Wegoblogger #31

18 Days of Adams County Dunes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 15:56:00 +0000

I started a Instagram tour of Adams County Dunes, my vision for a third course at Sand Valley. Follow along here...

Introducing 18 Days of Adams County Dunes, my vision for a third course at @sandvalleygolf. The first hole is an inviting medium length par 4 that introduces you to the impressive scale of this pocket of dunes in the middle of Wisconsin. Flirting with the natural exposed sand areas on the right side sets up the preferred angle to the approach, but the friendly fairway slopes help nudge you over there as well. My goal with any first hole is to whet your appetite without beating you over the head with difficulty. Hopefully you’ll want to head off the first tee anxious and excited to see what else is in store! Follow along for the next 17 Days and add your commentary below. #ValleyNizzle #Crump2.0
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 1, 2017 at 4:45am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes (my vision for the third course @sandvalleygolf) takes us to the par 5 2nd hole, which I affectionately just call “The Hill”. A large hill simply needs to be dealt with on the tee shot. Staying short and on the far right side of the fairway provides an open view to the landing area if you’re playing it as a three shot hole. Attacking the hill on the drive but coming up short will leave an awkward blind shot. And drives that land into the side of the hill will bound left and leave a worse angle for the second shot. The approach rides the top of a small ridge and will require a confident stroke to reach in two. The elevated green is inspired a bit by the 4th green at Ballyneal. Looking forward to having friends try and tackle The Hill this afternoon. #ValleyNizzle #Crump2.0 #WinterGolf
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 2, 2017 at 4:41am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes takes us to the 3rd hole, an elegant 406-437 yard par 4. Hitting from an elevated tee just a few steps from the 2nd green into an open prairie, the first 250 yards or so is relatively tame. It’s get pretty wild from there though. This is one hole where you definitely want to play backwards from the green. The left half of the green is well protected by two fronting bunkers. Therefore you’ll want to hit your drive down the right side of the fairway, lengthening the hole but opening up the angle. However there’s a right-centerline bunker that needs to be negotiated. Blasting over it brings the wilder fairway contours and a natural depression into play, potentially masking the view of the approach. The green is one of my favorites on the course, with a natural ridge that runs lengthwise and sits right against one of the natural open sandy areas on the site. There’s plenty of room to bail out right and still make par without challenging the bunkers. #SandValley3 #ValleyNizzle #Crump2.0 #JimCantDunkButCanHeBuildGolfCourses
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 3, 2017 at 5:15am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes (my vision for a third course @sandvalleygolf) takes us to the 4th, a long, slightly uphill par 3 that plays over that natural open sand area adjacent to the previous green. This is one hole where the 3D visualization doesn’t do justice to the beautiful rugged setting (scroll right to see what we’re working with...it just screams golf). My hope here is a photogenic one shotter that it looks like it’s been there forever (think 17th at Bandon Trails) that is also a blast to play. The rolls leading up to the green allow for some creative shotmaking and the large green offers numerous interesting pins. A lot of potential here. #ValleyNizzle #Crump2.0 #SV3 #DreamGolf
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 4, 2017 at 5:15am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes takes us to the 5th, our first short par 4. The aggressive player can take it over the ridge on the right — a 265+ carry with some right-to-left movement should cause the ball the trundle down towards the green. Mere mortals can thread the gap with their drive or lay-up short of the neck for a full wedge into a green that slopes away from the player. This hole is largely just sitting there in a natural open area; don’t be surprised if someone builds a variation of this hole here @sandvalleygolf. Scroll right for the google earth aerial and you’ll see what I mean. #ValleyNizzle #SV3 #GotCrump? #WorkingOnMyHighFade
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 5, 2017 at 5:29am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes continues to the #1 handicap hole, the long par 4 6th. Although it looks narrow and intimidating off the tee, the fairway is one of the widest on the course. A large ridge just past the normal carry range will leave most drives into a bowl with a blind shot. An intentional drive right to the upper fairway provides a better view and angle into the green. The green is set in a natural amphitheater, offering some forgiveness to the approach. This will make a great vantage point for spectators when @sandvalleygolf eventually hosts the @usga fourball. Who’s with me? #SV3 #GotCrump #ValleyNizzle
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 6, 2017 at 4:23am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes, my vision for a 3rd course @sandvalleygolf, is back with the short par 3 7th. When walking the property, I was drawn to the possibility of a postage stamp like hole in a nice natural setting. Just need to clear some trees, shelve the green and carve some bunkers. Definitely influenced by my visit to Prairie Dunes this summer. #SV3 #ValleyNizzle #GotCrump
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 8, 2017 at 5:19am PST

The ‘Gram trying to keep me down, apparently, as my 8th & 9th Hole flyover videos have disappeared. Apologies for the repost: 18 Days of Adams County Dunes is feeling a little punchy today with the 8th hole, a 350-360 yard par 4. A good opportunity for birdie here. A drive down the right side can run into the large sand area at worst, or at best leave a blind approach. Drives down the left leave a nice view and a green-light situation for the approach. Just pick a line on the punchbowl green and let the slopes do the rest. I hope this hole sees the light of day @sandvalleygolf. It’s just sitting there for someone to build it. #PunchDrunkLove #SV3
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 12, 2017 at 7:21am PST

Repost: Ever wonder what the love child of the 7th and 8th holes @ballyneal might look like? 18 Days of Adams County Dunes takes us to the 9th, a long par 5. The tee shot will challenge a ridge line that crosses the fairway, anything past the ridge should roll forward into that go/no go decision. The uphill approach gets relatively narrow playing up against a dramatic hillside that marks the highest point on the course. The approach and lag putts can use the side of the hill for some creative shotmaking. Just make sure you end up on the right side of the fold that bisects the green. Good times. #SV3 #DesignWeek #7Plus8Equals9
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 12, 2017 at 7:23am PST

Grab a brat and @nyescream sandwich at the turn; 18 Days of Adams County Dunes takes us to the par 4 10th, probably my favorite hole on the course. The elevated tee offers a expansive view of the valley below. Challenging the dunescape area down the right will shorten the hole tremendously, plus there’s a lengthwise-ridge that differentiates drives even further. The approach is narrow to a well-protected green, with slopes that wind their way back to front. Somebody needs to build this hole @sandvalleygolf! #SV3 #Valleynizzle #CrumpAround
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 12, 2017 at 5:06am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes continues with the 11th, a 200-yard par 3. This hole has a special place in my heart for two reasons: 1) the Pinehurstian greensite is just sitting there. Look at the topo and see that natural mound on the other side of a slight depression. #Mow&Go 2) finding this hole while walking the property essentially unlocked the routing between a previous version and this one, allowing three other holes to improve as a result. I just love the natural setting and the simplicity of this hole, especially right after the roller coaster 10th. Come and get it. #SV3 #Tees&CrumpIt
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 13, 2017 at 4:44am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes, my vision for a third course @sandvalleygolf, continues with the 12th, a long par 4 that plays back out into the open prairie shared by the 3rd. A natural sand scrape eats into the left side of the fairway and dictates the strategy on the hole. I like this hole because it offers different options with no obvious winner. Blasting down the left brings the sandy area into play. Staying short provides the best angle into the green but it’s a blind shot. Hitting a long drive into neck introduces some wild fairway contours. Staying short and right offers a level lie but brings the cross bunker into play and leaves a longer approach. Blasting way down the right side leaves a poor angle into the shallow green. Oh yeah...the green has some wild and interesting contours, particularly in the back third. Hopefully this is one that vexes golfers for years. #SV3
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 14, 2017 at 8:01am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes, takes us to the 13th, a 360-Yard par 4. The strategy off the tee is really dictated by the pin position. You really want a good angle to attack the pin on the uphill, wide but shallow green. A good chance for birdie here but can yield trouble with those not confident in a 75% wedge shot. #SV3
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 16, 2017 at 8:51am PST

On the 14th day of 18 Days of Adams County Dunes, your true love gives to you this 560-Yard Par 5, which plays adjacent to the 13th and 14th holes of the original @sandvalleygolf course. An aggressive play with stay down the left side the entire way, navigating some centerline bunkers and shortening the hole. A large bunker masks the green and narrows the entrance to the only the left (when they cleared this land when building the Sand Valley course, they were nice enough to carve out the dramatic sand areas the sit in front of this greensite.) If you’re not playing through the neck in two, you can play safe down the right and hang back on the second leaving a flat lie with a full short iron into the green. Hitting close to the cross bunker leaves a half wedge from a downhill lie to a green the slopes away to the back. #GoodLuckWithThat #SV3
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 17, 2017 at 10:50am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes takes us to the 15th, a relatively low key but potentially tricky medium-length par 4. This is a classic C&C up and over tee shot, framed nicely by a large blowout right of the 4th hole on the original @sandvalleygolf course and large hill beyond. Really the choice on the tee is whether to blast away and get as close to the green as possible, or hang back to the crest of the hill and use a full short iron into the green. The green is relatively small perched on a small shelf and is guarded by two small bunkers. They are currently using this land as a borrow pit for the original course, so the final product might end up looking a lot different. #SV3
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 18, 2017 at 6:41am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes takes us to the last par 5, the long 16th. The fairways is plenty wide off the tee, but the aggressive player will want to stay down the left side. There is a bail out right, but that slopes away and will leave a blind 2nd shot. There is an old cellar on the site that will make a nasty peekaboo bunker to challenge the long hitter. The second shot forces a decision between the upper left side and lower right side. The worst spot to be is the bowl of indecision in between. The green is well protected right and behind and is split by a groove that runs across the middle. Again, a full wedge is probably your best chance at birdie rather than trying to overpower the hole. #SV3
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 19, 2017 at 5:32am PST

Put on your big boy pants and pull out your 3 wood as 18 Days of Adams County Dunes takes us to the long par 3 17th, a perfect natural setting just calling for a reverse redan. It was hard not to be drawn to the possibilities here, with a steep backdrop that plays to the base of the large hill which houses the 5th tee of the original @sandvalleygolf course. I also like the little ridge that masks the front left part of the green. Find a spot, trust your swing and trust that the slopes will do their thing. One of my personal favorites. #LeftyDraw #SV3 #Nedar
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 20, 2017 at 5:41am PST

18 Days of Adams County Dunes concludes with the long uphill par 4 18th. A centerline bunker provides some challenge to the tee shot. The preferred line will hug the corner of the dogleg to shorten the hole and provide a good angle into the green. There’s ton of room to blast over the bunkers but it lengthens the hole and leaves a worse angle on the approach. Plenty of room to bail out right of the green and still make par. Just don’t miss left, as the green is perched right along a ridgeline with a steep drop off. I hope you enjoyed the tour! While we’re here it’s probably worth noting my prerequisite and demands if I’m actually going to be considered for the job. 1) Minimum Salary: $0 (make a $100k donation to @wgaesf instead). 2) I get the course one day a year in June to do a @hundredholehike event. 3) a @sandvalleygolf founding membership would be nice, but optional 4) four @nyescream sandwiches per day during construction. Who’s with me? #SV3
A post shared by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Dec 21, 2017 at 5:26am PST

Adams County Dunes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 16:14:00 +0000

Welcome to Adams County Dunes, my proposed routing for the third course at Sand Valley. I've posted some earlier iterations of the routing on this blog in the past, and over the last year have continued to hone it. I've spent quite a few days walking the property and getting a feel for the land. I truly believe the land at Sand Valley, particularly in this corner south of the original Coore & Crenshaw course has the potential to yield one of the great golf courses in the country. I don't honestly think I'll get picked to build the course, but hopefully this helps you see the potential for the site and raise the bar for whomever does get picked.

Attached below is the routing map and some early visualization shots. I'll add more holes and fly-by's as we go along.

1st Hole

5th Hole

7th Hole

8th Hole

10th Hole

13th Hole

17th Hole

18th Hole

Golf Digest 2017-18 Rankings: Inside the Numbers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 01:23:00 +0000

One last post on the latest Golf Digest top 100/200 rankings. In the past, I've looked at each category's contribution to a given course's total score as an psuedo-look at its DNA. With seven different categories, there are different ways to make the list. Some get by on Shot Values; others on Resistance to Scoring or Conditioning. Some are consistently strong across all categories (Colorado Golf Club's DNA is the closest to Golf Digest's formula).

The first set of images looks at the highest and lowest relative scores (category score / total score) for each of the seven category. Then the next set of images look at the difference between category shares for some of the categories with the least amount of correlation. Assessing which set of 15 courses you'd prefer to play provides an indication of how your personal category weights might differ from Golf Digest's. Seeing courses pop up that you like might lead you to find other courses that fit your personal tastes.

Golf Digest 2017-18 Rankings - Food for Thought: What if they just ranked courses by Shot Values?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 02:52:00 +0000

Golf Digest published its latest list of "America's 100 Greatest Golf Courses". There wasn't a lot of movement in the rankings from last time, but Pine Valley muscled its way back into the top spot ahead of Augusta National.

Most of the criticism of the Golf Digest rankings are that it rewards well-conditioned, difficult courses. Some of this may be due to the nature of its 1,100 person ratings panel, who tend to be better players. More than likely, it's a function of its formula for defining greatness along some fixed weights (2x for Shot Values, and 1x each for Resistance to Scoring, Design Variety, Memorability, Aesthetics, Conditioning and Ambience. You can see the specific definitions here: http://www.golfdigest.com/story/how-our-panel-ranks-the-courses)

Shot Values is defined as "How well do the holes pose a variety of risks and rewards and equally test length, accuracy and finesse?". As noted, it's worth twice as much as the other categories so is obviously viewed as the most important characteristic. But what if it were the only category for ranking golf courses? Could Shot Values alone produce a better list, in your opinion? Since Shot Values is difficult to define and even more difficult to quantify, might it be akin to a raters overall view of the course quality anyways (the correlation between Shot Values and all of the other categories combined is 93.5%)?

The list below shows that a Shot Values only approach would bring Hazeltine National, Harbour Town, Pasatiempo, Streamsong Red, Chambers Bay, Galloway National, The Course at Yale (up from 177 to 90!), Colorado Golf Club, Cal Club and Shoal Creek into the top 100 at the expense of Monterey Peninsula Shore, Laurel Valley, Flint Hills National, Hudson National, The Course at Black Rock, The Preserve, Double Eagle, Mayacama, Diamond Creek and The Quarry at La Quinta (down from 83 to 144).

It's not perfect, but it seems to be heading in the right direction. Perhaps Design Variety and Memorability or Ambience need to play a small role as well. But here's the Shot Value-only list as food for thought. More to come as we dig deeper into the numbers.

Update: this Google Sheets tool allows you to set your own category weights and produce a customized top 100/200 list.

Golf Digest Rank	Shot Value Rank	Course	SV Score
1	1	Pine Valley	8.9142
2	2	Augusta National	8.7013
4	3	Shinnecock Hills	8.6473
5	4	Oakmont	8.6134
6	5	Merion East	8.4932
3	6	Cypress Point	8.4265
10	7	Winged Foot	8.3128
8	8	NGLA	8.2936
7	9	Pebble Beach	8.2659
9	10	Sand Hills	8.2595
15	11	Muirfield Village	8.1499
14	12	Chicago	8.1416
12	13	Crystal Downs	8.1372
17	14	Oakland Hills - South	8.1108
20	15	Oak Hill - East	8.1025
11	16	Fishers Island Club	8.1020
38	17	Bethpage Black	8.0853
24	18	Riviera	8.0739
30	19	Pinehurst - No 2	8.0590
16	20	The Country Club	8.0561
29	21	Prairie Dunes	8.0543
13	22	Seminole	8.0506
21	23	The Ocean Course	8.0427
19	24	Friars Head	8.0426
23	25	LACC - North	8.0305
35	26	Southern Hills	8.0252
22	27	Whistling Straits - Straits	8.0129
18	28	Pacific Dunes	7.9932
31	29	Olympic Club - Lake	7.9927
25	30	Wade Hampton	7.9257
48	31	Medinah - No 3	7.9115
34	32	The Golf Club	7.9009
32	33	The Honors Course	7.8971
58	34	Oak Tree	7.8774
33	35	Peachtree	7.8761
45	36	Butler National	7.8503
28	37	Gozzer Ranch	7.8439
43	38	Victoria National	7.8333
44	39	Erin Hills	7.8299
50	40	Ballyneal	7.8263
39	41	Baltusrol - Lower	7.8256
26	42	Shadow Creek	7.8253
49	43	Spyglass Hill	7.8201
37	44	San Francisco	7.8124
60	45	Pete Dye	7.8091
51	46	TPC Sawgrass - Players	7.8058
40	47	Pikewood National	7.7849
27	48	The Alotian Club	7.7624
89	49	Inverness Club	7.7609
77	50	Plainfield	7.7506
36	51	Bandon Dunes	7.7463
56	52	Old Sandwich	7.7411
46	53	Garden City	7.7376
79	54	Olympia Fields	7.7358
57	55	Scioto	7.7316
42	56	Castle Pines	7.7249
59	57	Dallas National	7.7170
52	58	Camargo	7.7105
78	59	Aronimink	7.7096
62	60	Winged Foot - East	7.7079
41	61	Sebonack	7.7078
61	62	Baltusrol - Upper	7.6989
54	63	Interlachen	7.6931
55	64	Whispering Pines	7.6897
81	65	Valhalla	7.6875
75	66	Congressional - Blue	7.6786
53	67	Kinloch	7.6740
47	68	Old MacDonald	7.6607
66	69	Shoreacres	7.6562
64	70	Somerset Hills	7.6541
82	71	Boston GC	7.6441
76	72	Quaker Ridge	7.6420
94	73	Crooked Stick	7.6390
107	74	Hazeltine National	7.6375
127	75	Harbour Town	7.6307
103	76	Pasatiempo	7.6244
87	77	Yeamans Hall	7.6105
70	78	Bandon Trails	7.6076
73	79	Cherry Hills	7.5943
63	80	Canyata	7.5782
69	81	Spring Hill	7.5718
98	82	Sahalee	7.5707
74	83	Estancia	7.5630
102	84	Streamsong (Red)	7.5605
91	85	Essex Country Club	7.5597
80	86	Valley Club of Montecito	7.5573
129	87	Chambers Bay	7.5535
92	88	Blackwolf Run - River	7.5515
117	89	Galloway National	7.5400
177	90	The Course at Yale	7.5353
100	91	Eagle Point	7.5352
111	92	Colorado Golf Club	7.5352
110	93	Cal Club	7.5324
106	94	Shoal Creek	7.5309
71	95	Milwaukee	7.5270
72	96	Maidstone	7.5225
67	97	Kittansett Club	7.5205
96	98	Calusa Pines	7.5161
88	99	Rich Harvest	7.5156
68	100	Arcadia Bluffs	7.5137

65	101	MPCC - Shore	7.5124
95	102	Laurel Valley	7.5115
97	108	Flint Hills National	7.4969
85	112	Hudson National	7.4893
84	113	Black Rock	7.4872
93	123	The Preserve	7.4410
86	126	Double Eagle	7.4398
99	130	Mayacama	7.4202
90	137	Diamond Creek	7.3913
83	144	Quarry at La Quinta	7.3689

HHH 2016: A Double Dose of Doak

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 20:48:00 +0000

Two weeks ago, I did something I swore I would never do again: complete two Hundred Hole Hikes in four days. In 2013, I had the crazy idea of doing four hikes in 3 1/2 weeks, with the last two being on a Monday (in Canada) and Thursday (in Scotland). Since then, my left ankle is hanging on by a very thin thread.

