Hi, I'm Erik, and I'm an alcoholic.

I've been playing golf since before I could see over the dashboard on the drive to the course. Simply put, I love this game. I always have. But over the years, my alcohol addiction grew alongside everything else in my life until I needed to do something I never thought was possible. I admitted I was powerless over alcohol, and my life had become unmanageable. I got help. I went to treatment, thank you, Hazelden. I go to AA. I got sober. I am sober. I am in lifelong recovery. And somewhere along the way, I realized I didn't want to leave my greatest passion behind just because the culture around it revolved around drinking. So I started Walk the Nine.

I started Walk the Nine because I believe sobriety doesn't mean shrinking your life; it means walking into it.

Golf culture has long been intertwined with alcohol. For people in recovery, that can make the course feel like one more place you don't belong. Walk the Nine is here to change that.

We're a community for people in recovery who love the game of golf. On the course, between swings, over nine unhurried holes, something powerful happens: people tell their stories, to come just as you are, build friendships, and find belonging — without judgement and the pressure to drink.

Because the best part of the round was never what's in the cup holder. It's who's walking beside you.

One Story. One Swing. One Gathering at a Time.

#LoveMyGroup