Furthest driven in 24-hour period to play one course. Was it worth it ?

[Matt_Ward]

Given the price of gas it's had to imagine many people making trips to places that are less than a priority.

However ...

Golfers are indeed a funny lot.

I've driven to plenty of places but the one story I can share quickly is the time I received word on the new Devil's Pulpit course just outside Toronto. I received word about the course late in the golf season -- early October if memory serves.

I was determined to see it so I got up early on one day -- about 2:00 AM -- and drove nonstp from Clifton, NJ to the course. No stops except for bathroom and gas needs and some quick fast food.

Played 27 holes by myself in mid-50 temps with winds blowing at 15-20 mph all day. Got in the car and returned back to Clifton, NJ and walked in the door at 1:45 AM -- all within a 24-hour cycle.

Friends of mine -- my wife especially, believes I should have been given the rubber room for such an adventure. I enjoyed playing the course and it did have its moments.

Be curious to know of other similar adventures and what was the feelings of others and was it worth it in looking back now.

[CJ Carder]

Not quite to the extent of your adventure, Matt, but on our trip to Scotland last summer, my dad and I traveled from St. Andrews to Inverness by way of Cruden Bay.  Left St. Andrews approximately 8 am, reach Cruden Bay by about 1130 I think after we picked up our rental car, played from 130 - 5, then hopped in the car and drove to Inverness, reaching our hotel there about 930. 

Given that we were driving on the wrong side of the road, had not driven anywhere (we had a driver for most of the trip) in a week, and really didn't have any clue where we were going (Cruden Bay ain't exactly right off the motorway), it was pretty impressive that we made it. 

Got up the next morning and did 36 at Dornoch.  Everyone says we are crazy, but hey, we were on vacation!

[Andy Troeger]

Matt,
I'll be impressed if anyone beats your story, heck I'm impressed with your story!

In any case I'm no great challenge. I don't think I've ever driven more than 2 hours to play a course and then driven back. I have an assigned course to see in Las Cruces in November so that may set a new record for me, but that would be the rarest of cases where a golf trip for me only lasted one day and included one course.

[Matt_Cohn]

Our golf team once left Norman, OK late one evening, arrived after a hotel night in Manhattan, KS the next morning, teed off on #1 at Colbert Hills, had play cancelled due to lightning, and drove the 5 hours home that afternoon.

10 hours of driving and I hit one shot.

[Mike Benham]

Two trips come to mind:

- Down from the Bay Area to play 18 holes at Rustic Canyon with the Emperor and HAP Simper, dinner at a steakhouse house in town and back up the 101 to NorCal ... 18 holes, 1 ribeye, 21 hours and 750 miles ...

- From the Bay Area to Poppy Hills for a 7 AM tee time followed by a leisurely drive down the 101 to Hunter's Ranch for another 18 and pull into Pasadena by 10:00 PM.  Wake-up at 6:00 AM for a 7:00 AM start at Brookside, drive back to the Bay Area ... 54 holes, 900 miles in 40 hours ...

[Jeff Doerr]

Matt,

Fellow poster Scott Weersing and I drove from Portland to Florence, OR to play Sandpines just after it opened. We got there in a driving rainstorm and decided to tee off anyway. We threw the umbrellas away after about 4 holes. We had a bunch of swings that saw the club go farther than the ball. (we did not have the best of rain gear back then).

We finally finished and drove the 3 1/2 hours back home. With the heater blasting the whole way, we were still soaked to the bone when we got back.

[nandoal]

Longest so far in one day was a 4 hour drive from Pittsburgh to Baltimore to play Beechtree.

In September while visiting the in-laws outside of Omaha, NE, I've told my wife I'm taking a little roadie by myself to play Wild Horse GC in Gothenberg.

Is it worth the 3 1/2 hour trip?

