The Loop

28 things we are thankful for in golf

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This Thanksgiving when you peel yourself off the couch and gather around the table to offer thanks, we hope the list is long, and that it extends beyond golf.

Then again, to love golf is to appreciate the game for its broad strokes as well as its tiny brush marks: from kinship to natural beauty to unbroken tees you find in the grass. What are you most thankful for in golf? Here’s our list.

Right-edge putts

Marshals that let you sneak off the back

Gimme putts

Slow players who wave you through

Anytime Bryson goes full Bill Nye

Buddies’ trips

The friend who has the in at every local club

Halfway houses

The Presidents Cup - Round One

David Cannon

Steve Sands’ profound understanding of the FedEx Cup point system

Guinness on tap

Club Pro Guy’s press conferences

Downwind par 5s

Reachable par 4s

Short courses

Caddies who know every line

When Masters commercials begin airing in the dead of winter

Friday outings

Red stakes

Full pitching wedge yardage

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David Cannon/Getty Images

Scottish links when they’re lush

Scottish links when they look like the surface of the moon

Scottish links, period

Breakfast balls

Members’ bounces

Evening nines

Grass ranges

Clearing skies

Tiger Woods, back in Sunday red