d like help turning your goal into a clear plan — and building the habits that make it inevitable — this is exactly what my coaching system is designed to do.

Learn how the Clear Swing System helps golfers turn goals into real progress →

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This piece is part of my weekly Sunday essays on improvement, habits, and systems in golf. If you found it on X, you can read the full archive at mcnallygolf.com/blog.