But this year the opportunity presented itself to do another two hikes, on the same Monday/Thursday timeline, and it proved to be too good to pass up. On June 20th, I did my traditional hike at Ballyneal with some fellow members and good friend Brandon Urban. Then on June 23rd, I ventured up to northern Michigan to do a hike at Forest Dunes, along with architect Tom Doak, Matt Ginella from Golf Channel and Ashley Mayo from Golf Channel.

Last year, I had the chance to tour and play some holes in the dirt up at The Loop at Forest Dunes in Roscommon, MI, Doak's latest creation and unique in the golf world that it is the world's first and only fully operating reversible golf course. Given the lay of the land and uniqueness of the concept, I casually mentioned to Tom that day, "This would be a great course to do a Hundred Hole Hike". He immediately responded, "I would be up for that". And the wheels were officially in motion for the Hundred Hole Hike at Forest Dunes this year.

It's worth noting that the week of these hikes corresponded to the 5th year anniversary of the original Ben Cox marathon, the main thing that started it all. It's been amazing to see the growth of the hike over that time period, now with over $2.5 million raised for nearly 200 different charitable causes. My initial theory when I started the event was that there had to be other golfers out there, like me, crazy enough to try something like this and armed with the willingness and ability to do it for causes that were close to them. It turns out that hunch was right, at least for a few hundred lunatics out there (though I suspect there are more that just haven't been found yet).

HIKE 1: BALLYNEAL

Although this was my sixth golf marathon event at Ballyneal (and I've caddied for two others), each one is uniquely different and stands out for various reasons. A lot of these reasons have to do with the weather, which can vary wildly in NE Colorado. One of our hikers, John Penny, recently got married at Ballyneal and his best man Michael reminded wedding-goers of when he caddied for John in the 2012 hike when it was 108 degrees (and windy and humid). One of the lasting images of that hike is immortalized on the Hundred Hole Hike website, bottom row fourth from the left below, with John completely spent and contemplating whether he could continue (he did).

The weather forecast was definitely a concern as this year's hike approached. Many of us played 36 holes on Sunday, where the temperature was a sticky 100 degrees. The forecast called for more of the same. The day after the hike it reached 102 degrees. But thankfully Monday during out to be pretty much ideal, with overcast skies most of the day and temperatures that never got higher than 83 or 84. Storm clouds started brewing just beyond the course in the mid-morning and there was some thunder in the distance, but again we lucked out as eventually that gave way to a sunny afternoon. As an added bonus, the skies were clear and the moon was bright, allowing enough light to tee off a little earlier than usual. The night before, the five of us hiking decided to meet up at the pro shop at 4:30 A.M. I went outside and immediately realized that it was already "golfable", so rushed to get things arranged and to the first tee as quickly as possible. Here is me hitting the first tee ball at 4:40 in the morning:

Once again, I was armed with two caddies at all times, in a well-honed system that has helped me tremendously since the first marathon. Even better, there were some familiar faces along the way, such as Chris, who caddied three loops for me last year. And later there was the brother and sister combo of Tristan and Brenna, who I later determined were the younger siblings of my friend and former caddie Cierra. I was fortunate to have a lot of basketball fans on my "bag" (in spirit only, as there were eight clubs with no bag, split between the two caddies), so the Cavs Game 7 victory/Warriors epic Game 7 meltdown and the upcoming NBA draft was a continual topic of conversation and easy distraction to the grind of walking and playing 150+ holes in a day.

I wished I could say I played some of my best golf. I wish I could say that I made 20 birdies and an eagle. I wish I could say I played some of my fastest rounds ever. But none one of those statements were true. But it still good enough. Like Dory, I just kept swimming. Just kept swimming. All my rounds were in the 80s. I made eight birdies overall. And the pace was in the 1:25-1:30 range with very small breaks in between rounds.

I like to say, "Like they always say, the fifth and sixth rounds of the day are always the toughest." That's usually when one hits the grind during the hike, when mentally you started to count down the number of holes left, focus on how much daylight is left and how much your feet hurt, and that's pretty much all you can think about. For whatever reason, I never hit the proverbial wall this year at Ballyneal. I was making great time, and 155 was well within reach, with time to spare.

When pledging my support to Brandon, I half-jokingly commented, "See you for Round 9". During last year's hike, I shamed/jedi-mind tricked Brandon to continue on an extra round during the twilight hours well after he had decided to quit after 126 holes. It worked last year, but I didn't really think he'd my round 9 suggestion seriously. That was until I finished my 8th round, got up to the clubhouse and saw Brandon marching down the 10th fairway on his 145th hole. Brandon started the day on the back nine and I hadn't seen him all day until that point, so I knew he was on a good pace. But when I saw him marching down the fairway, I realized that he was actually a half-hole ahead of my pace!

I quickly switched gears and decided to start round 9 on the back. Then I tried to catch up to Brandon, and it wasn't until the 13th hole when I could finally get close enough to get his attention. The guy was an animal (a point that will become even clearer later on in this blog). Brenna was on his bag at this point and we zipped around the back nine and then headed back to the front.

My M.O. has been to stop at 155 holes in deference to the original Ben Cox marathon. But finishing on the 2nd hole, didn't seem like a great idea. And more importantly, the course was just glowing on a perfect summer afternoon. I don't care if it's your 157th or your 7th hole of the day, if you're anything like me, there's no way that you'd see a view of a golf course like this and not keep playing. The golden hour was in full effect.

At one point, we broached the subject of possibility stretching it to 171 holes, matching the hike record held by our good friend Rob Rigg. But at the bottom of the 4th fairway (okay, rough), I started to feel a little woozy and light headed, to the point that I had to sit for 10 minutes or so at the 6th tee box. At that point, 162 holes seemed like a perfect good and reasonable number. 9 rounds in one day. Walking. Not a bad day's work. We realized that there was no way the two of us could flash the traditional post-hike digits, so my caddie Oscar (who went the last four rounds) got the much-deserved '1' in the picture below.

All in all, it was a fitting end a beautiful day at Ballyneal. We had a great crew of five hikers and even had a friendly multi-round skins game going to add interest and raise an additional $720 for our charitable causes (I won one, Brandon won one and Gary Albrecht won two). Together, the Ballyneal hike raised over $23,500 for charity. I am honored to call these guys fellow hikers and friends:

Ballyneal Scorecard:

HIKE 2: FOREST DUNES

After six years of 100+ hole golf marathons, I always tend to judge how things are going by how many holes do I think I could play the next day. I woke up Tuesday morning after the Ballyneal hike and played a quick nine holes, as I found that getting up and getting moving helps with the recovery process. I told Brandon that I could probably play 100 holes that next day, but it wouldn't be pretty. Maybe back-to-back 100's is an idea for a future year.

Months ago, Brandon agreed to accompany me to Roscommon, Michigan to help out with the hike at Forest Dunes, proving once again what a great supporter of the hike and true friend he is (kudos also to my lifelong buddy Jimbo, who also made the trek to help out). Primarily, I think he was really excited to see Doak's new reversible course. Secondarily, he'd get the chance to meet golf luminaries and social media mavens Matt Ginella and Ashley Mayo, who along with Doak rounded out the featured foursome. Also, like Jerry Seinfeld's bit about the Best Man in the wedding, he could easily step up and finish out the 100 if I collapsed and died somewhere on the 8th fairway (it's okay, I would've wanted them to go on).

Thankfully, nobody collapsed and nobody died, as the Forest Dunes hike was a successful and extremely memorable event, for a number of reasons:

- As mentioned, these were some of the very first rounds on the Loop, the first course of its kind. A reversible golf course? I tried to explain this concept to the some of the caddies at Ballyneal and they couldn't compute what I was telling them. I had seen it last year and it still didn't make much sense to me. Heck, three weeks after playing it three times each way and I still can't quite wrap my head around it.

But in the end, I think that's a good thing. I've come to the realization that great golf courses are the ones that reveal themselves over time. Course that you have to play and want to play multiply times to unlock their mysteries. The Old Course at St. Andrews is probably the perfect example of this (I often say The Old Course is probably the greatest golf course in the world, I'm just not smart enough to have figured it out yet).

Speaking of the Old Course, eras of golf course architecture can be plotted on a timeline that is defined by truly ground breaking golf courses. St. Andrews. Cypress Point. Pinehurst. More recently: Harbour Town, TPC Sawgrass and Sand Hills. I think you can add The Loop at Forest Dunes to that list. It seems to me that people will study the intricacies and nuances of The Loop for years to come. I don't know if it was start a wave of reversible golf courses, but I imagine we will see others attempts crop up over time. And similar questions that Doak faced during construction - about how to make it work, what kind of land suits best, what types of holes work well and don't work so well, how to arrange hazard and greens to work both directions, etc. will be asked and new answers may arise. As somebody interested in the design and strategy of golf course architecture, I'm excited to see what happens.

As far as potential spots for a Hundred Hole Hike go, The Loop at Forest Dunes is a Doak 10. First of all, take the climate and daylight of Northern Michigan. I don't think it got higher than 81 degrees and one could play golf until 10:15 PM or even later in mid-summer. Also, The Loop is a great, walking-only course with similar topography to Pinehurst No. 2 (what I would call the best course to walk in the U.S.) And finally, the ability to play the course clockwise and then immediately turn around and play it counter clockwise adds variation and interest to an already fun and strategically-interesting golf course (or shall, I say golf courses). I have to say 200 holes in a day is entirely possible (Hmmm...)

We didn't really push the envelope in terms of pace and holes played. We started at 5:30 AM and the plan was to play 108 holes -- three times in each direction. And we were playing an alternate shot format where mixed up the pairings and played match play matches throughout. Alt-shot can really go fast if you forge ahead while your partner is teeing off or hitting. However, most of us gave up on that fairly early on as well. I have to admit, it was a bit of an adjustment for Brandon and me, as we were hard-wired to play as fast and as much as humanly possible. But the breaks did allow for some pretty epic photo journals of the day from Ginella and Mayo.

A photo posted by Matt Ginella (@matt_ginella) on Jun 23, 2016 at 6:57am PDT

- Not only were we playing some of the first few rounds on this groundbreaking course, these were Doak's first full rounds on the Loop ever. It was very cool to be a part of him playing and observing the full course for the first time, and if my statement on the design timeline is correct, is something I'll likely be telling my grandkids about someday.

Ashley admitted that she likes to scream the architect's name whenever she gets an unfortunate break and hits into a hazard. "DOAK!!!" was a recurring theme throughout the day, proving again and again that it really is a four-letter word. Even Tom got into action by commenting, "who put that there?" after a particularly unfortunate bounce into a hazard. Then there was this beauty...

A video posted by Jim Colton (@jcolton31) on Jun 29, 2016 at 6:24pm PDT

- One of the nice perks about being one of the first to play a course: course records are up for grabs! Although my driver was inconsistent, my wedge game and putter was pretty solid throughout the day, allowing me to post some decent scores with my playing partner:

Round 1 (Black/clockwise): Matt & I paired up to beat Tom & Ashley 6&5
Round 2 (Red/counterclockwise): Ashley & I combined to shoot 77 and beat Tom & Matt 4&2 in the
Round 3 (Black): I paired up with Nia, an alum from the Midnight Golf Program (more on this in a second) to shoot 79, well ahead of the others
Round 4/5 (Red & then Black): Tom & I paired up to shoot 83 and 87, losing both matches to Matt & Ashley
Round 6: Matt & I shot 80, defeating Tom & Ashley 3&2

[If you're keeping track at home, Doak was 0-5 on the day on his own course, but he did lap the rest of us in fundraising so it's hard to give him too much flak]

At one point, we thought the 77 on Red with Ashley and 79 on Black with Nia were the course records in both directions, but it turned out somebody did shoot 75 on Red earlier. But the 79 with Nia was in fact the course record, although it's likely been broken by now. It was a fun while it lasted. It's worth noting that this is only the second time that I've held a course record. The other one is for once missing every fairway at Ballyneal. Sadly, going 0-for-14 is one that will truly never be broken.

- As I alluded to, in Round 3 we were joined by three alumni from the Midnight Golf Program, the charitable cause that we all were raising money for. I had Nia, Tom paired with Yvette and Matty G paired with Shelby. Ashley played her own ball. All three were obviously very good players, Yvette is current playing on the golf team at Ohio Valley University in West Virginia. It was a little difficult trying to get them out of their traditional pre-shot routines, and Jimbo had to have a heart-to-heart caddie-to-player talk with Yvette about the weight of her bag, but aside from that the highlight of the day getting to spend time with them on the course and learn more about the program and what it meant to them.

[The night prior to the hike, MGP founder Renee Fluker hosted a reception for the participants and some of the MGP members and volunteers. It was abundantly clear just in that short time just how much Renee and the other MGP volunteers are pouring into the kids to help get to college with the tools they need to be successful. As in, going way above and beyond the call of duty for these kids if necessary. My main takeaways were that MGP or similar programs need to be in Chicago (and every city in America) and short of that, we should all try to find some young person to mentor like the MGP volunteers are doing every year. This is truly life-changing work they are doing. I feel truly blessed to be able to help them in this very small way.]

- Ginella said early on that in his experience with the hike (he did one in 2012), that over the course of the day, you'll like your playing partners at the start, hate them at some point and then love them by the end. I have to say there wasn't much hate at all, from what I could tell, as we collectively just enjoyed the day and the fun of playing this special new golf course for a great cause. There were a ton of laughs throughout the day and a lot of smiles and hugs as we finished around 9:00 PM.

Although the hike is over, there is still time to support my HHHike for the Midnight Golf Program. You can click on the "Pledge to This Golfer" button at the bottom of this page: http://www.hundredholehike.com/blogs/hhh-2016-double-dose-doak for either the Ballyneal or Forest Dunes hike. Please note my following final stats for each hike when pledging on a per hole or per birdie basis (no eagles, unfortunately):

Ballyneal Hike: 162 holes, 8 birdies
Forest Dunes Hike: 108 holes, 3 birdies

Alternatively, you can simply give directly to Midnight Golf online here: http://midnightgolf.org/support-mgp/

Thanks so much for your time and support of the hike. As always, if you're interested in actively participating in the hike next year, please email me at jim@onedivot.org. We have big ideas for next year and beyond and would like to keep expanding the number of golfers involved and charitable causes that are impacted.

- Jim

The Hundred Hole Hike at The Loop at Forest Dunes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 09 Jun 2016 21:17:00 +0000

One of golf's most unique fundraising events will be held at perhaps the most revolutionary new golf course in years when the Hundred Hole Hike comes to The Loop at Forest Dunes on Monday, June 23rd. The Loop, designed by Tom Doak, will be the only fully reversible 18-hole golf course operating in the world when it opens to the public on June 27th. The Hundred Hole Hike will raise money and awareness for the Midnight Golf Program, which brings personal and professional development to youths in inner-city Detroit through the game of golf.

The Loop is reversible in that it can be played in both a clockwise and counter-clockwise direction. An excerpt from the yardage book below illustrates how one fairway serves the 1st hole on the Red layout and the 18th hole on the Black layout. Both routings share the same 18th green (attacked from different directions), but the 1st green on the Red layout serves as the 17th green for the Black layout, and vice-versa.

Typically, the Loop will operate with play flowing in one direction one day and the other direction the next, allowing visiting golfers to experience two different courses on consecutive days.