[Ted Kramer]

Not incredibly far but:
My buddy drove from Saratoga to LI every weekend from Dec-March for a few years to play Lido at dawn in the dead of winter. He'd wake up at 3a, bet to Lido by 630a, we'd tee off before 7a, finish around 11a, then he'd get back in the car and drive home . . . love that kind of freakish addiction to the game. Those were the most fun rounds of my life!!

-Ted

[C. Squier]

12 hours total to Muirfield Village from Chicago in one 24 hour period.

I will pack up on a whim for pretty much any crazy golf trip.  I'd jump on a greyhound to play the usual suspects in a millisecond.  Some courses you may only get one chance to play, I'm not about to tempt fate. 

As for "was it worth it"?  Being able to be on any golf course is a blessing.  Its always worthwhile. 

CPS

[Dan King]

My first time playing Bandon Dunes was before the course opened. I drove from San Jose, Calif. to Bandon Dunes, played 36 holes of golf, and then got back in my car and drove home.  That was around 1100 miles. It took a bit longer than 24 hours, but since it didn't include sleeping time, I think it should count.

I drove from San Jose, dropped my son off at UC San Diego, played Torrey Pines and then drove to Tahoe for a tournament the next day at Edgewood. That was also more than a 1,000 miles, but it wasn't just for golf -- though I probably would have put Tony on a plane if Torrey Pines hadn't been calling me.

I drove from Cruden Bay to Machrihanish one day because a storm was on the east side of Scotland, but not the west side. It isn't that far of a drive, around 300 miles, but the Scots thought I was nuts. After watching an Open at Lytham, I was suppose to drive to London and then fly back to the states. Instead I drove back up to Scotland, played a round at Prestwick and then flew out of Glasgow.

Now I rarely golf if there are too many traffic lights between my house and the golf course.

Cheers,
Dan King

Your grandchildren will likely find it incredible - or even sinful - that you burned up a gallon of gasoline to fetch a pack of cigarettes! 
 --Dr. Paul MacCready, Jr.

[Wayne_Freedman]

Pet peeve time...

The wore 'farther' refers to distance.

The word 'further' refers to concepts.

As an answer to  your question...Marin County north of San Francisco to the Reno/Tahoe area, which takes about four hours.

Bandon took about ten, but we spent a night in Ashland.

[Ken McGlynn]

Back in the early 90's, a buddy and I began the day with a 7 am Royal Dornoch tee off, then hopped in the car and raced south so we could make a 5 pm time at Hoylake. We were only 15 minutes late! After Royal Liverpool, it was back in the rented Vauxhall headed further south to Kent to meet the next morning's early tee time and 36 holes at Royal St. George's. We left Liverpool at 9 pm, arrived in Sandwich at 3 am, and were on the first tee at 7am at St. George's. Drove damn near the whole length of the UK in a day, with 2 rounds of golf squeezed in, and on 3 hours sleep tackled Sandwich for 36 holes the next day. Bloody mad we were called by everyone!

[Pete_Pittock]

Dan King has me beat for mileage. I did the 36 at Bandon Dunes but from Portland.
I think the spirit of the question is 24 hours home, golf  and return.

My longest car-golf day was driving from Derby and playing Woodhall Spa, then reversing and making it to Ganton (The next day was to play Ganton, attend the superintendent's wake and driving to Royal West Norfolk. Or was it after staying in Sydney, driving and playing Newcastle then staying the night in Canberra

[Peter Pallotta]

Matt - great story about your drive to and from New Jersey to play Devil's Pulpit. That's exactly the kind of mad-man like behaviour we value highly around here...

Don't have anything that comes close, but will mention my one and only golf related trip (and not co-incidentally, my one and only gca.com-related trip) - wake up at night for the 6 hour drive from Toronto to Grand Rapids, Michigan to meet Joe Hancock. I arrive, we eat, we play his Grand Island golf course and I learn about maintenance practices, we drive to The Mines for a walk-around and I learn what he and Mike Devries did there, we eat again along with his lovely wife Trixie, and then I get to sleep and wake up to play The Mines in a heavy rain and by myself and shoot my best score in 2 years, and I stop in to see Joe (who tells me from Mike Devries that I should go up and see the Kingsley Club, but I have to say no, which I would've regretted to this day except for the fact that I had to go back as my wife and baby needed me) and I drive back home.

