More details and backstory below on why I care about this cause, but this is the TL:DR - Buy a pair of Del Campo X Corbash Socks while supplies last or make a $20 contribution to Corbash to be entered into two separate raffles for a foursome at CCF. Each pair of socks or $20 contribution gets you one raffle entry. The foursome can be on either of Karoo or Roost. No blackouts other than existing tee time availability. Up to $1500 value depending on time of year. Please DM me a screenshot for verification. Scroll to the end for a side story on Soly doing a very, very good thing.
Disclaimer: This raffle isn’t affiliated with Cabot or NLU.
Corbash (an event attended by Soly a few years back) is the one event I look forward to every year that I wish didn’t exist. I’ll explain why. It was late 2009 and the fall of my junior year of college when I got the text - “Justin has cancer”. Stopped me in my tracks. This couldn’t be possible. Life was too good. Urban Meyer had the Florida Gators setup for a decade of success (lol), and we still had plenty of college in front of us. Justin Corbridge was one of the most amazing people I had ever met. Good looking, life of the party, and always had a smile on his face. He truly brightened every room he walked into. It would be a few years before he came out, but when he did he broke the hearts of young women across the state of Florida. Within a week of his diagnosis, Justin was moving out of our fraternity house and undergoing treatment in the cancer hospital that had just opened on the edge of campus. I had spent the previous summer installing doors in the then-under construction hospital, and now one of my friends was in a bed there. Justin handled his treatment with a grace and toughness that sticks with me to this day. We would visit him as much as possible between drinking and sometimes going to class. He would always have a smile on his face. I’ll never forget when he finished that first round of treatment and was deemed cancer-free. We were so proud of him and knew that was that. Cancer was behind him and we would all move on. It might have robbed him of his incredible flowing locks, but it was over.
Justin graduated and moved to Atlanta and started to settle into life as a young professional. Two years later we got another text. Sarcoma was back and worse. A complex surgery that required him to be opened up from his hip to his shoulder followed by a brutal recovery. But he did it. He beat it again.
A couple of years went by and another text in 2017. It’s back and it’s bad. A few months at home with his parents with care in Orlando. A scrapbook with a page from each of his closest friends telling him how much we loved him. A medical jet from Orlando to Cleveland because he was in so much pain he couldn’t fly commercial. Some time in Cleveland, and he was gone. We were devastated. How could such a beautiful soul be gone? It couldn’t be possible.
Honestly, I still can’t believe it.
After his celebration of life, we immediately turned our attention to how we would continue to honor him. Knowing we were now spread across the country and Gainesville and Gator football would always be dear to us, we decided on an annual tailgate. Since 2018, that’s exactly what we’ve done. We’ve been able to raise over $150,000 for the Rutledge Cancer Foundation, and we know we’ll one day defeat the disease that took Justin from us.
Why Del Campo and Cabot? Let’s be clear about something. Justin was a terrible golfer. Not sure he ever swung a club in his life. But two of his best friends are absolute golf junkies. That’s me on the right, Justin in the middle, and Zack Brust, the founder of Del Campo, on the left.
Zack and I both majored in Building Construction at UF and I don’t think either of us ever imagined we’d be working in the golf industry. But here we are with me on the real estate development team at Cabot and Zack founding Del Campo. Zack has graciously created a Corbash sock with revenues going to Corbash, and I’m excited to be able to contribute rounds at Cabot Citrus Farms. We are truly grateful for any contributions that allows us to honor our friend.
Where does the Soly connection come in? A few weeks after the first Corbash in 2018, I signed up for this message board called The Refuge. The enthusiast that I am, I started telling all my friends about how much I enjoyed Nolayingup. My buddy James says to me, “Wait, you like Nolayingup? Soly is dating my wife’s friend Hannah. He was at Corbash.” I couldn’t believe it. I had been at the same tailgate as THE Soly and didn’t even know it.
James is one of the nicest human beings you will ever meet. He lived in Atlanta as Justin continued to fight cancer and served as a devoted friend. He also did a great job keeping those of us who lived elsewhere updated on Justin’s status.
I’ll never forget when I got the text in the Fall of 2022. “James has cancer.” This can’t be happening. We’ve already lost one amazing soul to this disease. We can’t lose another. James’s prognosis was very good, but the treatment would be brutal. His sisters setup a GoFundMe in hopes of raising $20,000 for James and his wife. We raised that in 4 hours. $65,000 later, James and his wife no longer needed to worry about how they would afford missing work and spending the entire month of January 2023 in Houston. His immune system was destroyed and rebuilt. His loved ones wouldn’t be able to touch him for weeks. He had to get new vaccines afterward. It was truly awful. James crushed it and he has been cancer-free since. We were all thrilled when we learned James would be healthy enough to attend the 2023 Ryder Cup in Rome. We had been planning it for years and it was finally time. I must say, we were all a little bummed when we found out he wouldn’t be hanging out with us that Saturday because he had other plans. Then the pictures started rolling in. Soly had hooked it up - big time. James and his wife were inside the ropes at the freaking Ryder Cup.
I know it was such an emotional and memorable day for James. 8 months earlier he had been going through an absolutely brutal treatment, and now he was inside the ropes at the Ryder Cup in Rome. He was able to make our dinner later that evening, and stepped outside the ropes to slum it with the rest of us that Sunday. Here’s me, Zack, James, and a few of our friends in Rome that Saturday night. The only thing that would have made it better is if Justin would have joined us.
Why did I write all of this? Partly because it’s been swirling around in my head for the last couple of years. Partly because it’s what this place is built on. We all love golf of course, but we really love the people we share it with. I’m incredibly grateful for NLU. I know I wouldn’t be working at Cabot without NLU stoking my love for the game, and because I know how powerful this community can be when it gets behind something. Thank you for your contributions and I look forward to seeing two of you (hopefully more) in your Del Campo socks at Cabot Citrus Farms soon.