The Hundred Hole Hike at The Loop at Forest Dunes will include a featured foursome playing and walking both directions at least three times in one day, equating to 108 holes or more of golf. The featured foursome includes:

- Tom Doak, golf course architect and designer of The Loop at Forest Dunes
- Matt Ginella, Golf Channel's resident travel insider and co-host of Golf Channel's Morning Drive
- Ashley Mayo, senior editor and social media director at Golf Digest
- Jim Colton, founder of Hundred Hole Hike

The event will feature a mix of individual stroke play and alternate shot play, where select Midnight Golf Program supporters, program participants and other donors will partner with members of the foursome above for sets of 36-hole loops. To learn more about the format or to inquire about the possibility of participating in the event, please contact Jim Colton at jim@onedivot.org.

As mentioned, all proceeds from the Hundred Hole Hike event at the Loop will go directly to the Midnight Golf Program (MGP). MGP is a 30-week empowerment and mentoring experience that teaches life skills including financial literacy, college preparation and community activism, as well as learning to play golf. The program meets twice weekly at Marygrove College in Detroit, at a practice facility and four-hole short course designed by Doak. Life skills and golf skills are taught by numerous adults who volunteer their time and serve as mentors for the program participants. Since 2001, nearly 800 participants have gone on to study at 90 different colleges and universities.

To learn more about the Midnight Golf Program, please go to: http://midnightgolf.org/about/
To learn more about the Loop at Forest Dunes, please go to: https://www.forestdunesgolf.com/
To learn more about the Hundred Hole Hike, please go to: http://www.hundredholehike.com/

There are a number of ways to support the Hundred Hole Hike at The Loop:

1. Play - consider actively participating in the event as an alternate-shot partner. For more information, please contact Jim Colton at jim@onedivot.org

2. Pledge - support any of the four golfers on a per hole or lump sum basis, with special bonuses for birdies, eagles and hole-in-ones. Please click one of the buttons below.

Ashley Mayo	Pledge to this golfer
Jim Colton	Pledge to this golfer
Matt Ginella	Pledge to this golfer
Tom Doak	Pledge to this golfer

3. Sponsor - Sponsorship opportunities are available for the event at the Loop and for the Hundred Hole Hike in general. Please contact Jim Colton at jim@onedivot.org for more information.

4. Volunteer - Please consider caddying or helping out in other ways on June 23rd. Please contact Jim Colton at jim@onedivot.org for more information.

5. Share - Please help spread the word by sharing this page on social media and by following @100holehike on Twitter.

Virtual Ballyneal

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 15:16:00 +0000

Armed with the drone data from the previous post, I've spent the last few months trying to bring Ballyneal to life on Perfect Golf, a PC game run on Steam. Please enjoy the following pics and video clips. I've recently completed a green 'renovation' project, trying to match the look and feel and playability as close as humanly possible. Below is a flyover tour of the front nine. The back nine will follow.

All in all, not a bad sister course to Chop Hills :)

Front Nine Virtual Flyover

How's this for look and feel?

Attack of the Drones: Ballyneal in 3D

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 02:34:00 +0000

I was out at Ballyneal two weeks ago as part of a fundraising event for One Divot, raising support with the help of golf course architect Tom Doak for Goat Hill Park in Oceanside, California and former Ballyneal caddie Ben Cox. While we were out there, some guys were flying some ~~drones~~ unmanned aerial vehicles around the course collecting data. These weren't the kind of drones that you'd get at Best Buy and later get lost in the ocean. This was some serious equipment...

It looks like the data has been processed and you can zoom around the Ballyneal site in 3D below. Very cool!

Ballyneal Golf and Hunt Club - Holyoke, CO
by One Drone Cloud
on Sketchfab

Virtual to Reality? Dream Golf Update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 06 Sep 2015 16:02:00 +0000

I've been spending the last few months of my free time working to bring my concept for a second course at Ballyneal to virtual reality. Last year, I met with some guys starting a multi-platform golf game called Perfect Golf and they gave me early access to its course designer called Course Forge. After a lot of trial and error, I was able to mold a 3D landscape of the land surrounding Ballyneal into something resembling the look and feel of the Chop Hills. It's been great to visualize and tweak my dream course in 3D. Even better, recently I've gotten to course to a point where it's playable within the game.

Just this past week, the beta version of my course, Chop Hills Golf Club, is available on Perfect Golf for user testing. It's probably 98% complete, with just some tweaks to the look and feel of the native grasses and bunker refinement. The shapes of the holes and green contours are all good to go.

If you have any interest in playing this virtual Doak 10 (ok, maybe Doak 9), then you'll need to set up an account on Steam and purchase the early access version of Perfect Golf for $20. Then I can provide you instructions on how to get the Chop Hills course added to your course list. They also have real courses like Sebonack, TPC Sawgrass, Medinah and others with the game.

I hope to see you on the first tee...

(ignore the tee markers)

Earlier version of the routing. #2 was changed to a par 5, orientation of #16 fairway changed as well

1st Hole - 412 Yd, Par 4

1st Approach

2nd Hole, 560 Yd Par 5

2nd Hole, Lay-up Approach

3rd Hole, 366 Yd Par 4

4th Hole, 213 Yd Par 3

5th Hole, 518 Yd Par 4

5th Approach

6th Hole, 550 Yd Par 5

7th Hole, 145 Yd Par 3 (Alt Tee)

7th Hole, Main Tee

8th Hole, 452 Yd Par 4

8th Green

9th Hole, 439 Yd Par 4

10th Hole, 577 Yd Par 5

10th Hole, 2nd Shot

11th Hole, 185 Yd Par 3

12th Hole, 317 Yd Par 4

12th Hole Approach

13th Hole, 419 Yd Par 4

14th Hole, 443 Yd Par 4

15th Hole, 218 Yd Par 3

16th Hole, 436 Yd Par 4

17th Hole, 581 Yd Par 5

18th Hole, 523 Yd Par 4

Keepin' It 155

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 03 Aug 2015 06:09:00 +0000

I was in Wilmington, Delaware this past week for work, just minding my own business in the morning, when my phone started buzzing from text messages.

"You just got a 'game ball' from Matty G on MorningDrive. Nice work!"

That made an otherwise pretty nondescript work day pretty unique. Later that afternoon, the video was posted. Out of the blue, Matt Ginella decided to highlight the work that we've been doing since 2011 to raise money for charity and impact lives through nothing more than a love for the game and a desire to walk an insane amount of holes in a day.

Watching the video, my first reaction was, "how do I get one of those giant foam golf balls?". My next reaction was the reality sinking in on how far we've come since 2011, when this idea started through the Ben Cox marathon. Four year laters, over 250 golfers have walked 100 or more holes in a day, and the amount raised is approaching $2 million. It's been a tremendous blessing to me and my family to be a part of it and see the steady growth.

Three weeks ago, I participated in my seventh Hundred Hole Hike, again at Ballyneal. I ended up pushing my hike back a week so I can help out and caddy for my fellow Ballyneal hikers a week earlier (read: I was out of shape and felt caddying 100 holes would be good training). It turned out to be a good decision as I walked 108 that first week (caddied 90, then played a late afternoon 18 with hiker Brandon Urban, urging him to push past 126 holes and go for 144).

Last year's hike was a personal grind as I was dealing with ankle issues, work stress and poor play. I finished 144 holes before rain came in and ended my day. But my family was there to greet me on hole 144, and I was overcome with emotion on that 18th fairway.

There were no tears of joy, pain or otherwise this year. If I had to summarize my hike in one word, it would be: fun. I had a blast playing and walking 100+ holes on a cool, overcast day at one of my favorite courses in the world. Once again, I was able to get to my target number of 155 holes, with relative ease and some daylight to spare.

Time really does fly when you are having fun. This is especially useful when you are walking 45 miles over a 15 1/2 stretch. I started a few minutes before first light, hitting a tee shot at 4:48 AM with a yellow ball that was topped down the fairway. The last putt was dropped at 8:45 PM. There were 717 shots (some bad, but mostly good), 88,000 steps and even more pleasant memories in between.

Having two caddies throughout was a huge plus, not just for finding wayward shots and carrying my eight clubs, but just for sanity's sake. Tyler and Chris powered through for the first half of the hike. Adam and ONeal took me home from Round 5 to the end.

Props to @RheinosRreal for looping first 4 rounds of my @100holehike 93, 1 birdie. 1:38. http://t.co/U2PLsBc9l9 pic.twitter.com/HW3vAije4t
— J Colton (@jcolton31) July 6, 2015

[And I have to mention my caddy for one shot, Ballyneal celebrity caddie and friend Charlie Mulligan. He came out during my sixth round and took some pictures for his blog: He came at just the right time too, as I was hitting the ball pretty well (before falling apart on the back nine). I nearly aced the third hole with Charlie snapping away atop the dune behind the hole. On the 7th hole, I had a 20-foot birdie putt and asked Charlie to come down and give me a read. Wouldn't you know it, he got the double break just right and I rammed it in. Thanks Charlie! Check out Charlie's recap of the round here: http://ballynealcaddy.blogspot.com/2015/07/hundred-hole-hike-762015.html]

Once again, my family was with me for the journey. By the late afternoon, the Colton Five and the two caddies were literally the only people on the property. This was a golf dream come true.

After playing 153 holes by myself while blitzing through a handful of groups (some twice in their same round), I made the turn and ran into this foursome of golf misfits that just wouldn't let me play through!

If you can't pass em, join em. I played the last two holes as a fivesome, going from four minutes a hole to twenty-four minutes a hole. But it was all good. Besides, somebody has to hold up the 1-5-5 at the end:

All in all, it was a great and memorable day. And thanks in part to 12 birdies and a special bonus for reaching 155 holes, I was able to raise over $11,000 for my two caddie-driven charities, the Evans Scholarship Foundation and the Solich Caddie & Leadership academy.

There is still time to give. You can pledge for me or any of the 80+ hikers through the "pledge thru me" on their golfer profile page. 100% of the donations go directly to the charities involved.

And of course, I'd love to have you involved in the fun next year. Please consider joining the army of hikers in 2016. You can email me at jim@onedivot.org for more information. As my 8-year old loves to say, let's "take it to a-no-ther LEV-EL!"

Hundred Hole Hike by the Numbers
155 holes (8 rounds + 11 holes)
Start time: 4:48 AM
End time: 8:15 PM
Total time beginning to end: 15:27 (5 min, 59 sec per hole)
Total time golfing: 13:34 (5 min, 2 sec per hole)
Fastest round: 1:24 (x2)
Slowest Round: 1:43
Avg Round: 1:34
Scores: 78-87-83-93-84-83-78-84-47
Scoring Avg: 83.5 (41.1 front, 42.4 back)
Eagles: 0 frown emoticon
Birdies: 12
Par: 60
Bogey: 52
Double: 27
Triple: 4
Balls Lost: 5
Three-putts: ~188 smile emoticon
Best Ball score: 64
Worst Ball score: 106
Hardest Holes:
17 (par 4): 5.63 (5-7-4-5-6-6-6-6)
12 (par 4): 5.25 (5-6-5-7-5-4-4-6)
10 (par 4): 5.22 (5-6-6-5-5-5-5-5-5)
2 (par 4): 5.11 (5-6-6-4-4-5-5-6-5)
Easiest Holes:
11 (par 3): 2.78 (3-3-3-2-3-3-2-3-3)
16 (par 5): 5.00 (5-5-6-6-5-5-4-4)
6 (par 4): 4.11 (3-4-5-4-5-4-4-4-4)
4 (par 5): 5.25 (5-7-7-5-4-4-5-5-5)
Steps: 89,566
Miles: 44
Money raised: >$11,000

Inside the Numbers: Golf Digest's 2015-16 America's Greatest 100 Courses

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Jan 2015 04:16:00 +0000

Today, Golf Digest published its updated Top 200 greatest courses in the U.S. list. You can find the Top 100 list here and the second 100 here. The ratings methodology and detailed category numbers for the top 100 can be found here.

Similar to in the past, I like to dive into these category numbers and try to understand what makes these courses tick. If you believe the category scores represent what their meant to represent, then the scores should provide some indication what areas a given course is great in relative to others. For instance, while the Aesthetics category is 12.5% of the total score in the Golf Digest formula, it comprises 13.39% of Cypress Point's total score, the highest relative score for that category. Cypress Point's "DNA" for greatness is driven by the Aesthetics, Memorability, Design Variety and Ambience category and relatively less by Shot Values, Resistance to Scoring and Conditioning. Bethpage Black, on the other hand, has the highest relative score in Shot Values and Resistance to Scoring and the lowest relative score in Ambience.

For reference, here are the highest and lowest scoring courses for each category, not based on the absolute number (you can get that from the Golf Digest site), but based on the category score relative to the course's total score:

Shot Values: Highest - Bethpage Black; Lowest - The Quarry at La Quinta

Resistance to Scoring: Highest - Bethpage Black; Lowest - Cypress Point

Design Variety: Highest - Somerset Hills; Lowest - Baltusrol (Lower)

Memorability: Highest - Pebble Beach; Lowest - Aronomink

Aesthetics: Highest - Cypress Point; Lowest - Oakmont

Conditioning: Highest - The Quarry at La Quinta; Lowest - Pebble Beach

Ambiance: Highest - The Country Club; Lowest - Bethpage Black

I also like to juxtapose the various categories with each other and see which courses are relatively strong in one versus another. Many of the categories are highly correlated with each other (Memorability and Design Variety scores for the top 100 are .9397 correlated for instance). Below I just focus on the pairs that are least correlated, as it is bound to cause to most jarring differences between the two sets of courses. Resistance to Scoring and Conditioning are the two categories that are least correlated with other categories. They are also the least correlated with the overall score for the top 100 courses (perhaps they shouldn't be weighted as high as the others). In any case, most of lowest correlated pairs involved one of these categories.

The Golf Digest U.S. list does tend to create the most buzz and probably the most controversy of all the major publications. It is the only one that asks its panelists to follow a strict set of criteria to differentiate between good and great. When looking at the category pairs below, you may tend to think more courses on one side are over/underrated relative to the courses on the other side. That likely just means your personal, inherent weight for that category is more or less than the fixed weights that Golf Digest uses.

Design Variety	vs.	Conditioning (Correlation: .4433)
Fishers Island [10]	1	The Quarry at La Quinta [77]
Pebble Beach [7]	2	Diamond Creek Golf Club [94]
TPC Sawgrass (Players) [47]	3	Double Eagle [76]
Pacific Dunes [18]	4	Baltusrol (Lower) [41]
Cypress Point [3]	5	The Alotian Club [27]
Pete Dye Golf Club [53]	6	Aronimink [90]
Bethpage Black [43]	7	Eagle Point [89]
Maidstone Club [98]	8	Canyata [60]
Somerset Hills [73]	9	Baltusrol (Upper) [58]
Pine Valley [2]	10	Butler National [46]

Resistance to Scoring	vs.	Aesthetics (Correlation: .2781)
Bethpage Black [43]	1	Cypress Point [3]
Oak Tree National [51]	2	Fishers Island [10]
Hazeltine National [86]	3	Maidstone Club [98]
Butler National [46]	4	Monterey Peninsula (Shore) [67]
Oakmont C.C. [6]	5	The Quarry at La Quinta [77]
Winged Foot (West) [9]	6	Pebble Beach [7]
Inverness [69]	7	National Golf Links of America [8]
Oakland Hills (South) [17]	8	Valley Club of Montecito [83]
TPC Sawgrass (Players) [47]	9	Bandon Dunes [37]
Crooked Stick [93]	10	The Alotian Club [27]

Resistance to Scoring	vs.	Design Variety (Correlation: .5393)
Butler National [46]	1	Cypress Point [3]
French Lick (Dye) [96]	2	National Golf Links of America [8]
Hazeltine National [86]	3	Shoreacres [99]
Baltusrol (Lower) [41]	4	Fishers Island [10]
Aronimink [90]	5	Somerset Hills [73]
Pikewood National [44]	6	Valley Club of Montecito [83]
Winged Foot (West) [9]	7	Maidstone Club [98]
Bethpage Black [43]	8	Camargo Club [52]
The Ocean Course [20]	9	San Francisco [35]
Oak Tree National [51]	10	The Quarry at La Quinta [77]

Aesthetics	vs.	Conditioning (Correlation: .3908)
Pebble Beach [7]	1	Double Eagle [76]
Fishers Island [10]	2	Butler National [46]
Maidstone Club [98]	3	Baltusrol (Upper) [58]
Cypress Point [3]	4	Eagle Point [89]
Pacific Dunes [18]	5	Baltusrol (Lower) [41]
Bandon Dunes [37]	6	Oakmont C.C. [6]
Whistling Straits (Straits) [22]	7	Inverness [69]
The Ocean Course [20]	8	Aronimink [90]
Spyglass Hill [48]	9	Crooked Stick [93]
Arcadia Bluffs [65]	10	Hazeltine National [86]

Resistance to Scoring	vs.	Memorability (Correlation: .5062)
Hazeltine National [86]	1	Cypress Point [3]
Butler National [46]	2	Fishers Island [10]
Aronimink [90]	3	Maidstone Club [98]
Winged Foot (West) [9]	4	National Golf Links of America [8]
Oak Tree National [51]	5	Pebble Beach [7]
French Lick (Dye) [96]	6	Shoreacres [99]
Olympia Fields (North) [66]	7	Valley Club of Montecito [83]
Baltusrol (Lower) [41]	8	Monterey Peninsula (Shore) [67]
Bethpage Black [43]	9	Augusta National [1]
Inverness [69]	10	Camargo Club [52]

