MISSION ACCOMPLISHED- 1000 GOLF COURSESAs many of you know, I have been approaching 1,000 golf courses played. I decided to make it part of my signature on this site and used my twitter page to update my progress as well (@corylewispga). I am proud to say that on Wednesday, July 25th I accomplished my goal! Below is a collection of my thoughts on reaching 1,000 along with some fun stats about my journey. Enjoy!
A BRIEF HISTORYIn 2001, when I set the goal to play 1,000 golf courses, I was 20 years old, and I had already played around 120. At that time, I thought that a realistic goal would be to play 1,000 golf courses before I turned 50 years old. I am currently 31 years old, so obviously I achieved my goal much faster than I envisioned.
HOW’D I DO IT SO QUICKLY?I have gotten this question a lot over the last couple months when I have talked to people about my journey. The reason can be broken down into a few key points:
1. I played a lot of courses alone. I love playing new courses and don’t mind playing them by myself.
2. I played multiple courses in one day. I often played three courses in one day (59 times), and I played two in one day much more than that.
3. I played VERY quickly. This helps with time, which is the biggest enemy of trying to play multiple courses in one day. When I am alone with nobody in front of me, I can play almost any course in 1½ hours riding or two hours walking.
GOLF COURSE #1000I had never really thought about trying to play a specific course for #1000 until people started asking me if I had anything planned. I’ve been very fortunate in my life to play many of the top courses in the country but there was one that immediately came to mind, Pine Valley. Through the efforts of several people, some of whom are on GCA, I was able to realize this dream. To those who made this happen, I can’t begin to thank you enough or tell you how much this meant to me. Here is a picture of me on the 18th at PV completing my journey.
pvme by
camel03, on Flickr
BEST & WORSTFavorite Course: Royal Dornoch Least Favorite Course: Cobb’s Creek(Olde)
Best Course: Cypress Point Worst Course: The Summit(WV)
Favorite Architect: Donald Ross Least Favorite Architect: Arthur Hills
Most Overrated: Oak Hill (East) Most Underrated: The Meadow Club
Favorite Par 3: 16th hole at Cypress Point
Favorite Par 4: 5th hole at Pinehurst #2
Favorite Par 5: 8th hole at Ballyneal
GOLF CLUB ATLASGCA’ers played with: 74
GCA’ers met but not played golf with: 88 - approximately, probably more
GCA’ers caddied for at Dormie: 12
Ex-GCA’ers, current ML’ers played with: 5
TOP 10 COURSES PLAYED BY ARCHITECTRoss-70
Fazio-50
Nicklaus-38
RTJ-34
Jones, Rees-28
Dye-26
Ault, Ed-24
Palmer-23
Hills-22
Raynor-19
Flynn-19
Gordon-19
FUN STATSStates: 39
Countries: 4
Significant Milestone courses: 250-NGLA, 400-San Francisco, 800-Wade Hampton
When I met my wife she had only played nine golf courses in three states. She has now played 91 courses in 23 states!
Quickest time period to play 50 courses: 110 days
Number of days I have played 2 new courses in the same day: 201
Number of days I have played 3 new courses in the same day: 59
Number of days I have played 4 new courses in the same day: 3
Best 3 course day is a tie between:
The Creek, Engineers, Deepdale
&
Wannamoisett, Essex County, Winchester
WHAT’S IN A NAMEA fun breakdown of golf course names that I have played:
Water: Bay, Brook, Creek, Lake, Ocean, Run, Spring, Sound
Colors: Black, Blue, Green, Grey, Gold, Orange, Red, White
Animals: Bear, Cardinal, Cat, Deer, Eagle, Elk, Fox, Frog, Goose, Hawk, Heron, Horse, Jackrabbit, Leopard, Lion, Osprey, Quail, Raven, Sheep, Snake, Sparrow, Swan, Wildcat, Wolf
Landforms: Bluff, Canyon, Cliff, Desert, Dune, Farm, Field, Forest, Garden, Hill, Island, Meadow, Mound, Mountain, Orchard, Park, Pointe, Quarry, Ranch, Ridge, Rock, Valley
Trees: Beech, Chestnut, Dogwood, Elm, Hickory, Magnolia, Maple, Oak, Peach, Pine, Walnut, Willow
People-Ed Oliver, Jimmie Austin, Lonnie Poole
Numbers-2, 4, 5, 7, 12, 1757
Alphabet-I have played golf courses that start with every letter of the alphabet except X. If I could find a course that started with X, I would be willing to drive a significant distance just to say I played golf courses that start with every letter of the alphabet.
FINAL THOUGHTSI wanted to do this thread because I have been fortunate to share my journey with so many of you. GolfClubAtlas has the best collection of golf architecture enthusiasts and just plain good people in the world IMO. Many thanks to Ran & Ben for creating and maintaining a website that fosters a wonderful community of people.