Heartfelt thanks to @TeddyPargame and @djheadley for a well executed event. I counted on the way home last night that I’ve played in 17 Roost, Refuge, or NLU events in 10 states since September 2020. Three times in Kankakee. I’m grateful for all of you and the culture that we have grown. Truly no individual has benefitted from this culture more than I have, and I appreciate you all very much. I have had my heart, mind, and spirit opened in so many ways due to my association with the group. I will represent the event with pride at the NIT.
I play a lot of rounds a year at the elks- and the mudness has quickly become my favorite/most memorable round to be a part of. The reason I signed up for the refuge was the play in this event with you guis and unlike my putting it hasn’t disappointed.
Big Thank you to @TeddyPargame this has become one of my favorite events of the year! Cant wait for 2024! Also big thank you for helping me with my technology deficiencies!
That’s how all of this started. In the three years since we’ve had a pretty damn good time. Thanks to all who made it to our third annual mudness!
My first ever refuge event was War at the Shores in 2020 (shout out @TCRBrad).
After that event, I posted the above message. We ended up with 29 likes. I am a massive nerd who loves puns, and shortly thereafter, March Mudness was “born”.
Originally liked that first post: liked this
It was very intentional to choose Kankakee Elks as our home course due to its architectural signifance and its strapped-adjacent vibe and cost. They’ve been great hosts. Taking care of things with Jim & Co., and with the members @Shivas65, @Loganbrimberry and @CaseyB23 is as comfy as it gets. This is how golf clubs should be.
I wanted Mudness to be an inclusive way for a bunch of golf sickos to gather and kickoff the year in a way that’s fun, laid back, and competitive. That’s the number one objective, even more than the charity aspect, in honesty we could probably raise more money if we did things differently (although I’m very proud of the money WE have raised).
On my drive back I reflected on that a bit more. Why do it it at all? I do (or did…) it because I genuinely hope every one of you had a good time to kickoff a year of this stupid game, knowing every other person there was just as crazy about it as you were. That’s probably the best distillation of the event. There’s something special about signing up for something that could very well suck with a bunch of other people who are willing to do the same thing. Sure, lots of people like to golf. But lots of people don’t like to golf life this. It’s like our comic-con. We could raise nothing and have no connection to “whatever the rest of this place is” and that would still make it worth it.
So thanks for being weird enough to show up with a bunch of strangers and stupid enough to do so in March in IL. I hope you had fun. I hope you played better than me.
Moving forward – I’m going to volunteer to step aside as main planner for next year to see if new blood can pump in some new ideas. I’ll commit to helping in various ways, but slide into DM’s if you’re interested. And obviously a thanks to @djheadley for rocking the 1’s and 2’s and for your favorite gamer’s favorite gamer, @PinkPantser, for sorting out the competition committee.
See you on the first tee!
TP
PS – My short game sucks now apparently? That’s cool.
Thanks for hosting another great event, @TeddyPargame and crew. Always a great way to kick off the year. I never thought I’d utter the phrase “putt caught a clump of hail and came up short” but here we are. Great putt at the last to win it, @OTPLefty.
Whoever won the Blackhawks tickets, shoot me a DM with your best email address and I’ll get them sent over to you.
Using nearly all of the old net30 payable standards we here at Mudness Inc govern ourselves by, but I wanted to share I just made a $460 donation for the shirts, crews and other merch sales from the event. There are a few more stragglers out there I need to get merch for, but I’m on it.