Resistance to Scoring	vs.	Conditioning (Correlation: .3862)
Bethpage Black [43]	1	The Quarry at La Quinta [77]
TPC Sawgrass (Players) [47]	2	Double Eagle [76]
Spyglass Hill [48]	3	Shoreacres [99]
The Ocean Course [20]	4	Camargo Club [52]
Winged Foot (West) [9]	5	Canyata [60]
Oak Tree National [51]	6	Kinloch [56]
Medinah No. 3 [39]	7	Diamond Creek Golf Club [94]
Whistling Straits (Straits) [22]	8	The Alotian Club [27]
Victoria National [45]	9	The Estancia Club [70]
The Olympic Club (Lake) [33]	10	Interlachen [57]

Resistance to Scoring	vs.	Ambience (Correlation: .3923)
Bethpage Black [43]	1	Valley Club of Montecito [83]
Oak Tree National [51]	2	Cypress Point [3]
French Lick (Dye) [96]	3	Maidstone Club [98]
Victoria National [45]	4	Shoreacres [99]
Pikewood National [44]	5	Fishers Island [10]
Spyglass Hill [48]	6	National Golf Links of America [8]
Hazeltine National [86]	7	Garden City [49]
Pete Dye Golf Club [53]	8	San Francisco [35]
Butler National [46]	9	Interlachen [57]
The Ocean Course [20]	10	The Country Club [19]

Conditioning	vs.	Ambience (Correlation: .5653)
The Quarry at La Quinta [77]	1	Fishers Island [10]
Double Eagle [76]	2	Maidstone Club [98]
Canyata [60]	3	The Country Club [19]
Pikewood National [44]	4	Pebble Beach [7]
French Lick (Dye) [96]	5	Pacific Dunes [18]
Diamond Creek Golf Club [94]	6	Bandon Dunes [37]
Eagle Point [89]	7	Cypress Point [3]
Mountaintop [78]	8	Valley Club of Montecito [83]
Butler National [46]	9	Yeamans Hall [64]
Dallas National [61]	10	Merion (East) [5]

Shot Values	vs.	Conditioning (Correlation: .5090)
Bethpage Black [43]	1	The Quarry at La Quinta [77]
Pebble Beach [7]	2	Double Eagle [76]
Medinah No. 3 [39]	3	Diamond Creek Golf Club [94]
TPC Sawgrass (Players) [47]	4	Canyata [60]
Fishers Island [10]	5	The Alotian Club [27]
Pacific Dunes [18]	6	Eagle Point [89]
Whistling Straits (Straits) [22]	7	Kinloch [56]
Merion (East) [5]	8	The Preserve [87]
Spyglass Hill [48]	9	Flint Hills [85]
Ballyneal [54]	10	Baltusrol (Upper) [58]

Memorability	vs.	Conditioning (Correlation: .4146)
Pebble Beach [7]	1	Double Eagle [76]
Fishers Island [10]	2	Eagle Point [89]
Cypress Point [3]	3	Diamond Creek Golf Club [94]
Maidstone Club [98]	4	The Quarry at La Quinta [77]
TPC Sawgrass (Players) [47]	5	Aronimink [90]
Pacific Dunes [18]	6	Baltusrol (Upper) [58]
Bandon Dunes [37]	7	Baltusrol (Lower) [41]
Whistling Straits (Straits) [22]	8	Butler National [46]
Bethpage Black [43]	9	Canyata [60]
Pine Valley [2]	10	Kinloch [56]

Resistance to Scoring + Conditioning

	vs.	All Other Categories (Correlation: .66)
Butler National [46]	1	Fishers Island [10]
French Lick (Dye) [96]	2	Cypress Point [3]
Hazeltine National [86]	3	Maidstone Club [98]
Baltusrol (Lower) [41]	4	Pebble Beach [7]
Double Eagle [76]	5	National Golf Links of America [8]
Pikewood National [44]	6	Pacific Dunes [18]
Aronimink [90]	7	Bandon Dunes [37]
Eagle Point [89]	8	Valley Club of Montecito [83]
Oak Tree National [51]	9	Somerset Hills [73]
Diamond Creek Golf Club [94]	10	Ballyneal [54]

There are 24 courses on the Golf Digest list that are not on Golf Magazine's Top 100 list:

27 The Alotian Club

40 Castle Pines

44 Pikewood National

45 Victoria National

46 Butler National

51 Oak Tree National

53 Pete Dye Golf Club

56 Kinloch

60 Canyata

61 Dallas National

63 The Club at Black Rock

65 Arcadia Bluffs

70 The Estancia Club

77 The Quarry at La Quinta

78 Mountaintop

81 Rich Harvest Links

85 Flint Hills

87 The Preserve

89 Eagle Point

92 Laurel Valley

94 Diamond Creek Golf Club

95 Hudson National

96 French Lick (Dye)

97 Valhalla

And, of course, 24 courses on the Golf Magazine list but not on the Golf Digest list:

42 Harbour Town

53 Pasatiempo

55 Nanea

57 Newport

58 Cal Club

62 Streamsong Blue

63 East Lake

64 Chambers Bay

70 Yale

72 Forest Dunes

73 Piping Rock

78 Eastward Ho!

79 Trump Bedminster (Old)

83 Bel-Air

84 Ridgewood

86 Colonial

87 Desert Forest

88 Fox Chapel

90 Myopia Hunt

94 Baltimore (Five Farms)

95 CC of Fairfield

97 Bellerive

98 Torrey Pines (South)

99 Caves Valley

Still Dreamin'

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Dec 2014 04:05:00 +0000

What's that saying about the monkeys and the typewriters? Here are the starting phases for my latest conceptual golf course routing. This one again is in Wisconsin. Stay tuned as it starts to take form...

Routing, as of 12/30/2014

Routing, as of 12/28/2014

Initial Routing, as of 12/24/2014

Other conceptual course designs:

- A concept for Sand Valley #3 (April 2014)

- A concept for Ballyneal #2 (April 2014)

- Armchair Contest Entry #3 (May 2013): Husker Dunes

- Armchair Contest Entry #2 (May 2010): Ballyneo

- Armchair Contest Entry #1 (March 2009): Ballysnoop

Sand Valley Timeline

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:11:00 +0000

The KD's: My 2014 Hundred Hole Hike

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 03:45:00 +0000

I'm going to let you in on a little secret.

I turned 40 last fall and suddenly turned into a giant sap. It's like somebody flipped the switch to my waterworks "on" position, then the lever broke. I'm like Kevin Durant trying to give his MVP acceptance speech a couple months ago. Has anyone else experienced this?

With that in mind, it should be no surprise that as I walked down the 18th fairway of Ballyneal on Monday June 23rd, my 144th hole of the day, tears were rolling down my face. There was a lot that went into that moment, it is hard to really explain it adequately. But it was a moment for sure; the culmination of a lot of little things that led to a tidal wave to the tear ducts.

To keep this from being the single most depressing golf blog post ever, I'll keep it light by announcing the winners of the inaugural KD awards, awarded to the real MVP's of my 2014 Hundred Hole Hike.

The KD for Best Use of Neoprene goes to...my Mueller ankle brace.

Truth be told, about a month ago I seriously considered backing out from my Hundred Hole Hike.

As fun and memorable last year's four hikes in 2 1/2 weeks were, I underestimated the toll that it would take on my body. What started as some mild pain in my left ankle during the first hike at Pinehurst gradually got worse by the end of the St Andrews hike 550 holes later. I figured I would just bounce back, but it just never got any better over the off-season. Combine that with an awful winter in Chicago and increased hours and stress at work, I lost the motivation and the time to stay in shape. It created a vicious cycle for my ankle. I climbed up stairs like I had a peg-leg. If I did anything remotely active like shoot around or play catch with my kids, I'd pay for it the next day. I'd been reasonably healthy, active and athletic for my entire life. Then I turned 40 and everything went to hell in a hand-basket. Emotionally and physically, I was collapsing faster than Tiger Woods's chase for Jack's 18 majors.

To make things worse, my golf game went along for the ride. The awful spring meant virtually no opportunities to get back into a groove. I played in a fourball event in mid-May as a part of a pre-HHH tune-up and was quite literally the worst golfer in the 32-man field. I am fairly certain that our team would've scored more points if I had just caddied for my partner, because my only tangible contribution was reading his critical putts. I was playing dial-a-swing thought, trying to find something to hold on to. Every once in a while, it would work. Then the next swing with the same thought would go 80+ yards offline. Frankly, it was pretty embarrassing and, limping around, not a whole lot of fun. The prospect of stepping up to the tee box 150+ times and having no earthly idea where the ball was going to go did not seem very inviting. And even if I could hit the ball like Martin Kaymer, there was uncertainty whether I could physically walk that many holes in a day.

The only hope I had of making it 100+ holes in a day was with this black Mueller ankle brace that I bought prior to the Pinehurst hike last year. It was with me for all 550 holes last year and was a constant companion on my night stand during the offseason. I even consider sleeping with it on but never went quite that far. By now, it's a bit stretched out and loose, so it's hard to tell what good it does beyond a placebo effect and creating weird, uneven tan lines between legs. But without that added support, there's no way I would've even attempted 100. For helping me get to 144, Mueller Ankle brace...

KD for Most Valuable First Time Hiker...Matt Payne

My good friend Matt Payne left his post as head pro/GM of Ballyneal last winter for a similar post at True North in Harbor Springs, Michigan (yes, I cried when he told me). Matt has helped me tremendously and has been instrumental in making HHH what it is today. First of all, he was supportive of letting me essentially have the course for the Ben Cox 155 and the first two hikes at Ballyneal in 2012 & 2013. There is a reason we call Ballyneal the home of the Hundred Hole Hike, and that's largely because of Matt's early support. Additionally, Matt caddied for 108 holes in the Ben Cox marathon and came to my rescue in 2012, caddying the final 20 holes when temperatures reached 108 degrees and I wasn't sure if I could make it. I was thrilled when Matt wanted to hike at True North for the Michael J Fox Foundation to honor a friend with Parkinson's.

As sad I was that Matt left Ballyneal, I was happy to have him relatively close in Northern Michigan. A couple of weeks prior to the hike, when I was really uncertain about my ankle and my ability to do 100 holes, I spotted a cheap fare to Traverse City and put together an improptu golf weekend. It was really going to be the test of my game and my legs.

Getting "Enghy" with Matt at True North was great fun, even if we did get "Stephen Ames'd" in a fourball match (our ground games did not translate well there). More importantly, we realized that we were both were entering our respective hikes with the same mindset we had back in 2011 -- with no real idea how many holes we could play and whether 100 holes was even possible. That uncertainty was in some ways refreshing. I left Michigan after three days with a renewed energy and optimism to simply do the best I could. For that, Matt...

The KD for Most Valuable Nine-Hole Hiker in a Cart...Ben Cox

I knew this summer's hike would be extra special for two reasons: my family would be there and Ben Cox would be back hiking again. Ben played 7 1/2 holes of the front nine back in 2012. This year, he was determined to finish all 9 holes of the back nine.

Ben hiked on Sunday morning, the day before our main event. At dinner the night before, he talked about his hike preparation, equipment changes and swing thoughts, just like any other golfer anxious before a big round. He asked about my ankle -- I tried to downplay it, but he sensed it was an issue. He offered up some encouragement, saying, "a chiropractor told me, 'pain is in the brain'". After spending time with Ben and being reminded of his passion for life, his faith, his wife Steph and the passion that still burns for golf, there was no way I was going to fall short of 100 on Monday. Ben had been through far worse than a little ankle pain and was still chugging along, in many ways better than ever.

Of course, Ben killed it during his HHH on Sunday. I think he was determined to show off for his wife by draining some long-range putts. Here is a great pic of Ben ripping his first drive of the day.

For your encouragement and inspiration, Ben...

The KD for Most Valuable Hiker Dad...Kenneth Cox

I can't mention Ben without mentioning his Dad Ken. These two are like Frick and Frack.

The set-up process for each and every one of Ben's shots in his adaptive care is a lengthy one. Ken served as his caddie and swing guru, dutifully setting him up for each shot.

You really need to watch this video in its entirety to start to get an appreciation for what is involved in getting Ben set-up. Then multiply that by 50-60+ times to get a sense of what is involved for Ben to hike nine holes.

I wrote about this at length back in 2011 in what is probably my favorite blog post (see here: http://www.wegoblogger31.com/2011/06/fathers-love.html). I actually read it every Father's Day just to remind myself how far I have to go. There is patience that you and I deal with on a daily basis and there is next-level patience that only comes out of true love and a special bond between father and son.

For showing us the difference time and time again...

(And for giving us the photo of the year...)

The KD for Most Valuable Non-Hiking Lefty...the previous owner of my Mizuno MP-54 Irons

Possibly the only silver lining about being a struggling golfer is that you can always blame the arrow and not the Indian. Why actually work on your game when you can just buy a new one?

I had reached that stage of desperation leading up the hike and was eyeing some new irons. It's tough being a lefty and finding/trying golf equipment. I usually only buy used clubs to avoid making an expensive mistake.

I was eyeing some used Titleist AP-2 irons that seemed almost too-good-to-be-true easy to hit. A Father's Day family outing to the golf store (yes, this is what we do on Father's Day and my birthday) led me back to the used club section. Lo and behold, the Titleist irons were still there AND all used clubs were 25% off.

I was all set to buy them when I spied another set of lefty clubs out of the corner of my eye. They were leaning against the rack instead of on it, so I flipped one over to see what kind of club it was. Mizuno MP-54! The one set of clubs I would buy if I going to buy new. My buddy Tom and I drooled over these things at the PGA show back in January. I can't even describe to you how random finding these clubs at that store at that moment was (there are only two sets of these on eBay right now). And better yet, they were $150 cheaper than the Titleist irons.

I'm happy to report that although many parts of my game were erratic during the hike (my scores were all over the map: 82-89-75-80-92-86-83-80, with 10 birdies), my iron game was consistently strong. My lower scores towards the end of the hike were a result of abandoning the driver for the most part and simply hitting four-iron where possible. Hmmm...something to be said for that.

So for giving these up for adoption, unknown left-handed west suburban golfer...

The KD for Most Valuable Caddies...Deyten, Olivia, Xander, Brad, Tito and Jesus

I discovered early on that one way to get this out-of-shape lug around the course a little quicker is by employing two caddies at the same time. One carries that irons, forecaddies and yells out yardages. The other carries the two wedges, putter and driver or club needed for the next tee. With only 8 clubs split between two people, I don't bring a golf bag. It's an interesting sight having a caddie entourage follow you around for some mediocre golf. And though it's not essential, given how wild I am off the tee, having someone locate my drives before I get there is a big time saver. Kudos to each for going multiple rounds, especially Dayten for being there at 4:40 AM for the first shot.

For keeping me pointed in the right direct and sane at the same time...

The KD for Most Valuable Pledgers...Ross, Matt B, Alan, Jaeger, Todd, Ben, Frank, Gary, Neil, Chris, Jeff, David, Bill M, Jake, James, Geoff, Norm, Jerry, Nick, Teddy, Matt S, Kevin, Shane, Scott, Rob, Howard, Bill S and George

Thank you for your support and partnership in this journey. I would've liked to have made it to 155 holes and would've really like to have made a few more birdies and a couple of eagles, but I did the best that I could. Together, we raised over $11,000 for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy and the Evans Scholars Foundation. That is going to have a real impact on giving kids opportunities that may never have had that chance. All through our shared passion for this great game, a lot of miles and a bunch of three-putts.

For anybody who wonders what it is like to play and walk 100 or more holes in a day, I've found it to be a Molotov cocktail of the power of adrenaline, perseverance, prayer, physical challenge and fear of failure with a lot of golf in between. The pledges are the fuel that keeps you going, knowing that every hole means money for a good cause.

For being that fuel, fellas...

[Note: this award is open-ended and has plenty of room to engrave more names. If you want to add your name to list, there is still time to pledge your support. Just follow the link below or click on the 'Pledge Thru Me' button on my HHH profile page: http://www.hundredholehike.com/golfers/jim-colton]

The KD for Best Fanbase...my family

As I mentioned, this year's hike was extra special because my wife and kids were out there with me for the first time. Hundred Hole Hike has become a big part of our family life, often the focus of our dinner-time conversations and night-time prayers. I'm very much a work in progress as a husband and father, but I think discovering HHH as a vehicle to use my passion for the game as a way to help people has been a life-changing event.

Though they didn't really play an active role during the hike, the kids managed to show up at just the right moment to offer encouragement. "Dad!" I hear from a distance and see these kids bounding towards me to give me a big hug. They asked how many holes I had played or how many more I had to go.

As I was on the back nine of my 6th round, I received a text from my wife Sue. "We are headed out on hole 1". I was excited because this meant that I'd probably run into them on the golf course, by my estimate the 3rd or 4th hole of the next round.

About 35 minutes later, I hit a 6-iron down the left side of the first fairway to start my seventh round. As I reached the fairway, I noticed a foursome of golfers in the far right side of the fairway -- it was Sue and the kids! In 35 minutes, they had played 1/2 a hole.

"Dad!" I can replay the sound of those voices over and over in my head. You fathers surely know what I'm talking about.

"You are literally the sixth group to play through us on this hole," Sue mentioned.

After a day of playing a golf hole literally every five minutes, I stopped to smell the roses for a bit. Instead of just playing through, I played the 109th hole of the day as a fivesome at a snail's pace. It was the highlight of the day, by far.

