In 2026, I’m going to be a better loser.
Thing is, I’m a world-class winner. I love the locker-room celebration, so to speak. Here’s an example. In late June, during a round with two friends in Las Vegas, I tied my personal best with a 76. (The fact that I’m leading this story with my P.R. actually already makes my point.) It was one of those rounds, the kind where you can even unload on one and the ball still finds the center of the clubface. On the 9th hole, I even holed out from 100 yards. If pressed, though, I could probably recite every shot, along with what I wore, the conversation to and from the course and how the beer tasted at the turn. (It was from local brewery Able Baker Brewing.) The day was sublime, and it sits in first class in my head.
Mainly because the score was great.
But the non-76 days? And the rounds of nonsensical 92s?
A blur, if not erased. More like, what non-76? What 92?
A few days ago, after folks started sharing their handicap rewinds, I tried to remember some of my rounds this year, and that shouldn’t have been laborious, since I played only about a dozen times. But I needed a sec. I’d gotten out to some pretty freaking sweet places, too. Chambers Bay. Lawsonia. Inness, a course in New York designed by the Kings-Collins gang. A couple scenic spots in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. A course in Ireland. But the details somewhat all run together. They’re not clear.
Or not as vivid as The Round, capitalized.
Now should you memorialize the wins? Yes, you should. You want to remember how you got there so you can get back there again. And should you flush the L’s? Hell yes. Learn what you did wrong and move on.
But maybe victory and defeat just need different definitions.
The score doesn’t have to be the only way we measure ourselves. (To quote Ty Webb of “Caddyshack,” we can also do so by height, for example.) There’s the day. There’s the company. There’s the hot dog. There’s the golf soda. I think I do an OK job here. But I’m declaring that I want to do better. At the risk of this point going past its cheesy limit, this thought has become even more clear after I broke a rib in a car accident in November and have been benched from swinging a club. Man, I would love to hit a few balls right now.
Wouldn’t even matter where they’d go.
With that, let’s continue this annual piece. There are 24 more wishes left, and the last one is obvious.
2. For Scottie Scheffler, more of your openness. More of what you talked about at the Open Championship.
To refresh your memory, those thoughts are below, and questions, from the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson, are written in italics.
You talk about the show goes on, which it does. What would be the longest you’ve ever celebrated something? What was the most crushing loss or the time it took to get over one?
“I think it’s kind of funny — I think I said something after the Byron this year about like it feels like you work your whole life to celebrate winning a tournament for like a few minutes. It only lasts a few minutes, that kind of euphoric feeling.
“To win the Byron Nelson Championship at home, I literally worked my entire life to become good at golf to have an opportunity to win that tournament. You win it, you celebrate, get to hug my family, my sister’s there, it’s such an amazing moment. Then it’s like, OK, what are we going to eat for dinner? Life goes on.
“Is it great to be able to win tournaments and to accomplish the things I have in the game of golf? Yeah, it brings tears to my eyes just to think about because I’ve literally worked my entire life to be good at this sport. To have that kind of sense of accomplishment, I think, is a pretty cool feeling. To get to live out your dreams is very special, but at the end of the day, I’m not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers. I’m not out here to inspire someone to be the best player in the world because what’s the point? This is not a fulfilling life. It’s fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it’s not fulfilling from a sense of the deepest places of your heart.
“There’s a lot of people that make it to what they thought was going to fulfill them in life, and you get there, you get to No. 1 in the world, and they’re like what’s the point? I really do believe that because what is the point? Why do I want to win this tournament so bad?
“That’s something that I wrestle with on a daily basis. It’s like showing up at the Masters every year; it’s like why do I want to win this golf tournament so badly? Why do I want to win the Open Championship so badly? I don’t know because, if I win, it’s going to be awesome for two minutes. Then we’re going to get to the next week [and be asked]: ‘Hey, you won two majors this year; how important is it for you to win the FedExCup playoffs?’ And we’re back here again.
“So we really do; we work so hard for such little moments. I’m kind of sicko; I love putting in the work, I love getting to practice, I love getting to live out my dreams. But at the end of the day, sometimes I just don’t understand the point.
“I don’t know if I’m making any sense or not. Am I not? It’s just one of those deals. I love the challenge. I love being able to play this game for a living. It’s one of the greatest joys of my life, but does it fill the deepest wants and desires of my heart? Absolutely not.”
What do you find fulfilling?
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“I love playing golf,” Scheffler said. “I love being able to compete. I love living out my dreams. I love being a father. I love being able to take care of my son. I love being able to provide for my family out here playing golf.
“Every day when I wake up early to go put in the work, my wife thanks me for going out and working so hard. When I get home, I try and thank her every day for taking care of our son. That’s why I talk about family being my priority because it really is. I’m blessed to be able to come out here and play golf, but if my golf ever started affecting my home life or it ever affected the relationship I have with my wife or my son, that’s going to be the last day that I play out here for a living.
