We’ve all been there. You’re sitting around on Christmas morning opening gifts. Your family is one of those where it’s not a free-for-all opening gifts. Instead, every member of the family gets a moment in the spotlight and opens up each of their gifts while every other family member looks on. It’s finally your turn, and while you’ve strategically waited to open what you know is a dozen golf balls from an aunt you’ve seen twice in the last decade, it’s time.

You tear away the wrapping paper and, just as you expected, it’s a dozen rainbow-colored golf balls from a brand you’ve never heard of with the first thing out of your aunt’s mouth being ‘I figured those would be great to play with because they’ll be so easy to find.’

You react by putting on an Oscar-worthy performance, thanking her, even agreeing with her, while thinking in your head ‘surely nobody will care if I’m the first person in the family to drink a mimosa at 7:09 AM.’

There is a reason the saying ‘it’s the thought that counts’ is so popular, and I’m convinced it’s due to the legitimately insane golf market out there that is full of the most asinine and embarrassing gifts imaginable.

It’s become a tradition on Christmas morning for golfers around the world to send photos of the worst and most cringeworthy golf gifts to the No Laying Up X account, and the 2024 edition did not disappoint.

The fact that people spent actual money, even if it was only a few bucks, is borderline disrespectful. The real story here, however, is how insulting it is that the gift giver in this scenario saw these ridiculous things and thought ‘yep, I know a person who would love this.’

Feel free to email over any hilarious/ridiculous golf-themed Christmas gifts or stories to mark.harris@outkick.com, we’d love to hear about them.

Luckily, I escaped the awkward situation this year. In fact, this was the first Christmas I can remember where I didn’t receive one single golf item for Christmas apart from some gloves I bought myself and threw in my own stocking. Winner!