Happy Thanksgiving, friends. I collected many of the things we are thankful for in golf in 2024 in this column. Please feel inspired to list your own on this thread.
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Honored. What a special year. Thank you, NLU!
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Can’t even begin to find the words to properly thank all of the folks at NLU and the Refuge who prove time and time again that golf is much more than going out and playing 18 holes. I have met very very few of you in person, but through social media, the message boards, etc. feel as if I’ve known some of you for years.
I’d also want to thank my wife (who still just calls this whole “NLU world” my “golf thing”) and our almost 9 month old daughter who have made 2024 as memorable of a year as I could ever imagine. I’m more thankful this Thanksgiving than I have ever been the past 34 years and am equally as excited for the Christmas season with the two of them and the rest of our family.
This past golf season, which is essentially over here in the Philadelphia area wasn’t my best handicap and score-wise but some of the most fun I’ve had. Played a ton of new courses, mostly thanks to work, and played with a number of new people who I’d never have met without No Laying Up.
I’m thankful that I got to do my first “strapped” trip this year. Thankful that I mapped out our groups next Ireland, Scotland and Michigan trips in 2025 and beyond and thankful that I’ve finally started on my golf pencil collection that I’ve been putzing around with for a number of years.
I’m thankful for so many people here in the Refuge who’ve contributed to the joy that golf brought me in 2024. From watching the Arnold Palmer Invitational in the hospital room with a newborn this past March to the last round I played this past Sunday time has certainly been flying by.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone here!
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Thankful for the Tuesday Night Men’s League at Sycamore Hills. Such a great bunch of guis!
Also thankful for family, health and golf!
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I’m thankful for a lot this year. Was thinking the other day on the state of my life 3 years ago (beginning the process of divorce living in my parents basement) and where I am today with a new lease on life.
I’m thankful to this community for reminding me that I have a lot more to give the world and helping me regain the confidence to take charge of my life again.
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I’ve shared this sentiment before but it continues to ring true. Having a place to turn to for “internet golf friends” truly has changed my life in the last 10 years of NLU. I’ve been very fortunate to travel the country and play a lot of golf with people who I had never met who became instant family. From hosting the OATW Major, to becoming friends with @GooseTrego , to meeting so many people from different walks of life it makes me very very happy to have you all as friends.
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This year, I am thankful for my wife.
Almost a year ago exactly, we were getting ready to head to NC for Thanksgiving and spend time with family. The evening before we were set to leave, we got a phone call from our doctor who informed us my wife had just been diagnosed with breast cancer.
A full year later, she is almost done with treatments and has one surgery left and she is doing fantastic. Everything looks great, and our oncologist is very optimistic.
So I am thankful for my wife’s bravery, dignity, and resilience. Having to watch her go through rounds of chemo nearly destroyed me. Oddly, it was her spirit and positivity that helped me the most. I thought I would need to be the one to maintain the positive attitude, but there were definitely days she was the one carrying me.
And while that was the hardest thing we’ve ever had to go through, I sit here today thankful and grateful for her. For our life together. For our future.
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I’m thankful for the refuge!
As crazy as it sounds, looking back on the last 5 or so years, the refuge and the IRL and online community that has formed from it is just easily one of the best things in my life.
There’s so many great stories and memories I could connect on the below with the first domino being “decide to follow a niche golf twitter in 2014” - great trips, fun golf events, chances to play amazing golf courses, awesome friends etc. Just an abundance of blessings.
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Thankful for my family, my friends, and the opportunity to try my best each day.
About to celebrate my 5 year Nestiversary. This community has taught me that so many amazing things can be accomplished when people band together for good. I’ve felt the love and support first hand and hope to somehow pay it forward and have even a fraction of the same impact on others. This is truly a group I’m proud to be a part of.
Shout out The Ope (@Midwestgolfbum , can never say thank you enough. We appreciate you brother)
Shout out the zoom crew.
Shout out the SLP crew. The real MVP’s.
Cheers ya’ll. Happy Thanksgiving 
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NLU specific: Thankful for the refuge/Rohlers specifically
I picked up golf 3 years ago, and started to take it serious late last year. The group was welcoming of a 21 hcp shooting 110s while I swear everyone in this group I played with the first 5x was 5hcp or below and hitting fucking missiles. Seriously every time I think I hit a good drive someone in this group is like 60 yards past me. Never once did I get a side eye or resentment. Instead playing with the group lifted my game, dropped my hcp 8 points and has helped some on my self talk/positivity. Really was close to quitting golf (again) because I was playing as a single shooting 110-120s and hating every second. I am relatively introverted when it comes to meeting new people, so this group/podcast was exactly what I needed.
I travelled to my first golf events this year and they were all top notch. Met some really cool people, including ones who love to hear about how much coke (a cola) I have, and drive me 2 hours at midnight when my rental car won’t start @lazyjk.
Overall:
Just thankful for every day. It’s cheesy thing to say, but for those who don’t know - I am truly the luckiest person alive. I was adopted and my (3/4ths) brother have never spent a day away from our adoptive family. The 3/4ths is because we’re technically half siblings and then have the same adoptive parents (so share 3 of our “4” parents). It’s a bad joke I make, I know, but easiest way to explain my situation I’ve realized.
On top of that, I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when I was 7 months old and about a week later the doctors gave me a 30% chance to make it to my first birthday. I happen to be adopted by a family who had the access, privilege and financial security to get me the right treatment. I also happened to be right in Washington DC who happened to be one of three hospitals (Philly and NY were the other locations) and have a lead doctor on a new treatment plan. As I have gotten older, I have come to understand just how many things had to break right for me to be alive and be (relatively) healthy. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t look back and realize that if I wasn’t put up for adoption or had to spend any time in an orphanage/another family I am probably not alive.
Even with the best care in the world, I still barely made it. Thankful for not remembering any of it or seeing my parents have to fight through it. My dad says the hardest things in life he’s ever had to do was get yelled at by Coach Osborne, chase down Billy Sims, see me get a spinal tap with a needle as large as my body and go through chemo. He likes to remind me, in that order - chasing down Billy is impossible and Coach still scares the living shit out of him.
Thankful for the fact that I’m still kicking it, having the opportunity for a bad golf swing and paying for friends I would have never met if it wasn’t for 3 guys making some tweets back in 2014. Thankful that my loose screws aren’t tied to long-term affects of cancer but created from myself later in life. Truly a one of one run with positive luck (which seemingly stops when I get onto a golf course, then comes back after my 18).
Life is short, be kind, be courteous and be positive. Cheers to everyone and please be safe this holiday season.
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I’m thankful that my thanksgiving is at a warmer time of year.
But in seriousness, I’m thankful for my family. Becoming a dad 2 years ago had been the greatest experience of my life. AND, my golf game hasn’t suffered terribly. Thankful for that!
Thankful to be back here with you lot as well.
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My wife has been fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer for 2.5 years. This past winter was hell but things improved this summer and we’ve had a good stretch of health since May (all things considered). I’m thankful for the rounds I got to play, that I can take some time to worry about my alignment issues, my varying ability to hit a 70-yard pitch shot, and whether or not it’s time to hang up my 4-iron and embrace the 7-wood. The time spent thinking about those things is a refuge, truly.
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I’m thankful I haven’t been banned (yet)
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Cum again?
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Love this @KVV. Very thankful for all you and the whole NLU crew do. Also, thank you for all of the fun conversations and banter at the RCC, that was one of my top 3 highlights of the year.
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Making friends as an adult is nearly impossible, but with the refuge and the willingness to show up to a random tee time booked by an internet golf sicko you can meet some awesome people. Incredibly thankful for the friendships that have developed
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