One thing that I haven't mentioned yet is the weather was absolutely perfect all day. Quite possibly the nicest day of golf I've ever experienced at Ballyneal. What a God send! It was 78 degrees, blue skies and very little wind. The perfect day for walking 40-50 miles. With the weather, a good early pace, no blisters (thanks Kentwool!) and an ankle that was holding up, I started pacing myself. I had 155 in my sights the entire time, but was really just trying to finish up by 8:30 PM. It allowed for the little siesta with the family on the first hole.

What I had taken for granted was just how quickly the weather can change in the Chop Hills. As I reached the back nine of round 8, the sky turned ominous and storm clouds were brewing just south of the golf course. A laser-light show was going on just past the 13th green as we got there.

I had a decision to make. I had played 155 holes in each of the first three marathons. It was looking like that wasn't going to happen this year. I feared mostly for my caddies. I contemplated dropping them after round 8 and finishing the last 11 by myself, with most of the front nine further north of where the storm clouds were. Finally after reaching the 16th green in the far southeast corner of the property, I realized the storm was too close for comfort. I called in to Sue and told the caddies that we'd be stopping at 144 holes.

One funny thing about the hike is that each hole becomes a bit of a story in and of itself. It's like a 8- round boxing match. There's an ebb and flow to each hole as you reach it, remembering what you had done up to that point, trying to repeat past successes and avoid past pitfalls. Case in point, during the course of the day I had hit six excellent shots on the par 3 15th hole. I even hit the flagstick during one of the early rounds. I had a 8-15 foot putt on similar lines just past the hole nearly every round, and every single time I misread the putt. Every time it defied the laws of physics and broke back right near the hole. Every time I chastised myself for not getting it right.

So finally on the 15th hole of Round 8, I knew it was my last shot and was determined to make a birdie. I put a great swing on the ball, reach the green and saw it was four feet behind the hole and rammed it in the cup. Vengeance!

Even sweeter, fellow hiker Bill Straub tweeted a special bonus pledge of $50 per birdie during the 8th round. I responded by playing some of my best golf of the day, birdieing the 2nd hole (a rare event) and narrowly missing one on the 3rd. I followed the birdie on the 15th with another on the 16th. Suddenly I was only 4-over par. I even hit two good shots on the brutal 17th hole but made a dumb bogey (after hitting the green in the first round and making a special pledge based on the 17th-hole greens-in-regulation, I didn't come within 120 yards of a GIR for the rest of the day until barely air-mailing the green in Round 8).

The 18th hole was one 8 round fight where Ballyneal was Mike Tyson and I was Glass Joe. I blocked my drive into the junk left in six of the first rounds, duck hooked into the junk right in the other one. Knowing this was my last hole of the day, I dusted off the driver one last time and gave myself a pep talk, "Cmon, just one good swing." And by some miracle, it actually worked. I gave out a primal scream as the ball soared down the left side of the fairway. Let's par this sucker, record a 76 and call it a day.

In the fading light, I could see people walking down towards the green in the distance. Sue, the kids, one of the other hiker's family and a couple hikers were there to greet me and the other hikers who were wrapping up right behind me.

"Yeah Dad!"

I was floored. That's when the wave of emotions hit me. Walking up the fairway, I thought about how this almost didn't happen. I thought about about the brain HAD conquered the pain. I thought about how this little grassroots golf marathon idea has raised $1.4 million in four years and has made a real impact on people in need. Most of all, I thought about the hug I was about to get from three rugrats and the kiss from one beautiful, supportive woman.

But first, I have to hit this shot on the green, two putt and get out of there. Or skull it into the face of the front bunker, chip over the green into the thick junk, advance the ball a foot, hit the next shot two feet swinging right-handed, chip up and make a snowman. Take a guess which happened. I found out the hard way, it's hard to hit a golf shot when you're crying.

But in the end, it didn't really matter. The reward was the same...

For pushing me to want to do better and be better every day...

I came away from this Hike with a real sense of accomplishment and a renewed sense of energy. I am firmly committed to blowing the doors off in 2015 and making it the best year in Hundred Hole Hike history. In some sense, I want to see how much more growth we can handle, find the "right" number of fellow hikers, turn over every stone in our collective golf and media network and try to reach as many people as possible. And I'm going to find out what's up with my ankle and get it right during the upcoming offseason.

There's no way I can manage this alone, so it will likely require finding an efficient way to split up some of the duties. I hope that you can find a way to help make next year's hike a smash success.

[Please consider pledging your support to my Hundred Hole Hike for the Solich Caddie & Leadership and the Evans Scholars Foundation. Both are worthwhile causes that provide opportunities for young people through caddying. 100% of your pledges go to these organizations and you can choose to give to one or the other or split amongst the two.

You can pledge by clicking on the 'Pledge Thru Me' button on my Hundred Hole Hike profile page here: http://www.hundredholehike.com/golfers/jim-colton]

#Hackgolf: My idea for growing the game

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 08 May 2014 06:35:00 +0000

At the PGA Show in January, I attended the unveiling of TaylorMade's #HACKGOLF initiative focused on growing the game. Admittedly, I was initially skeptical about TaylorMade's apparent sudden streak of altruism. From this outsider's perspective, for years it seemed that golf's shrinking pie wasn't much of a concern to the TMAG CEO Mark King, as long as his piece of that pie kept growing at the expense of other manufacturers. Eventually TaylorMade must've realized that wasn't a sustainable long-run business strategy. Eventually, they'd have to focus on growing the size of the pie.

Almost four months later, and @HackGolf has about 2,600 followers and its website has 1,400 ideas submitted on its hackgolf.org website (which I looked at for the first time just now and it does look pretty slick). I'm not sure what Mark King's expectations were but those numbers seem low to me.

It seems that the ideas were currently running with are the 15-inch golf hole and the soccer/golf mash-up Footgolf. Although I'm pretty far down the purist spectrum, I'm not really opposed to either idea. However, one thing that has been eating at me lately is this: how in the world did they settle on 15-inches as the right number? That just seems absurdly big to me, to the extent that it would actually do a disservice to chip-in's, hole-out's and even aces. My 12-year old son who has played less than 10 rounds of golf in his life and could not break 130 would have a hole-in-one if he had played on a 15-inch cup. But is that really a good thing, or does it cheapen the accomplishment? (as my kids have entered the youth sports stage, I'm growing more and more frustrated with watered-down accomplishments. What I call the Lowest Common Denomi-nation.) What if he had hit a perfect shot that would've been an ace on a regulation hole, only to be downgraded to golf's equivalent to shooting fish in a barrel?

Playing with my kids, I can see the merit in a larger golf hole. One of the most frustrating things as a kid (and sometimes as a parent) is that they often zig-zag the golf hole when putting because they can't get any putt started on-line. Often times they zip the ball past the cup and wind up further away then when they started. The margin of error is just too thin for beginning golfers on four and five footers. I've seen my kids have a reasonable chance at an elusive par, only to 11-putt from less than 20 feet. This usually leads to frustration. Sometimes it leads to tears. A 15-inch hole definitely solves this problem. But I would argue that a 6-inch hole might very well be good enough.

So while these outside-the-box ideas might make a dent, my take is the basics of the game don't have to change in order to save golf. Part of the appeal of golf is the size of the hole seems just about perfect to me. I happen to like putting. I happen to be pretty good at it. There is a sense of accomplishment when correctly reading a 20-footer and demoralizing your opponent at the same time. If anything, slowing the greens down, introducing some contours into the greens and make putting fun as opposed to terrifying might just do the trick (see Bob Carney's take on golfwrx.com).

But I digress. Instead of focusing on the size of the golf hole, I wanted to revisit my initial reaction to the #HACKGOLF launch:

#hackgolf The game has shrunk because carts wiped out a generation of future die-hards. Need to support young caddie programs. @hackgolforg
— J Colton (@jcolton31) January 22, 2014

Four months later, my stance hasn't changed. I caddied one summer at St. Charles Country Club outside of Chicago. My love of the game was cemented on Monday mornings that year. Many of my best golfing friends were introduced to the game in the same way. Some of these guys didn't have parents who played and never would've been exposed to the game otherwise.

More subtly and perhaps more importantly, caddying at a private club exposed me to a world that I was completely unfamiliar with. St. Charles CC was by far the nicest place I had ever set foot on in my life. Suddenly, I was faced with having to interact and have semi-intelligent conversation with successful adults on a regular basis. Some of that must've had an impact on me. That last point is probably even more important today, considering a 13-year old kid could go a whole week without making eye contact with anybody.

The truth was, I was a miserable caddy. I was hooked on playing the game to such an extreme that watching others play golf for four hours was torture. Especially getting up at 5:30 AM to do it. I only lasted one summer, but I was hooked with the game for life. But I can look back at caddying that summer and say it was a life-altering experience that in many ways shaped who I am today.

Over the past two years, I had been thinking quite a bit about how to grow the game and wondering if there was a way to use my One Divot charity to support these growth efforts. Last winter, we sponsored an auction fundraiser and raised over $18,000 for the Midnight Golf program in Detroit. I continue to seek out those types of opportunities to partner with junior golf programs. Personally, I am also looking to start a junior golf club at the middle school in town, something that received an enthusiastic response from the faculty members that I brought the idea to. Hopefully we can get that up and running next fall.

Still, the majority of my recent grow the game thoughts have centered on the caddies. If the rise of carts and the decline of caddies is a root cause of the decline of the game, is there a way to reverse that trend? Is the horse already out of the proverbial cart barn (sorry)? Are U.S. golfers so far gone the proverbial cart path (last time, I swear) that there's no turning back? Are courses today so overwatered and expensive to maintain that they absolutely need the cart revenue to survive? Is anybody in the golf industry willing to invest in an initiative that might take 15 years before it starts paying off?

I am fortunate to live in Chicago, the epicenter of caddie golf in the U.S. Thanks to the work of the Western Golf Association and the Evans Scholarship Foundation, the caddie-club culture is still going strong here. I was thrilled to do my four Hundred Hole Hikes last summer for both the Evans Scholars here and the Solich Caddie and Leadership Academy in Denver last year, and I'm planning to hike for the same two causes again this summer (see http://hundredholehike.com/golfers/jim-colton for more information).

Last summer, I got to spend some time with members of the WGA and meet some prospective Evans Scholars at Cantigny Golf Course in my hometown. I got to see the great work that the WGA is doing and how it is literally changing the lives of those who get the scholarship. I knew I wanted to hike for the Evans Scholarship and help in any way that I could.

There was one other thought that I came away with that day: what about the caddies that don't get the Evans Scholarships? What happens to them?

That might seems like a negative take on the WGA, but I don't intend it to be. They have limited spots and go through a rigorous process to select the most deserving candidates. I'm sure there are young men and women that they agonize over having to turn down. I couldn't help but think about the kid whose only real hopes for college were pinned to getting the Evans Scholarship. What if he or she felt short? Was there a way to help someone like that, or more generally, help caddies save money for college?

That is when I landed on my idea for #hackgolf: Caddie529

As its name suggests, Caddie529 would be a 529 college savings plan geared for caddies. Essentially, it is a way for caddies to decide to set aside a portion of their caddie fees to go directly into a 529 savings plan. A few key points:

- For the caddie, it is a public declaration that the he or she is serious about investing the future.

- Golfers/members can request a "529" caddie for loops and know that they are likely getting someone who is responsible and committed, as well as knowing that some or all of the fee that they are paying will go directly into a college savings fund. Maybe knowing the money is going to a good cause leads a golfer to try walking with a caddie instead of automatically taking a cart. Maybe that golfer realizes that he can, in fact, walk 18 holes and enjoy it. Anything that could lead to more golfers walking is a plus in my book.

- The program would have to start at the club level -- club's could differentiate their caddie programs and attract responsible young caddies by being a part of the caddie529 network.

- Some percentage of funds set aside by the caddies would ideally by matched by the caddie's home club, One Divot and corporate sponsors, offering return on investment right off the bat. The club could set aside a fundraising day geared towards raising money for matching funds for its caddies -- either a Hundred Hole Hike, charity outing, auction, or other fundraising method. 100% of the money raised by a given club would be distributed to its caddies. Centrally-raised funds would be distributed to all caddies on a pro-rata basis.

- The program would not compete with the Evans Scholars, as someone who is awarded an Evans Scholars could use funds for a 5th year in college or for graduate school studies. 529 funds can also be transferred to other beneficiaries.

- One key aspect of 529 plans is they can be used for a wide range of post high-school education programs, such as trade schools or technical schools. Similarly, Caddie529 could be used by anyone looking to invest in his or her future.

- I'm a firm believer in a good logo. This is what I scratched together -- the 5,2,9 is meant to represent the look of blade irons as a caddy is presenting them to his golfer (though no caddie worth his salt would have those three clubs next to each other). The caddie part would look like that old cursive script you'd see stamped on irons from the 60's and 70's.

- Is it caddie529 or caddy529?

One big draw that I see with caddying is that it offers one of the earliest opportunities for young people to work, with most starting at or around 13 years of age. With respect to college savings, obviously the earlier someone starts the better. Hopefully families are already saving for their kid's education, but for some caddie529 participants, it could be their first foray into investing and financial management. There would seem to be a good opportunity to partner with organizations or financial institutions to teach these young men and women about financial literacy.

If the club and corporate matches are significant, I could envision a big push (perhaps by parents, but that's okay) into caddying as an employment option. Some portion of those new caddies are going to fall in love with the game. Some may be future members of the clubs that they caddie at. Hopefully clubs can take the long-view and get behind this concept.

The idea is admittedly still in its infancy and there are questions about how it would work logistically and how to structure it in order to take advantage of the tax benefits already inherent with 529 plans. I honestly do not have the expertise or the resources to take this idea to the next level. One aspect of the #hackgolf initiative that I did enjoy is the open-source format of it. Instead of sitting on this idea and trying to find time to make progress on it, I'm hoping that brainstorming about it here might lead to someone running with the idea and bringing it to fruition. I'm happy to discuss any thoughts on this idea -- you can comment below or reach me at jim@onedivot.org to discuss further.

Dream Another Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Apr 2014 05:58:00 +0000

Final routing, 8/21 Update

12/3 Update: David McLay Kidd was selected to design the second course at Sand Valley. The northern section of his course cuts across the middle of my propose routing.

Routing 2.0, 4/29 Update

Original Routing 4/26

More Google Earth fun...this course is in Wisconsin.

A few digital images...

1st Hole, Par 4

3rd Hole, Par 4

5th Hole, Par 5

6th Hole, Par 4

7th Hole, Par 4

8th Hole, Par 3

12th Hole, Par 4

13th Hole, Par 3

14th Hole, Par 4

16th Hole, Par 3

17th Hole, Par 4

18th Hole, Par 5

Dream a Little Dream: A Second Golf Course at Ballyneal

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 04:27:00 +0000

It has been one long, long winter in Chicago. Usually the Masters signals the unofficial kick-off to the golf season in Illinois. This year...not so much. Snow on April 14th and 15th. Lovely.

Despite a relatively lackluster Masters tournament this year, the juices were still flowing. What does a golf addict do when it's too cold to play outside? Work out? Maybe tomorrow. Post on golfclubatlas? Lurking gets old fast. How about scoring Google Earth for hypothetical golf holes? Bingo!

Over the course of the last year, I've been enamored with a plot of land in the Chop Hills south of Ballyneal. Over the summer, I carved out a little test plot, created a crude topo map and tried to find some golf holes. I slapped something together (see below), but ended up reaching a dead end. I felt that I had to go scour the actual land to get a better feel for the size of the hills and what was golfable land vs. too choppy to be of much use.

So early one morning last May, I borrowed my buddy Brandon's car, drove a couple miles south of the Ballyneal gate, turned off on a sandy road, realized I was in the wrong spot, tried to turn around and...like I mentioned last year, five minutes into my design career and it was over before it even started.

Any time I get the design bug, Brandon is quick to remind me what happened last time. This past week, in an act of golf desperation, I took a fresh look at putting together another 18 holes at Ballyneal. Armed with some better topo information, I quickly realized that a lot of what I put on paper last time wouldn't work. It was back to the drawing board for at least two-thirds of the course.

As silly as it sounds, routing a hypothetical golf course is tough! It can be an all-encompassing exercise. I couldn't sleep. I stared at a small version of the topo on my phone until I got too frustrated that you couldn't zoom in past a certain point, borrowed my wife's iPad and stared at it for hours on end. Somehow I managed a work trip to New York and coherently presented to bank regulators. On the plane, I used a sketch app to draw lots of criss-crossing lines representing potential routing options.

Eventually, I landed on something. Originally I purposely staked out land that avoided a proposed course that Bruce Hepner did for Ballyneal a few years back. I envisioned my course as a third course for the club. However, as I started to think about different options, I gravitated towards using a combination of holes between my original routing and Bruce's proposed routing. With his blessing, I started exploring that as a viable options. Then the pieces started to come together. In the version below, holes 4-11 are from Bruce's routing.

Counting golf club atlas design contests, this is the fourth full course that I've tried to route on paper (I'm sure it shows). I highly recommend any golf course architect fan to give it a shot, because through the process you'll gain a heightened respect for the guys who actually do it for a living (and think about other things like water, costs, environmental concerns, construction, etc). At a minimum, you'll get a glimpse at some of the trade-offs involved when trying to piece together a 18-hole golf course. There's been a lot of talk about golf course architecture "ideals" lately, and you won't get very far until you're faced with making a compromise. For example, in the latest iteration of the routing below, I ended up scrapping a potential par 5 that would've been the best hole on the property. I just couldn't get to that spot and finish with 18 holes or without making a sacrifice somewhere else. I'll keep thinking on that one, for sure, as well as making other changes to the course over time.

