Get Your Game Ready for the 2025 Golf Season (Pre-Season Checklist)

Golf season is (basically) back! Regardless of where you reside in the country, there’s a good chance that the snow is gone and golf courses are making pre-season preparations—aerating, reviving bunkers, and opening greens—before opening up for when handicapping resumes.

So to help make sure you’re ready to kick off the season on the right foot, here’s a preseason checklist to help make sure your 2025 season is the best one yet.

Check Loft, Lies, and Grips

Presuming you didn’t just receive brand new irons and wedges, there’s a good chance that your club specs are out of whack from playing golf and hitting off of driving range or simulator mats. Indeed, regardless of what type of irons or wedges you’re playing—cast or forged, game improvement or player’s distance—the repeated banging off these clubs into the ground will, over time, cause both the lofts and lies to deviate from the specs you were fit into.

And the consequences of this will impair your ability to go low. Indeed, having a lie angle that’s too upright or too flat will promote a draw or fade, respectively, ball flight, which could exaggerate your natural ball flight into a hook or slice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by David Leathem | Online Golf Coach (@davidleathemgolf)

Similarly, when your lofts get thrown off, you might yourself with two irons that have nearly identical lofts, which will really stump you when you hit (for example) a seven iron that ends up traveling eight iron distance (and leaves in you short of the green or, worse, in a hazard of some sort).

Fortunately, any club fitter—and even some club pros—have access to loft and lie machines that can quickly confirm your current loft and lie specs and, with the right tools, allow them to be adjusted back into spec.

Likewise, there’s a chance that your grips are worn out and losing their tack. Given that your grip is the exclusive connection with your club, it should also be the most stable and reliable. Rather than selling yourself short, maybe it’s finally time to pony up and treat yourself to new grips—whether that’s replacements of whatever you’ve been playing or something new, like some Golf Pride Align MAX’s that provide a subtle club face awareness.

Check (and Clean) Your Bag

While you’re probably sick of being nagged about spring cleaning, you’ll be glad you did this because there’s a chance that some of us are carrying around crusty old gloves or something potentially worse—moldy rain gear, mushy bananas, and partially eaten granola bars all immediately come to mind.

Rather than getting a first tee “surprise” of this nature, take the time to clean out your golf bag. At a minimum, take out all your clubs, empty everything in the pockets, shake the bag ou,t and—if we’re going the full distance—grab a rag and wipe everything down (maybe with a little dish soap and a magic eraser). There’s a good chance you’ll be happy to toss a few smushed ball sleeves and locate that special ball marker you thought you lost.

If you want to take things one step further, this is a great chance to reorganize your bag and check that all the “tools” are working, e.g., rangefinders and GPS have charged batteries. Rather than arbitrarily tossing tees, divot tools, and spare rangefinder batteries into random pockets, maybe this is a chance to grab a valuables pouch (perhaps the Golficity “No Bad Days” pouch, pictured and linked below), glove holder, or ziplock to create some organization in your bag.

While I wouldn’t call this “fun,” this will—at the very least—give your tried & true bag a new bag feel (and smell).

Check (and Clean) Your Shoes

In a similar vein, check your shoes. If you’re someone who played deep into the damp fall, make sure that you didn’t forget to dry out and clean your shoes from that last round. I shamefully admit that there have been a few occasions where I’ve thrown shoes in a corner, only to come back in the spring and realize they now smell like garbage on a hot day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Fredrik Lindblom (@fredriklindblom)

But that’s not all. If you happen to be a golfer who prefers spiked shoes, now is a great time to confirm that you still have all of your spikes. After repeated swings, there’s a chance that some of your spikes have cracked or, in the worst cases, have decided to loosen up and disconnect altogether. If the point of spiked shoes is to provide you with additional grip, then this might be the opportunity to grab some replacement or upgrade (looking at you Soft Spikes) cleats.

Similarly, if you’re a spikeless shoe aficionado, this is a good chance to check how the traction pattern is holding up. Just like car tires, prolonged use will gradually wear down the soft traction pattern on the sole. So, rather than trying to play with shoes that are completely worn down, it might be time to treat yourself to a new pair of spikeless shoes—FootJoy Fuels, adidas Adizero ZGs and PAYNTR All-Days each come to mind if you’re looking for recommendations.

Stock Up on Snacks

The one that might be the most important (and also the most frequently overlooked) is this: NOW is the time to grab those during round-snacks. And I’m not talking about that “organic” stuff like apples and bananas. No, right now is the time to grab those value packs of Uncrustables (original grape jelly for me) or maybe some more performance-oriented stuff like snack-packs of nuts and hydration powders (LMNT and Hydrant immediately come to mind).

While many people don’t consider how your diet can affect on-course performance, the truth is that playing golf demands energy, and if you don’t put energy in, you can expect that your performance will start to deteriorate.

Cover Image via China Fleet