“This is not the be-all, end-all. This is not the most important thing in my life. That’s why I wrestle with, why is this so important to me? Because I’d much rather be a great father than I would be a great golfer. At the end of the day, that’s what’s more important to me.”
That’s why I asked the question the way I did. What is losing like for you? Is that OK?
“It sucks,” Scheffler said. “I hate it. I really do.”
That’s part of the competition.
“That is,” Scheffler said, “and I think that’s why we try to work so hard to not lose, but golf’s a game where you just lose a lot more often than you win. That’s just a simple part of it. In basketball or football, when there’s only two guys out there, you can win a lot more than you lose.
“I think I was looking at stats — it was one of the best tennis players; it might have been Federer or Djokovic or somebody. They only won like 48 percent of their points or something like that.
“Playing professional sports is a really weird thing to do. It really is. Just because we put in so much effort, we work so hard for something that’s so fleeting. It really is. The feeling of winning just doesn’t last that long.
“When I sit back at the end of the year and try to reflect on things, like having that sense of accomplishment from winning the Masters tournament, from winning the PGA Championship, I have a deep sense of gratitude and appreciation for it, but it’s just hard to explain how it doesn’t — it just doesn’t satisfy is how I would describe it. It’s an unsatisfying venture.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is this is not the place to look for your satisfaction. This is something where you can have a great appreciation for and a great — like a great amount of thankfulness for being able to do this. Like I said, it’s literally one of the most fun things I can do in my entire life. I love being able to come out here and compete, but at the end of the day, it’s not what satisfies me, if that makes sense.”
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3. For Rory McIlroy, continued openness. Hearing that you were struggling with where to go next after your Masters victory was also one of the more interesting thoughts of the year. (But the silent treatment around the time of the U.S. Open was strange.)
4. For Justin Rose, a Masters title. But I think the following player might win it.
5. For Tommy Fleetwood, a win at the Open Championship, which will be played at Royal Birkdale — which is near where he grew up.
6. For Xander Schauffele, a pain-free rib area. I know what you’re feeling.
7. For Jeeno Thitikul, a title at the U.S. Women’s Open, which will be played at venerable Riviera Country Club, in prime time. It would give Thitikul her first major championship.
8. For Nelly Korda, a victory at the Evian, which would give her wins at three of the five women’s majors.
9. For Minjee Lee, a win at the Chevron Championship, which would give her wins at four of the five women’s majors.
10. For Lydia Ko, a victory at the Women’s PGA, which would give her four of the five women’s majors, too.
11. For Charley Hull, a win at the Women’s Open, which would give her major win No. 1.
12. For the LPGA and new commissioner Craig Kessler, at least one of the previous five wishes to come true. Think of the potential TV ratings with any of those winners.
13. For LIV Golf, a 12-player-per-side international team event — with players from LIV and the LPGA. Think of the potential TV ratings with that event.
14. For the PGA Tour, see above.
15. For the Solheim Cup, a tie heading into Sunday, which would make for an all-time couch day in the U.S. — Sunday singles in the morning, NFL in the afternoon.
16. For the Presidents Cup, a look into the above idea. Schedule the Sunday singles to go out at 8 a.m. Central. Or run the event Thursday through Saturday.
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17. For the U.S. Ryder Cup fans, a song writer. There’s nothing wrong with being more vocal at this event. But copy the Euros and get musically creative.
18. For Keegan Bradley, a pair of wins in 2026 and 2027 in order to give him one last go at winning the Cup.
19. For Luke Donald, a third captaincy, if only to tell us more about the steps you’ll take to ensure victory — such as managing the shampoo.
20. For Tiger Woods, health and a win — at the U.S. Senior Open.
21. For the majors bettor, some victories. Should you be interested in my picks, we already wished for Fleetwood to win the Open Championship and noted that he’ll win the Masters. So let’s go with Ludvig Aberg to win the U.S. Open and Robert MacIntyre to win the PGA.
22. For TGL and “Full Swing” and the Skins Game and the Golf Channel Games and each and every event and each and every tour, continued golf interest. There’s a lot of golf being played. Let’s hope for them that viewers will support it all and certainly not get overwhelmed.
23. For the YouTubers, more of what you do. I’m like LeBron — I watch it. The pros should be too. The access is great. The editing is great.
24. For the Cedar Creek Golf Club, an early spring, a late fall and tee shots over the fence. (For more on CCGC, please click here or scroll to the bottom of this story.)
25. For golf fans, same as always. And forever. The ability to cut out at noon on Friday and play until the sun sets. And eat a brat at the turn. And win the Masters ticket lottery. And go on a fall golf trip. The good stuff.
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