So below is where I'm at right now. Over time, I'll add to this post hole-by-hole details and any iterative changes. Feel free to reach out to me with feedback or suggestions. In the meantime, does anybody have a few million dollars to spare?

UPDATE: A new addition to the property. Introducing Cattle Ranch: the 7-hole, multiple configuration golf course with an 18-hole putting course.

5/4 Update: Made changes to the 6th and 14th Holes

1st Hole, 406 Yd Par 4

1st Hole

2nd Hole, 588 Yd Par 5

2nd Hole

3rd Hole, 367 Yd Par 4

3rd Hole

4th Hole, Actual Land

4th Hole, 225 Yd Par 3

5th Hole, 465 Yd Par 4

5th Hole Approach, Actual Land

5th Hole, Approach

5th Hole

6th Hole, 562 Yd Par 5

7th Hole, 140 Yd Par 3

7th Hole

8th Hole, 445 Yd Par 4

9th Hole, 406 Yd Par 4

10th Hole, 575 Yd Par 5

11th Hole, Actual Land

11th Hole, 191 Yd Par 3

12th Hole, 380 Yd Par 4

12th Hole

13th Hole, 362 Yd Par 4

13th Hole

14th Hole, 470 Yd Par 4

15th Hole, 225 Yd Par 3

15th Hole

16th Hole, 434 Yd Par 4

16th Hole, Looking back

16th Hole

17th Hole, 587 Yd Par 5

17th Hole

18th Hole, 505 Yd Par 4

18th Hole

Food for Thought: Would this be the best 18 hole golf course in the world?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 30 Mar 2014 14:35:00 +0000

There's been some interesting and sometimes heated debate on golfclubatlas.com about the whether a golf course needs to finish where it started. One recent example of this "open-jaw" routing is the Red Course at Dismal River, a Tom Doak-design that opened last year.

That led me to wonder if some of the top courses in the world could be improved if they didn't have returning nines or didn't finish close to where you started. It didn't take long for my head to hurt. But one thing I did land on...could you come up with a composite course at Bandon Dunes that made sense from a routing standpoint and maximize on some of the best holes at the resort.

Below is what I've come up with? It uses two holes at Old Macdonald, twelve holes at Pacific Dunes and four holes at Bandon Dunes. It starts on the 6th hole at Old Macdonald and finishes with the glorious 13th at Pacific Dunes. There seems to be good variety, pacing and moves back and forth to the ocean throughout the round. There are six par 4's in the middle of the round. The routing seems perfectly walkable with few awkward transitions.

1: 6th at Old Mac (5)
2: 7th at OM (4)
3: 14th at Pacific Dunes (3)
4: 15th at PD (5)
5: 16th at PD (4)
6: 2nd at PD (4)
7: 7th at PD (4)
8: 8th at Bandon Dunes (4)
9: 4th at BD (4)
10: 5th at BD (4)
11: 6th at BD (3)
12: 11th at PD (3)
13: 12th at PD (5)
14: 4th at PD (4)
15: 5th at PD (3)
16: 6th at PD (4)
17: 3rd at PD (5)
18: 13th at PD (4)

Might this be the best 18 hole golf course in the world? Discuss.

Characters: Hundred Hole Hike featured in Links Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 17:38:00 +0000

Hundred Hole Hike was featured in the Spring 2014 issue of Links Magazine. Jeff Neumann did a nice job describing the history and the motivating factors behind our little charitable golf event. Above is the picture of me in my den that ran in the magazine.

The online version can be found here: http://www.linksmagazine.com/best_of_golf/characters-jim-colton

The Hundred Hole Hike is well underway and we are looking for more golfer, more venues and more charitable causes to support. If you'd like to join the army of hikers this summer to raise money for a charity of your choice, please contact me at jim@onedivot.org.

To read more about my four-pronged HHH adventure last year at some of the best golf venues on the planet, please check out the following:

More Hundred Hole Hike:
Part One: Pinehurst
Part Two: Ballyneal
Part Three: Cabot Links
Part Four: St. Andrews

Hundred Hole Hike in February 2014 Golf Digest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 15:03:00 +0000

In case you flipped right to Phil's 4 steps to land drives in garbage cans and lead the PGA Tour in plunked fans, or checked out the Korean-invasion in the magazine's first foray to rank the Top 100 golf courses in the world, you may have missed the Hundred Hole Hike mention on page 14 of the February 2014 issue of Golf Digest. Akin to Sports Illustrated's Faces in the Crowd, Golf Digest attempts to highlight "Golfers Who Give Back" by using golf as a vehicle to help others.

Hopefully this will help generate interest in the event and drum up more future Hundred Hole Hikers. We are off to a great start in 2014 with 21 golfers hiking at 13th Beach in Australia on January 23. And there are many other exciting possibilities that I hope to announce soon. If you're interested in learning more about the HHHike, please go to http://www.hundredholehike.com/get-involved or email me at jim@onedivot.org.

Here is the screen grab from the digital issue of the magazine. Have fun determining which guy has the biggest forehead:

While We're Young: My 2013 Hundred Hole Hike (Vol. 4 St. Andrews)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 15 Jul 2013 06:34:00 +0000

There it was, in big, beautiful, upper case letters at the top of the page:

OLD COURSE - Thursday, 04 July 2013

06:20 EVENSON J - COLTON J - DOAK T - WATT D - 100 HOLE CHARITY CHALLENGE

Though the St Andrews Hundred Hole Hike was months in the planning, the reality didn't hit home until I saw my name at the very top of the Old Course ballot. I was wrapping up my fourth and final leg of this 17-day adventure with 100 holes at the Home of Golf. On the 4th of July. With arguably the world's greatest living golf-course architect (and personal favorite) Tom Doak? How the heck did this happen? This was more than just a golf event for charity; it was like a golfclubatlas.com fantasy camp experience.

Just getting on the Old Course ballot in the first place is tough enough. The process seems to be a deeply shrouded secret. Getting out as the first group on the Old...that was a dream come true.

My friend and fellow hiker Josh was the point-person in organizing the hike. He's worked with the University of St. Andrews over the past few years and has close contacts with the Links Trust. The Links Trust set up a great plan to get us to 100 holes. First, an early start at the 9-hole Balgove, then the aforementioned Old Course, then over to play the Eden and Strathyrum (I still can't pronounce it correctly), then rounds on the Jubilee and the New Course. Those are the six courses managed by the Links Trust that are in the middle of town (the Links Trust recently added the Castle course just outside of town, but that wasn't on our agenda). The in-town courses got us to 99 holes -- the plan was to finish late in the day with the first hole of the Old Course to get the group to an even 100.

Rounding out the foursome was David Watt, an instructor for the Links Trust and the golf coach at the university. Both Josh and he were raising money for a new golf scholarship at the school, named after CB Macdonald. Throughout the day, David had honors off the tee by default, and showed us other hacks the general path to follow.

Of course, the star of the show was Doak, recent Michigan Golf Hall of Fame inductee, noted author and arguably a member of golf course architecture's Mount Rushmore (discuss amongst yourselves). Doak counts six world Top 100 courses to his credit: Pacific Dunes, Barnbougle Dunes, Cape Kidnappers, Old Macdonald (w/ Jim Urbina), Ballyneal (boom!) and Sebonack (site of the recent US Womens Open, co-designed with Jack Nicklaus).

I leaned on Tom about hiking back in January, joking that he was contractually obligated to participate as the 2012 Walking Golfer of the Year. Honestly, it didn't take much arm twisting. I've found Doak to be very supportive of charitable golf efforts, particularly those that expose our great game to young people who might not otherwise get the chance. For example, his firm built a three hole practice course in inner-city Detroit, and he donated a prize in the fundraising auction we did for the Midnight Golf program there. CommonGround in Denver was another huge success story, turning a nondescript former Air Force course into arguably the most fun public tract in Denver. Like me, Doak decided to hike for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy at Common.

A hike at St. Andrews was also a big selling point for Doak. As part of a grant he received from Cornell to study the world's great old courses over 30 years ago, he caddied at St Andrews for a couple months and spent a good chunk of that time picking the brain of the old superintendent. The Home of Golf holds a special place in his heart, with the Old Course as the origin for much of his design ethos.

An interesting sidebar to the hike at St Andrews were the recent changes made to the Old Course, designed to protect against someone shooting a 59 in the Open Championship held there once every five years. Bunkers were moved and contours were altered and the famed Road Hole bunker was modified in the first grand scale changes to the course aside from lengthening in nearly 100 years.

The changes were covertly announced the day after Thanksgiving by the R&A and started immediately after, with little opportunity for public debate on the need for such changes. Many likened the changes to painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa (a phrase R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson himself used to describe new tee boxes added in 2002). A #savetheoldcourse twitter campaign was launched (by me) and gained some steam. Purists argued that instead of carving up these cathedrals of the game, why not finally slow down the golf ball and/or equipment?

While most architects toed the company line, Doak was the most outspoken against the changes. He wrote letters to industry groups, architectural societies and an open letter to the people of St Andrews, who are the true owners and stewards of the Old Course.

Including Doak in the hike here might have been viewed as a controversial decision in some circles. I imagined #savetheoldcourse picket signs, him staging a lock-in in the new Martin Hawtree bunkers on the second hole, or me offering a shoulder for Doak to cry on upon seeing the changes made to the famed 11th green. Thankfully, the event went smoothly and without issue, and seemed to be a huge success for everybody involved. For me, the entire day seemed like one supersonic blur.

We met up at the Balgove course at 5:00 am on Thursday, Josh and I pulling up in my rented Peugeot speedster with the worst GPS system known to man ("They heard he plays fast, so they gave him a sports car," Doak remarked. My knuckles were too white from driving on the other side of the road to actually enjoy it, and mostly deferred to Josh to drive.) David parked on the other side of the lot, and Doak surfaced from the early morning fog carrying a Mackenzie bag with the only six clubs he brought across the Atlantic. Five minutes later, we were hitting our first tee shots of the day.

Playing speed golf in a foursome and without caddies was a new experience for me. Playing 100 holes in a day was completely new for my playing partners. We didn't really have a game plan for day, we just kind of settled into a rhythm by trial and error. Doak struggled with the pace for the first few holes and made some big numbers. I failed to get the golf ball more than five feet off the ground, but it was going in the right general direction.

The Balgove is a 9-hole practice (or practice) course designed for families and beginners, and as a par 30 with some 245-yard par 4's, would normally be ripe for some birdie or eagle bonuses if we weren't skunking it around so much. As expected, David led the way with one birdie and a 31. I had a 34, Josh had 38 and Tom brought up the rear with a 41, but with one birdie. The 9-hole round took us 42 minutes to play.

From there, we zipped over to the famed Old Course for our main event. We arrived 20 minutes ahead of time, and a number of golfers had assembled near the starters hut to fill in open spots on the day's tee sheet. We strutted confidently towards the first tee, knowing we were in extremely rare company with a 6:20 tee time, ten minutes before the normal first time.

Standing on the one of the most famous first tees in all of golf, I was quickly reminded just how big our little grassroots efforts had grown. I repeat...how the heck did this happen? To top it off, while standing on the tee, three different people approached our group and asked, "which one of you is Jim Colton?" Two of the guys, Ben and Andy, we're GCAers. Ben works as the starter, Andy was visiting from DC on a golf trip. The third guy was Allan, who brought a large bag with breakfast for each member of the group, courtesy of Herb Kohler and the Hamilton Grand building beyond the 18th green. Finally I brought some value to the foursome, even if it was just free bacon sandwiches and coffee.

Rounding out the entourage were Chris, who overheard Josh talking about the hike at a pub the day before and asked, "wait...Jim Colton is here?" and Simon, a friend of Tom's and, from what I could tell, Scotland's reigning Mr. Congeniality. Simon came to caddie for Tom on the Old Course and ended up sticking around for half the day -- he probably would've sucked around for all 100 if his wife hadn't been 8.97 months pregnant.

We all hit our opening tee shots -- Tom finding the burn down the right side, my worm burner ran a good 220 yards (fescue!) and finished just short of the water, and our posse set off down Broadway (how many golf blogs can work in a pre-"Baby Got Back" Sir Mix-A-Lot reference?) Chris immediately grabbed Josh's bag and headed down the fairway. About 100 yards off the tee, Andy looked back at me dragging my bag and reluctantly offered to take it, like I was the last single bridesmaid left at a wedding reception.

Just like at Balgove, my swing tempo was way too fast and I could barely get the ball airborne. I didn't find much trouble though, and managed to score well. The last (and only) time I played the Old Course back in 2000, my wife and I waited at the starter's box for five hours in 45-degree temps. Once I finally got out, I promptly double-bogeyed the first five holes. Here, I started out with five 5's, then rolled in a birdie putt on 6 and drove the green on the 7th to within 15 feet of the pin -- except it was the pin for the shared 11th hole. A three-putt par from 180 feet, followed by two 4's on 8 &9 and I had made the turn in a respectable 40. If I could match the 37 I shot on the back nine in 2000, I'd have something to brag about.

Not so fast. We made the turn and my fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse. It all started innocently enough on the 10th, as I hit a seemingly okay approach shot that just ran through the green. Instead, the ball got hung up in the tall grass, with my stance leaving the ball at sternum-level. I had to step up a small ledge to determine where my ball was, then step back down and blindly swing where I thought the ball was. As you might expect, this did not end well.

It turns out, I probably should've just played my tee shot on the 7th into the 11th hole and just finished in from there. When I played the hole for real, a slappy 7-iron found the Strath bunker and everybody else in the group instantly groaned. "Your over/under is five from there," Simon remarked. "Or six," Tom quickly chimed in. I hate it when Tom is right.

The rest of the back nine was like a grand tour of all of the mysterious bumps, hollows and hazards of the Old Course. All of those bunkers that look like they are there for no particular reason at all? Well, I discovered the very reason: to add numerous strokes to my score on July 4, 2013.

The clotted cream in the tea was the famed Road Hole. There are a lot of golf holes in the world, but only a handful of Once-in-a-Lifers -- holes that you think about months in advance with shots that you really don't want to screw up. The 16th at Cypress Point probably takes the cake, but other examples include the 17th at Sawgrass, 12th at Augusta and 18th at Pebble Beach. The Road Hole has to be the Par 4 representative in this pantheon. Golfers would give up their partner's right arm for just one divinely-intervened swing that propels the ball over the shed and around the corner. Everything else in the round is secondary.

Unfortunately, this is doubly true for bad shots. I'm still haunted by my duck hook into the Pacific at Cypress three years ago. And I will now be tormented by the following topped shot that went a grand total of ten yards on the greatest par 4 on the planet.

Unfortunately, it didn't get much better from there. I managed to hack my way out of the tall rough, then played cautiously up the right side of the hole. My fourth shot ran through the right side of the green and ended up on the clay path between the green and the Road. I then tried to play a touch shot from the path, but left it short and on the bank of the green. To this point, I had played 474 1/2 holes with a wide assortment of scores, but had yet to make a single quintuple bogey. One chip and three putts later and that streak was o-va. Add another three putt on the home hole for good measure, and my final tally made me want to pull a Bobby Jones and rip my scorecard to shreds: 40-55 95.

In sharp contrast, Doak was right at home at the Home of Golf and it showed. After a bogey on the first hole, he hit a great drive down the middle on the 2nd. His approach shot barely cleared the Hawtree bunkers (usually it's bad form to wish ill on your playing partners, but all seven of us were openly rooting for his shot to go in one of those bunkers, just for comedic purposes. Doak's birdie effort hung on the edge, which is probably a good thing -- if 10-handicappers like Doak keep birdieing it, what's next? A bunker in the middle of the green, a la Riviera?)

Tom kept the party going by hitting the flagstick with his second shot on the par 5 5th, leading to a routine birdie, then rolling in a 15-footer for birdie on the short par 3 8th. This. Doak. Is on Fire!!! That could be a song, if anyone would be lame enough to write a song about a golf course architect.

Watching Doak play links golf, it's no wonder why he builds his golf courses the way he does. The dude is a short-game maestro. I think he truly does see greensites like Neo. He is deadly from about 75 yards in, usually hitting a bump n run shot with his 7-iron. He surveys the land, takes a gander at the slope right around the hole, goes back to his ball, then takes some mini-waggles with an open stance. You can almost see his bionic brain churning through all of the physics equations involved. Then he pops the ball and it always seems to take the contours the right way, propelling up any slope with just enough pace left over to finish within four feet of the hole. He's just as deft with his old-school putter, dying the ball at the hole from the high side like his good friend Ben Crenshaw. Only a surprising miss from 4 feet on the last hole kept him from posting a 79. Still, it was an impressive showing and extremely fun to watch.

We had played the Old Course in about two hours and five minutes. If I hadn't been so busy hacking it around on the back nine, we might've finished before the rains had come down. We had gotten the full assortment of Scottish weather before 8:30 AM, and we ended up finishing the last three holes in a pretty steady downpour of fat, round raindrops. Because our rounds were spaced three hours apart, we had plenty of time to get dried out and get geared up...except by the time we reached the first tee of the Eden course, the rain had completely stopped. Welcome to Scotland.