It was well worth it, Matt.

Peter   

[Dan King]

Wayne Freeman writes:
The wore 'farther' refers to distance.

The word wore is the past tense of wear.

Cheers,
Dan King

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.
 --E. B. White

[Peter Pallotta]

Dan -

maybe like most here, I sometimes ask myself if I'm spending too much time hanging around. But then I get an insight or a bit of great information or, like now, a wonderful quote like White's. Yes indeed, writing is an act of faith. (And what isn't, huh?) Thanks for that.

Peter

[PThomas]

6 hours each way to the Kingsley Club...and it sure was worth it!

[Tim Gavrich]

As a rule, I figure that the limit for "worth-it"-ness is a drive which takes 50% more time than is spent at the destination.  E.g., I'd easily justify a drive of three hours each way to play a four-hour round of golf.  Of course, beyond that, it would depend on he course I was going to play.

Furthest I've gone was about 90 minutes each way.  But now that I'm driving more, I plan on going further sometime.

[Jeff Tang]

The lure of the first tee time is often too much for my buddy and I.  One time we drove from the Western Chicago suburbs to Madison to get the first tee time at University Ridge, we needed to get up at about 3:00 am.  From there we sped to Rockford (Rockford!) to barely make our second tee time at around 1:00 at Aldeen, then drove home from there.  For some reason I thought I could then take in a movie and slept through about half of The Truman Show in the theater.  Aldeen, not worth it, but for University Ridge I'd get up at any time to play that.

[Kyle Henderson]

Pet peeve time...

The wore 'farther' refers to distance.

The word 'further' refers to concepts.

Finding Forrester, anyone?

[Dan King]

Pete Pallotta writes:
I think the spirit of the question is 24 hours home, golf  and return.

That seems like a rather sneaky rule to allow your trip from Portland to win. I'm going with the no sleeping rule.

I left my home at midnight, drove up to Bandon, arriving around 8:30. Teed off at 9:00 am. Finished my second round around 7ish, and then drove back home, arriving at mi casa at around 4:00 am, for a total 28 hour door-to-door trip. I guess I should have skipped the second eighteen to keep the trip within the 24-hour time frame. There is almost no chance I'll ever do such a trip again, but if I do, I'll keep your ruling in mind.

Cheers,
Dan King

The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.
 --Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

[Pete_Pittock]

Dan,
I am not Pete Pallotta. And I think you should win, there was only one period of daylight.

[Dan King]

Pete_Pittock writes:
I am not Pete Pallotta. And I think you should win, there was only one period of daylight.

How freakin' embarrassing.

Sorry Pete.

Cheers,
Dan King

Dying is the most embarrassing thing that can ever happen to you, because someone's got to take care of all your details.
 --Andy Warhol

[Bill_McBride]

In terms of aviation aggravation, this could start a competitive thread:

Monday flew from Pensacola to JFK, arrived early evening, drove to BFE Long Island.

Tuesday played wonderful 36 holes at NGLA with lobster bisque in the Birdcage in between rounds. 

[the "wonderful" refers to the golf course, not my golf game  ]

Hauled ass to JFK, spent the night in a miserable hotel on the airport perimeter road.

Wednesday a.m., flew home to Pensacola minus lost luggage and golf clubs.

I would do it again tomorrow.

[David Stamm]

I cannot even come close to competing with alot of these, but several times last year, I left my home (San Diego) at 4am, drove to Ojai (just south of Santa Barbara) and played Soule in the morning and Ojai Valley Inn in the afternoon and drove home and arrived around 11am. A very good tired....