Hadwin retooling his swing ahead of 2025 season

For the first time in a long time, Adam Hadwin is preparing for winter.

That shouldn’t be all that difficult for a guy who was born in Moose Jaw, Sask., and grew up in Abbotsford, B.C., but after spending the last 14 years as a snowbird in Phoenix, winter in Wichita, Kan., will be an adjustment.

Earlier this year, Hadwin, his social media star wife, Jessica, and daughter, Maddox, sold their home in the desert and are now living full-time in Kansas, where they used to spend only half the year. Family and school considerations led to the change, but so did the prospect of having a single home base.

The result will be more indoor training sessions for Hadwin as he prepares for the 2025 PGA Tour season. He will wind up the ‘24 campaign at the RSM Classic in St. Simons Island, Ga., in two weeks. It’s the final tournament on the tour’s calendar.

That’s not an event that’s usually on his calendar, but he’s hoping to see if the swing changes he’s been working on will translate from the practice tee to the first tee. He wants next year to be better than what happened this past year.

“I had some good finishes and some good events, but I was inconsistent,” he admitted when asked to summarize his year. “I felt like I missed more cuts last year than I had in a while – at least in the last few years. I normally pride myself on being consistent and kind of being there every week with a chance, maybe not to win, but to have a good finish. And that just seemed last year I was either in it or I wasn't. And I'd like to improve upon that this year.”

Hadwin had five top-10 finishes over the past season with his best being a tie for third at the Memorial. But he also had nine finishes outside the top 34 and missed eight cuts in 25 starts. His PGA Tour stats also aren’t glittering. Of the six major Strokes Gained categories, he finished inside the top 100 in just one: putting.

On the positive side, he managed to end the year in 47th spot on the FedEx Cup standings. That gives him access to all the Signature events for the 2025 season.

“Looking back,” he said, “I don't think I met any of my goals for this year, which should provide some motivation for next year.”

Chief among those goals were playing for Canada at the Olympics and being a member of the International team at the Presidents Cup. In the former, he was passed in the last week of the race by Corey Conners for the final spot on the team that headed to Paris. In the latter, he was on the receiving end of a heartbreaking phone call from captain Mike Weir to tell him he wasn’t one of six picks.

Hadwin has never been short on determination and commitment, and so he gathered his team to examine what happened in 2024 and how to improve it for 2025.

“When it was when it was good, it was very good, and when it was bad, it was even worse than it had been,” Hadwin stated. “And I think the more difficult part would be why? Why was that? And the stats, I don't think really tell that. What was going on that week? How are you swinging? Can we look back at video from that week and notice a difference from a good week or anything like that? And so, I think that's what we're trying to get down to the bottom of.”

With coach Mark Blackburn, Hadwin attacked what he viewed as the major cause of his inconsistency, which was his iron play. His swing had become complicated and difficult to keep any consistency. When he found himself under pressure or in a nervous moment, it was easy for this swing to get away.

His retooled swing has fewer moving parts and, he hopes, will be easier to manage in the heat of the moment. He first tested it out at the PGA Tour stop in Las Vegas at the tournament last month. The results weren’t great. He missed the cut and admitted he wasn’t ready to try it under tournament conditions. But after lots of reps, he’s hoping for better results at the RSM.

As for next year, Hadwin is hoping for a return to more even results with perhaps more highs and fewer lows. He’s not a goal setter, or at least not one who writes them down and sticks them on Post-it notes on the fridge door. Rather, he wants to see overall improvements in all parts of his game that will lead to better finishes.

“I know I'm not old at 37, but the tour gets younger and younger every year,” he stated. “It feels like I'm getting older and older every year. I've got confidence that I've got a few years left in me, but I don't know, I don't know how many. So, just try and make every year worth it and continue to work hard and enjoy it and have fun and see where it leads.”