The Eden course, designed by Harry Colt, is a fun and sporty course with some good birdie opportunities. It is also personally noteworthy as the 150th course I've ever played back in 2000 (yes, i keep track of these things...I'm up to 343 now.) I decided that I needed to slow my swing down to about a third of its previous speed and start trying to hit golf shots. I was already beginning to feel like the fourth wheel, trying to keep the group score (and often falling 3-4 holes behind), usually hitting last off the tee and thus giving my partners a 25-30 yard head start down the fairway. With 180 miles already on the odometer and a minor foot injury sustained while running on the 8th hole on the Old Course, there was little chance of me catching up. With the wind blowing, I rarely could hear the conversation my partners were having - at one point, I know Simon told a great story about Donald Trump, but I missed about 90 percent of it. Sometimes Doak would turn his head my direction and make some comment -- for all I know, he could've been revealing his deep, dark design secrets, but all I could do is smile and nod like I understood what he was saying. My only hope was to start hitting some greens in regulation. I ended up with my best round of the day, a 40-40 80. Simon turned from caddie to track coach, and had us practically sprinting down the last hole to finish under two hours.

From the Eden, we went to the Strathyrum next door, another shortish course that was seemingly ripe for the taking. The Strath is billed as a "friendly introduction to links golf". I'm billing it as an "unfriendly introduction to the agony of the four putt". Similar to my quintuple bogey, I had managed to go this entire saga without a four jack, then I had two of them in a three-hole span, both coming from rushed putts missed from less than a foot away. The first was painful, as it came on a par 3 that I nearly aced, my shot landing short and left of the green, bounding then rolling right towards the cup, then disappearing behind the flagstick for a nanosecond before scooting about eight feet by. From possible ace to implausible double bogey just like that. "You need to work on your shorties," Simon quipped.

Doak, on the other hand, continued his strong play, and growing in confidence, actually started overpowering the Strath course. He had some good eagle looks and was hoping to pad the stats with some "cheapie birdies". Interestingly, Doak had generously made a pledge in support of my hike, with a per-birdie kicker. He added the note, "You can make as many birdies as you want at Ballyneal, as long as you don't make more than me at St. Andrews." At the time, I thought nothing of it. I was humming along with 28 birdies and an eagle through 449 holes. Certainly, I get outplay and out-birdie Doak on the day, right?

Wrong. Doak's 78 bested my 82 at the Strath course, and he was beginning to pull away on me on birdies and score. Links golf had exposed the weaknesses of my game, and I couldn't keep up with Doak's short-game wizardry. To top it off, after nearly every birdie that I did get, David would roll one in right on top of me. It was uncanny.

However, the most humbling moment of the day didn't come on the golf course, though one might think a 97 on the Jubilee course that I'm just now taking editorial liberties to gloss over would do the trick (at least Tom shot 97 as well, though he did have the shot of the day on number 9, hitting a 5-wood to about two-feet in a 35 mile per hour crosswind.) No, I was cut down to size after the round, as we sat in the clubhouse resting before our last full 18 on the New Course. I was sitting at a table with Doak, attempting to add up the carnage on our scorecards. Tom, busy nursing some blisters, took one sideways glance at the scorecard, then faster than Rain Man could count fallen toothpicks, said, "so, I had a 44 on the front."

I was floored. Not only has this guy seen and played nearly every great golf course in the world. Not only has he forgotten more than I'll ever know about golf course architecture. Not only was he taking me to school on the golf course. He's going to out-math me as well? Do I have to spend the rest of my career looking over my shoulder, wondering if he's going to barge in the office and start building better capital models too?

Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. For our round on the New Course, I proposed that we play a fourball match with the logical teams being David & Josh (Team St. Andrews) versus Tom & me (Team Solich Academy). After the grind on the Jubilee and the miles and hours starting to wear on us, plus with no real sense of urgency left -- 100 was a foregone conclusion, a match would be a welcome change of pace. And of course, I was hoping to harness some of the match play magic that I had at Cabot Links, where I waxed my buddy Harris 4&2 in my seventh round (his second).

Early on, it was all going as planned. I birdied the opening hole, and parred the third to give team Doak & Dork a 2-up lead. From there, it was a see-saw battle. David birdied the 4th hole to get it to 1-up, then it was all-square after six. Doak's game had deserted him, and I was forced to try and carry the team, not exactly my strong suit. We won the 8th hole, then Josh, who had struggled for most of the day, came alive at just the right time. All four players found the green on the majestic uphill 9th, but only Josh found the bottom of the cup in two.

We responded by winning the tenth, but David squared the match again with a birdie on the 11th. We pulled ahead on the 14th, then Josh, playing with a loaner driver from David, finally figured out his timing and started crushing the ball. The closing holes were playing into a tough right-to-left wind, never my thing, and I was faced with having to hit clutch shots off the tee. One blocked shot, which admittedly was very likely at the moment, and the match would've been effectively over. But I was able to pull off the bunt drive that Schulte taught me back at Ballyneal, and on the 15th and 16th holes, was right next to Josh in the fairway. And on both holes, I failed to hit the green from total green light positions. I'm still dumbfounded.

There was still hope though. On the 16th, with the match all-square, I found the pot bunker short of the green. By this time, our old friend Ben was done with his shift as the starter and decided to join us the rest of the way. He was doing his best to boost my confidence and will a par out our team down the stretch. I hit a bunker shot that Ben called "Mickelson-esque"...unfortunately my 5-foot par putt that slid right on by and incredulous reaction reeked of Phil as well. All of a sudden, we were one-down with two holes to play.

The 17th hole on the New is a tough 211-yard par 3. Tom, Josh and I all hit tee shots that leaked left and ended up bouncing into the tall grass. David missed the green but was in good position to make 3. Either Tom or I had to make a par. Only about 25 feet away, but to a pin tucked just over a steep slope, our work was cut-out for us. "This is a tough place to try to get up and down," Tom admitted. "If he's already thinking that, then what chance do I have?" I thought to myself.

Tom hit first and hit a decent shot, the ball scooting up the slope a little bit and ending up on the front of the green, about 10-12 feet from the hole. I knew I had to do better. I opted for the chunk and run with my lob wedge, and judged it just right. The ball rolled up over the mound to four feet away. A clutch shot under the circumstances!

Tom putted first and pulled his shot to the right. I was really, really hoping he would make it. I had a putt on a similar line and aimed at the right edge. I'm brutal with right edge putts, but was convinced it was the right read. I had been playing too much break for most of the day. There was no way this putt could break outside the hole.

And of course it did. The putt curled sharply to the left by the hole, and just like that, the match was over. A 2&1 victory for the home team. I don't think Doak will be asking me to be his Ren Cup partner anytime soon.

The silver lining was the match was a blast and, more importantly, it had the desired effect of creating a much-needed distraction to get us from hole 82 to hole 99. Now, it was back to the Old Course to finish it off.

At one point, very early in the day, we joked about sprinting down the first fairway to see who could finish the hole first, something Tom had done once out at Ballyneal. Hours later, there was an unspoken pact not to bring up that idea ever again. Hitting into a bright, setting sun, we teed off one by one. Doak. Evenson. Watt. And finally Colton. My drive was sliced badly, but thankfully there is a ton of room. My ball rested about 10 feet from the out-of-bounds stakes on this 110-yard wide fairway. Both David and I hurried to hit shots towards the first green while golfers on 18 tried to hit their closing tee shots.

A couple minutes later, we were putting out as a group for the 100th and final time. On the first green of the most historic golf course of them all. At that point, it didn't really matter what the scores were. It didn't really matter that I violently lipped out a 25-foot putt for par (but it still stings a little). We went into the day not really knowing what to expect, and 15 hours later, we were at the finish line. I made the final putt, and it was handshakes, smiles and hugs all around.

While Tom, Josh and David all now had a nice round '100' next to their name, I was sitting at a somewhat awkward '549'. It just didn't seem right to end then and there. So I walked over the 18th tee, approached a nice family that was just coming off the Road Hole green, and said, "Excuse me, I just finished walking 549 holes for charity, do you mind if I join you for this last hole to make it a nice round 550?"

They kindly obliged my request and I hurriedly hit one right down the middle. They were a nice family from South Africa, and had quite a posse of their own. Father. Two sons, roughly ages 13 & 17. And Grandma (she could rip it) all played. Mom and two sisters walked along, undoubtedly recording the day with 1,000 pictures. As they stood on the Swilken Bridge for the obligatory picture, I couldn't help but think that THIS is what it was all about. This was the very heart of golf. Links golf brought this out in people. Links golf is what binds us. If you couldn't help but laugh and smile at St. Andrews, no matter the weather, no matter the score, then maybe you should be taking up another game.

A lot had happened to me since I last stood on that bridge in 2000. I had just gotten married and was only a few years into a career. A couple years later, we had our first of three kids. My game ebbed and flowed. Sometimes I loved it. Other times, I hate to say I hated it. I really struggled to find the right balance between golf, family, career and faith. The Old Course was an experience, for sure, but I don't think I quite understood what it meant at that time.

In contrast, over thirty years ago a young Tom Doak walked these same hallowed grounds. He knew what he wanted to be. He just didn't know how it was going to happen. But living and working in the town, he understood what I didn't get until I was staring at three generations of random South Africans. Doak got it and set out to spread the age-old principles of the Old Course to others, notably to U.S. golfers who had been inundated with target-golf, cart-ball, real-estate driven clones. One of the courses Doak built was Ballyneal, my home away from home and one of the truest links golf experiences in the U.S.

It's not hard to see the great circle of life here. Doak lives at St. Andrews. Doak builds golf courses. Doak builds Ballyneal. Colton joins Ballyneal. Colton meets Ben Cox, walks a lot of holes for him. Colton forms Hundred Hole Hike. Colton hikes with Doak at St. Andrews.

One more time...how the heck did this happen?

I'm not exactly sure, but I sure hope that it happens again. In the meantime, I'll be practicing my 7-iron bump and run.

Finishing with a par on the 550th hole

More Hundred Hole Hike:
Part One: Pinehurst
Part Two: Ballyneal
Part Three: Cabot Links

Note: I walked 550 holes for charity as part of the Hundred Hole Hike, a charity golf event that I founded in 2012. I am raising money for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy in Denver and the Evans Scholars Foundation. If you'd like to support my hike, please go to the link below and click on any one of the "Pledge Thru Me" buttons on the page. Also, please review any of the 84 other hikers participating for a variety of worthwhile causes.

http://www.hundredholehike.com/golfers/jim-colton

While We're Young: My 2013 Hundred Hole Hike (Vol 3, Cabot Links)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 00:14:00 +0000

Walking up to the 10th tee at Highlands Links, Stanley Thompson’s masterpiece in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, I finally approached the twosome that I had been dawdling behind for most of the front nine. They were in the middle of a conversation with the woman at the halfway house (someone they obviously knew) and offered to let me play through. Of course, I obliged. As I pulled my club for this short, downhill par 3, one of the gentlemen offered, “Take an extra club…this hole always plays longer than it looks.”

That didn’t really compute, but I was on foreign soil. Maybe downhill shots played longer in Canada. Who was I to question the local knowledge? Instead of clubbing up to Pitching Wedge, I kept my gap wedge and swung as hard as I could. The ball was solidly struck and with the help of the right-to-left wind, started tracking at the pin. “Be good,” I said emphatically (only because I thought my first choice, Hal Sutton’s eponymous “Be the right club, tu-DAY” might be lost on my new friends from the North.)

As the ball descended, I thought about how cool it would be to make an ace during my first round of golf in Canada. I thought about how a ‘1’ on the scorecard would help offset the ‘12’ I wrote down just three holes earlier (more to come on that). And I wondered how fast I would blow through my carefully-calculated allotment of International data, messaging and phone minutes -- most notably with a long-winded “EEEEAAAGGGLEEE…on a par THREEEEE” voice-mail to my buddy/adversary Jefe (seeing it’s me, and knowing generally when I’m on the golf course, he’s pretty-much stopped picking up my calls for this very reason.)

Just as I was wrapping up these thoughts, the ball landed on the back fringe, then took a mini-hop to the back-edge of the green, a good 35-feet past the hole. I stared at the ball on the green, staying in my post-shot position for a couple beats longer than normal, like a slugger who’d just been rung-up looking on a questionable strike to end a baseball game.

“Well, I guess I forgot to the factor in that you’re left-handed,” the man explained.

Hold the fort...I’m getting left-handed grief in Canada? I thought this was the land of the lefties? After 30-years of hearing every “wrong-side of the ball” variation known to man, I thought I was in a safe haven here. Nope…still singled-out, ostracized and oppressed. The story of my life as a southpaw golfer.

Why start with this seemingly insignificant golf story? Because it was really the only time I felt like an outsider during a very enjoyable and memorable four-day journey to Nova Scotia, which included the third leg of my four-part Hundred Hole Hike at Cabot Links.

Though I travel all the time for work domestically, I hadn’t had use for a passport in over 10 years. Hence, it was time for a new one. Amazingly, my 2013 passport photo managed to be even creepier than the 2000 version. It’s nice to know that I morphed from ‘bugged out heroin addict’ to ‘international criminal mastermind’ in the span of 13 years. No wonder I was ‘randomly chosen’ for "SSSS" security screening on the way out of town. My best guess is that it stands for Sketchy Subject, Screen Swiftly.

Admittedly, I felt a bit strange traveling out of the country by myself. Plus, I was going straight from Canada to Scotland before going home, which just added further logistical issues. As I was scrambling to pack, I had all those first-time traveler type questions, like “Can I use my iPhone there?”, “will my ATM card work overseas?”, “will I be able to access my work e-mail?” etc. I felt like a complete newb – thankfully my well-traveled friends suppressed their condescension when answering my last-minute panic texts.

I flew into Halifax late, late Friday night, with the two-hour time difference, I wasn’t in bed until 1:30 AM. Six hours later, I was on the road to Cape Breton. The plan was to drive to the aforementioned Highlands Links (which up until June 29, 2013, I had always called Highland Links), then swing over to Cabot for a two full-days of golf (one, very full).

My initial impressions of Nova Scotia were not positive. My friend Harris was vacationing in the area with his wife, and gave me the heads up to pack the rain gear. A lot of it. It was raining when I landed. It was raining when I woke up in the morning. It oscillated between drizzle, downpour and deluge during my drive to Cape Breton. I questioned the logic of driving to the eastern coast of the island to see this one golf course. The alternative would’ve been to head straight to Cabot Links and rest up for the hike.

There were a couple key factors that kept me going east instead of north. First of all, last summer my good friend Tom Dunne worked on the course for a week, getting his hands dirty to help architect Ian Andrew renovate a bunker on the par 5 7th. I really wanted to see his handiwork (he wrote about the unique experience in Links Magazine. You can read about it here: http://www.linksmagazine.com/golf_courses/restoration-hardcore) Additionally, Tom also called Highlands a “must see” and “one of the greatest walks in golf,” not to mention “a great drive.” He had me at hello.

Thankfully, my decision to forge ahead turned out to be the right choice. In the last 15 minutes before reaching the course, the skies cleared. Highlands is part of the Cape Breton National Park, and you have to pay a nominal fee to enter the park for the day. The young man at the gate asked if it was my first time there, and after I answered in the affirmative, he began to tell me about the 26 trails located within the park.

“I’m just here to golf,” I remarked.

“Okay. Just make the first right,” he replied.

It turns out we were both right. Highlands Links is very much a walking trail through the National Park with golf sprinkled between. It has multiple long green-to-tee treks that would normally get panned as poor routing. Instead, there was a method to Thompson’s madness – the walks were used to give the golfer time to appreciate the surroundings and to transition from different environs. Far from a tree hugger, I did find my mind wandering away from golf during these walks. There was a distinct cooling effect on these trails, and on an otherwise humid day, I thought to myself, “This is kinda nice.”

While Links is a misnomer, the golf course is a blast to play, with strong strategy mixed with a dash of visual deception and whimsy. For instance, the bunkering on the par 3 5th hole is meant to resemble a dragon spitting out a fireball (though my initial guess was a camel eating a large Cocoa Puff). Over the course of the round, I got the sense that Stanley Thompson is a guy that I would’ve liked to have hung out with, or at least hero worshipped from afar on golfclubatlas.com. The bold fairway contours reminded me very much of the Course at Yale, another personal favorite.

Adding to the it’s-just-golf-let’s-not-take-ourselves-too-seriously vibe are the names of the holes, many of which sound like things Ron Burgundy would say when given shocking news. Mucklemouth Meg! Cuddy’s Lug! Saint Damian’s Beard! Only one of these isn’t from the golf course.

Which brings us to the 7th hole, a.k.a. Killiecrankie, which is named for a famous long and narrow pass in Scotland. Personally, I take the literal view – after playing the hole, you might be cranky enough to kill somebody. I did my best Sergio Garcia impression on the tee – insanely thinking that the same swing would somehow yield a different result. I kept trying to hit a bunt cut starting down the right side. Instead, I got three low hooks donated to the National Park System of Canada. The bunty driver that was so good to me at Ballyneal had abandoned me, as did my Yoda headcover.

Recalling that 7th hole four days later still gets my blood pressure going. Let’s just give Tom a picture of his island and move on...

After the round, I hopped back into the rental car and punched in the directions on Google Maps to Cabot Links. Maps will tell you to go south back the way you came, but the only real choice is to go North. The Cabot Trail winds up and around the northern edge of the National Park, or if you have extra time, I believe you can go to the very northern tip of the island. Wow, what a drive! I guarantee you will snap some scenery pics for your friends back home. Just make sure you pull off the road before you do it.

I pulled into Cabot Links on Saturday night around 8:00 PM, plenty of time to enjoy dinner at the on-site restaurant, its large windows and close proximity to the 18th green providing a great view and free entertainment watching golfers make a mess of the home hole. Speaking of great views, the 48 rooms in the four lodges adjacent to the sixth fairway offer up floor-to-ceiling windows and great little details. Everything is geared for a comfortable stay. For the first time since I can remember, I slept with the windows open.

