Greetings from the Hall of Justice (HOJ) on a rainy November day in northeast Kansas. It’s been another fun, interesting, challenging and exciting year here at Golfdom editorial headquarters. The HOJ almost nabbed an exclusive two-month sponsorship (read: loaner) with an all-terrain vehicle company, but that fell through. Instead, I nabbed a sponsorship with generic “Big K” brand soda, so now … “If you stop by the HOJ, we’re drinking Big K!”
Oh, my favorite flavor? The creatively named Cola.
Ahem. Failed sponsorships aside, this was an incredible year for your pal Jonesy. As is tradition, I like to look back at the year that was. Here are my top five work-related trips/moments of 2024:
No. 5 – Alaska trip: This year, I scratched Alaska off my list of states to visit with a trip for our sister publication, Landscape Management (LM). Some fishing, some bear watching … Alaska is beautiful! Now I’m down to three states on my list that I still need to visit: Hawaii, West Virginia and Wyoming. If you’ve got a chapter meeting in one of those states and are looking for a speaker or even, I don’t know, a foosball ringer, let me know. I’m dangerously close to crossing off all 50 states before age 50.
No. 4 – Three American majors? Check: This is unfair to lump all three American majors in one category since each one had amazing highlights. I just don’t want to eat up three of my five spots with the Masters, the PGA Championship at Valhalla and the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2. I saw a lot of Friends of Golfdom at each of these tournaments, and the golf watching, people visiting and the weather was (mostly) perfect. I’m excited and hopeful for a repeat performance in 2025 — and adding in the U.S. Women’s Open at Erin Hills and maybe the Ryder Cup at Bethpage.
No. 3 – Lake Las Vegas TOCAs: Not-so-humble brag alert … this year’s Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association meeting, our annual meeting of industry trade publications, was special. We racked up a ton of awards for our work in 2023. And even though I was disappointed when my monthly column for LM, “Seth’s Cut,” took second place in the monthly column writing category, that was short-lived as my column for Golfdom, “Keeping up with the Jones,” took first place — I swept the category, something I’ve been trying to accomplish for six years. And this was my last year to be eligible for that goal, which leads me to No. 2 …
No. 2 – I got the band back together: In April of this year, I made a major announcement: We added my old friend Scott Hollister to the team, reuniting me and Scott as coworkers from when we last worked together in 2010. Hollister, the longtime editor-in-chief of Golf Course Management, came on board to become EIC of Landscape Management. But it’s a small family of magazines here at North Coast Media, and I’d be a fool not to have Scott help me with Golfdom. So, turn to page 14 for a few words from my once again partner in crime, the H-Bomb …
No. 1 – Photo shoot with Evey Jones: OK, this isn’t really work related, but … a few years ago, an industry photographer friend I made — Allie Filly — told me he’d love to take my daughter’s senior photos when the time was here. All we had to do was road trip to Louisville, Ky. On Labor Day weekend, Evey and I took a quick trip to Kentucky where I spent four hours on a photo shoot that wasn’t for work, but for family. As many amazing trips I took this year, that short trip to Louisville with my daughter — including a visit to the Louisville Zoo and a walk across the Big Four Bridge into Indiana for some pizza — goes down as my favorite trip of 2024.
Keeping up with the Jones: Seth Jones shares one of his personal horror stories
Keeping up with the Jones: Putting a bow on the summer of 2024
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