I'm fortunate to get to spend every Thanksgiving in the house I grew up in. Stepping into my old bedroom is a trip back in time, because within arm's reach are tons of items from junior, high school and college golf, plus other little things a golf-obsessed kid would have received from family and friends around this time of year. Pull any small collection of things from the shelves and you have a snapshot of a life in golf so far.
The admittedly staged photo above is a good example. The oddly-worded notepad game from my Aunt Karen, whose family lives in London and who could be counted on to send, without fail, birthday and holiday cards that had a golf theme with a British bent. There's a metal pin from the Plantations Junior Golf Tour, where I played my first serious competitive golf from about the age of nine. The tour was acquired by what is now the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour in 2015. In some sick golf nerd circles, maybe it will be seen as a collector's item in 50 years. There's also a wind-up walking golf ball toy; don't ask me where or whom that came from. There's a hat from the most significant junior golf tournament I ever got to play in: the North & South Junior at Pinehurst.
Finally, there's a golf ball with the old-school Golf Channel logo on it. I got goosebumps when I saw it perched on a book in the living room. I always dreamed I might get to work in golf for a living. The fact it actually happened, and that my work falls under the great institution imprinted on that golf ball makes me very, very thankful.