Though he’s quick to deflect credit to others, that attention to detail is a credit to co-owner (w/ Bandonista Mike Keiser) Ben Cowan-Dewar (BCD), who can best be described as the driving force behind Cabot Links. This was his baby. He worked tirelessly to turn this abandoned seaside coal mine into Canada’s first true links course. I’m sure there were times where things looked grim and he kept plugging away to make this dream a reality. He uprooted his family from Toronto to Inverness to oversee construction and now manages the day-to-day operations (and now overseeing construction of a second course, Cabot Cliffs, a design by Coore & Crenshaw. I got a brief tour of the property and some of the initial routing and tree clearing – all I’m at liberty to say is "Wow").

After spending time with BCD, I couldn’t help but think of my friend Rob Rigg, an equally focused, equally passionate and equally Canadian golfer/family man who turned that passion into something tangible. Rigg saw that nearly all golf shoes were uncomfortable and ill-suited for walking, and ended up revolutionizing an industry. While most days I sit at a computer pipedreaming about someday building my own golf course, Ben went out and did it. Now twice. Meeting guys like this through golf only fuels my passion for wanting to make HHH everything it can be.

One of the first things you’ll notice about Cabot Links is how closely ingrained it is with the community of Inverness. It is right off the small town’s main strip. Although I haven’t been anywhere in Scotland other than St. Andrews, it is what I would picture of a small town in Scotland, with the golf course part of the city center and very much the fabric of life for all of its residents. And from what I could tell, Cabot Links is starting to have that kind of impact in Inverness.

Ben was supposed to join me on Monday, but a foot injury forced him to postpone his charity hike for the lunch programs and sports programs at the local K-12 school. Given a) he lives in town and b) he owns the place, I’m sure he’ll be able to find a suitable alternative date. The original plan was to tee off on the 9th hole at 5:00 AM, which would allow us to finish on the 18th green for the 100th and final hole of the day. The caddies graciously volunteered to help out throughout the day. In fact, in what I take to be a testament to the caddies and charitable nature of my new Canadian friends, they had more caddies volunteer than they had spots to fill.

The silver lining to Ben’s absence was that I was able to forge ahead flying solo and on a much quicker pace. Knowing by now that there's enough light on 30-minutes either side of sunrise and sunset to see the ball, I pushed for a 4:45 AM tee time. There to meet me early Monday morning was Neal, perhaps the most energetic 70-ish year old person you'll ever meet. By 4:38 AM, I was off with a drive down the middle and the first Hundred Hole Hike in Canada was on its way.

One of the unique things about the Cabot hike was that I had a fresh caddie after each round. I think each was eager to post the best time and best score, as they often zipped on ahead of me and gave me a good pace to keep to. Also, it provided me an opportunity to get to know each a little better. Seven of the caddies -- Neal, Bruce, Keith, Eddie, A.R., Steve and Jim, were all older gentlemen in or near retirement. Some had been born and raised in the area, only to have to leave to find work, then ultimately came back. Others had lived and worked here their whole lives. Each had the work ethos that you'd expect from a small, Canadian fishing town. I'm sure many of them could've walked 100 holes in a day without problem.

I also got the sense that the caddies truly loved the place. Neal kept popping up throughout the day, first as a caddie obviously, then showing up in round 3 while on a walk, then I ran into him as he was playing golf in the afternoon. Both Neal and Bruce pulled alongside the road later in the day to see how I was holding up and to witness some very mediocre golf played quickly. They had a genuine interest in the event and how I was faring on their turf.

Frankly, I did not fare nearly as well as I would've liked. Despite having a decent sense of the greens (aggressive is key), I couldn't seem to capitalize on the infrequent birdie opportunity. My driver was off for most of the day, and I found many holes difficult to unlock even after multiple plays to the same pin positions. The par 5s are very strong at Cabot, and definitely confounding. The 2nd hole baffled me to no end. A perfectly placed pot bunker at the crest of the hill wreaked havoc, and I never even hit into it. The 13th green shares a double green with the 4th, and has a valley of sin-esque swale guarding the approach shot. I couldn't get myself to aim down the left side with the beach running parallel to the hole, therefore I was forced to negotiate a 90-125 yard shot from the right, across the swale and to the pin just on the other side of a large ridge. Good luck with that one.

Also, the par 4 8th hole was a personal nemesis throughout the day. I made eagle on the hole on Sunday by driving the green to less than four feet. Perhaps I disappointed the golf gods by gloating about the shot and basking in the limelight everytime my playing partners Neal and Diane retold it to someone new, because Monday was payback time. The first four rounds I hooked the ball into the frog-infested swamp guarding the entire right side of the hole. I managed to hit the fairway in onlynone round, and even lost a ball on both the drive and approach in the sixth and eighth rounds. All told, I played the 335-yard hole +12 for the day with nine lost-ball penalties.

I was losing golf balls left and right, and losing faith in my golf swing as the day wore on. My scores slowly deteriorated from respectable to rotten. The first five rounds went 82-81-83-82-85 in times ranging from 1:30 to 1:50 (the slowest due to a 10-minute oatmeal break in Rd 3). The clips were slightly slower than the rounds at Pinehurst and Ballyneal, though Cabot made up time by having the 1st tee so close to the 18th green. Often, the transition from the end of one round to the beginning of the next, with caddie transfer and the prefunctary picture, was less than two minutes.

Similar to my Pinehurst hike, burning around a course open to the public meant playing through a lot of groups. Director of Golf Joe Robinson and the staff at Cabot were fantastic in working through the logistics. During the busier rounds, a forecaddie walked ahead and informed groups that I was coming up. All of the golfers we met were extremely supportive and excited to be a part of this special day.

On the 10th tee of the 6th round, Notorious BCD was there to greet me and snap some pictures of my 100th hole. Thankfully, I hit a nice 6-iron to the back of the green and lagged it to a couple feet. 100 holes were in the books. Just 101 more holes at St. Andrews and I would hit my goal of 500 holes for the Solich Academy in Denver and the Evans Scholars Foundation. The end.

Yeah, right. I had to keep going. Mainly because it was 1:45 PM and there was over seven hours of daylight left. Also because Cabot, like Bandon, has the after 36 holes your golf is free policy, and everybody knows there's nothing better in the world than free golf. And of course pushing the number higher meant more many raised for my causes.

Based primarily on my time spent with the caddies and staff at Cabot, I also wanted to do something for the community of Inverness. I came up with an idea to create a special pledge for my bonus golf above holes 100, with the proceeds going to the Inverness school lunch program and sports program that Ben was already walking for. I personally committed to $5/hole, with a promise to match any other pledges up to a total of $10/hole. Fortunately, a few friends and fellow hikers chimed in with their support right away. I felt this extra motivation would help me down the stretch.

There was a foursome on the 11th tee as I putted out on number 10. It turned out to be the same group that I had played through on the 3rd green of my 5th round, meaning that I had played 24 holes in the time it took them to play seven. Each player had his/her own caddie and with Ben and my caddie, there was quite a party watching me hit the terrifying tee shot around or over water on this cape hole. Normally such attention would mean one thing - a quick, duck hook, but I managed to hit my best drive of the day, a towering shot that carried the corner safely onto the fairway.

The rest of the sixth round went relatively smoothly (46-39 85, 1:47 split), but from the start of the 7th round, it looked like this bonus golf idea was a big mistake. Upon meeting my 15-year old caddie Ryan, I remarked that he was the youngest caddie that day by a good 50 years. I honestly felt bad for subjecting a minor to such a horrifying display of golf. He might be scarred for life. I made four triple bogeys on the front nine, including a myriad of shanks, topped shots and worm burners. I was one whiff away from hitting for golf's golden sombrero.

Though Ryan did yeomans work trying to stay positive and keep me headed in the right direction, I had hit the wall and was completely famished. I'll say that I was bonking to throw out a term that makes me sound like a real marathon athlete, but truth is I have no idea what that means. I hadn't eaten anything since that early bowl of oatmeal, and all I could think about was the halfway house. I managed to par the tough 9th hole from the left fairway bunker, thanks to a nifty flop shot from short of the green. That par saved me the embarrassment of posting a 54. 53 seemed so much more respectable.

On the 10th, I hit my tee shot, then sat on the bench and devoured a caramel candy bar and bag of sun chips [you know's funny about Canada and America? It's the little differences. I saw this mostly with candy bars. You can't find snickers or M&M's here, instead they have other candy like Caramilk and the not-so-subtle innuendo known as Mr. Big (I can only image the advertising campaign). Even the same candy like Kit-Kat has a different, shinier wrapper and a 'crunchy' version. I'm not even sure what that means.] That lunch of champions thankfully got me back on the right track, and I started to hit something resembling a golf shot. I got around the back nine in 39 (Cabot has a PacDunesish 37-33 par set-up, with four par 3's on the back. For the day, I averaged seven strokes worse on the front nine, never shooting better than 42 on the front while never shooting worse than 39 on the back nine.)

Towards the end of the 7th round, I started getting text messages from Harris. He was done playing 18 and wanted to help caddie for my next round. Given my state of play and the course providing more than enough caddies, I urged him to go off and get another round in. Still, as I putted out on 18, Harris was there waiting, willing to help out in any way possible.

That's when I had the idea to have Harris play with me. I also decided that we would play 24 more holes to make it a round 150 holes played. Those turned out to be the best decisions I made all day.

I also declared on the first tee that we would play a singles match. Given I had just come off 126 holes and a smooth 92 and last I knew, Harris was a 2 or 3 handicap, there was a good chance I was going to get Stephen Amesed, but at least I'd have something to take my mind off the death march.

Facing Harris, I really only three things going for me: my caddie Jim, my seven rounds of experience of the pin positions and the ability to play bad golf quickly. We've seen Tiger slow-play his playing partners to gain a competitive advantage. Poor Harris couldn't keep up with the break-neck pace. I won the first hole with a nice lag putt. I benevolently offered a halve on the second hole after I made double-bogey while Harris mistakenly thought the green was 70 yards left of where it actually is. Harris couldn't quite get the speed of the greens right, and I slowly built the lead. By the turn, it was starting to get ugly, and eventually I had him dormie with five holes to play.

Harris won the 14th with a birdie and got it to 3 down after the 15th. After Harris piped his drive on the tough but beautiful 16th, I was fairly certain I was going to lose the last five holes. But I hunkered down and smoked a drive down the middle, the ball ending up adjacent to Harris's.

I was away by about a yard, and my caddie Jim called out the yardage: 164 yards to the pin, 151 yards to the front of the green. Downwind, I yanked a pitching wedge that fortunately caught the right edge of the green.

Harris was up next, and he fired right at the flag. "Oh yeah, be right," he said confidently.

Then the ball landed 10 yards short of the green. "Did you say 151?" Harris asked my caddie, still baffled how his ball ended up short.

"Yes, 151 to the front edge."

Based on his reaction, I believe Harris thought that was the number to then pin. I lagged to about 6-7 feet above the hole. Harris putted up the big slope and came up 7-8 feet short. He knew he had to make his next putt and hope I would miss. Still, his next putt curled to the left of the hole and short. My putt was inconsequential, but I rolled in my par putt. Colton wins 4&2. Harris's golf buddy Matt was following the action on Twitter: "You've brought shame to our country on Canada Day!" he scolded Harris from afar. My guess is he won't be able to live down losing to a guy on his 8th round for a long time.

Predictably, we both reverted to the mean the last two holes after it no longer mattered. Harris nearly birdied 17 and hit a big drive on 18. I had to pull off some short game magic just to make bogey on each. I ended up with an 81 to match my lowest round of the day. We played a two-ball in about two hours and five minutes.

One of the cool things about Cabot is there are numerous mini-loops you can play at the end of the day. Looking for six holes to get to 150 and wanting to finish on the 18th hole, a loop starting with 1 & 2 then hopping over to 15 to play the closing four holes was the perfect solution.

We were joined by Ben Hilliard, a Facebook friend from Australia who I met at Bandon a couple years back. Ben was a turf-grass intern at St Andrews' and now works on the maintenance staff at Cabot in the mornings and caddies in the afternoon. He was a caddy in that group that I played through twice.

Ben had more youthful energy than both Harris and me combined. He stormed down the first fairway as we lagged well behind. On the green, both Harris and I lagged our par putts to within a foot of the hole. Ben then picked up both balls off the green and went to hand them to us to go to the next hole.

"Wait...I have to putt everything out," I informed Ben. Ben quickly dropped both balls and reassembled them close to their original positions.

"I don't care about putting out!" Harris admitted, picking up his ball and heading off to the next tee.

A heavy fog rolled in for that last stretch of holes. On the par 3 17th, my last hope for a hole-in-one, I fired a 8-iron right at the flag.

"Go in the hole!!!" I pleaded. I had all those same thoughts while the ball was in the air like I did at Highlands Links, plus the thought of a HHHole-in-one being worth about $3,000 for charity. The back left pin position masked the view of the bottom of the flagstick. We waited anxiously for the sweet sound of that cowbell. Unfortunately, none came. And yes, I three-putted from six feet.

Like our 4th of July, our friends to the North celebrate their birthday with barbecues and fireworks. Inverness had plans to launch their fireworks from the bay by the 11th hole, perfectly viewable from the course. I imagined a picture of me putting out on the 18th hole for the last time at dusk, with the fireworks going off in the background. Instead, the fireworks were postponed due to the fog and damp conditions.

My consolation prize: one last cowbell. 150 holes played, 150 little cracker-jack prizes in the form of a chime. I looked forward to the hearing the bell each hole. It kept me going. And I look forward to hearing them again, and seeing my new friends in Nova Scotia, as soon as possible.

By the numbers:
Holes 150
Miles ~50
Strokes 699, +115
Stroke Avg 83.9
Par 3 Avg 3.63
Par 4 Avg 4.75
Par 5 Avg 6.04
GIR 41.3%
Par 3 GIR 46.3%
Par 4 GIR 40.5%
Par 5 GIR 36.0%
Fairway 56.0%
Eagle 0
Birdie 3
Par 58
Bogey 67
Dbl Bogey 15
Trp Bogey 7
Quad Bogey 0
Par 3 Bird% 2.4%
Par 4 Bird% 2.4%
Par 5 Bird% 0.0%
Putts/Rd 34.9
Putts/GIR 1.98
0 Putts 0
1 Putts 29
2 Putts 111
3 Putts 10
4 Putts 0
Best Ball Score: 67
Worst Ball Score: 104
Easiest Hole: 15th, 4.33 (+3)
Hardest Hole: 8th, 5.50 (+12)
Golf Balls Lost: 29
Match Play Record: 1-0

More Hundred Hole Hike:
Part One: Pinehurst
Part Two: Ballyneal
Final Leg: St. Andrews (coming soon)

Note: I am walking 500+ holes for charity as part of the Hundred Hole Hike, a charity golf event that I founded in 2012. I am raising money for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy in Denver and the Evans Scholars Foundation. If you'd like to support my hike, please go to the link below and click on any one of the "Pledge Thru Me" buttons on the page. Also, please review any of the 84 other hikers participating for a variety of worthwhile causes.

http://www.hundredholehike.com/golfers/jim-colton

While We're Young: My 2013 Hundred Hole Hike (Vol. 2 Ballyneal)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 28 Jun 2013 00:06:00 +0000

Ballyneal, the unofficial home of the Hundred Hole Hike, has always been the home of some pretty extreme numbers. First, we had a record $110,000 raised for one cause in 2011. Last year, the eight Ballyneal hikers were faced with 107 degree temperatures.

This year was no different. First, my bunkmate and future fourball tournament partner Wyatt Halliday played 108 holes and shot even par for the day! All this while playing to a Pandora mix seeded by, from what I could gather, The Backstreet Boys and Carly Rae Jepsen.

Even more remarkable, Mitch Ehly recorded the first double eagle in Hundred Hole Hike history after he jarred his 2nd shot on the par 5, 15th hole. He asked his playing partner Brian Carruthers for the number. Both Brian and Mitch worked in the shop up until a couple years ago, and know the course extremely well. Brian told him 155, agreed with the pitching wedge and told him to 'just swing hard'. Mitch, essentially a golf robot, punched in the number into his computer and spit out the perfect shot. Unfortunately for Mitch, with all of the bonus pledge features we've added to hundredholehike.com this year, I never considered an investment in an albatross feature. If Mitch had holed-out his drive on the infamous 7th hole at Ballyneal, he would've netted an extra $2,500 for his Disabled American Veterans charity. Instead, he gets a hearty handshake and a pat on the back (if you want to show Mitch some love with a pledge to acknowledge this feat, please go to: http://hundredholehike.com/golfers/mitch-ehly)

And finally, Rob 'THE Walking Golfer' Rigg claimed the "Sheriff of Hikesville" badge with a remarkable 171 holes walked in one day. That's 60 miles up and down some sand dunes. Plus, rumor has it that a) he may have done it with only club or b) he may have alternated between right- and left-handed swings.

[Note: Rigg only held the Sheriff title for a day, as he was surpassed on Tuesday by Oregon hiker Bobby Tabb. Tabb hit the 10-round barrier, going 180 deep at Sunset Grove Golf Club. This numbers game has me feeling a bit like Bud Selig, with Tabb as Mark McGwire to Rigg's Sammy Sosa. Let's just hope they don't end up on the cover of Sports Illustrated in togas. If I show up next year with six-pack abs, the head the size of a large watermelon and break the 200-hole mark in a day, can we all just agree to look the other way?]

All of these mind-boggling numbers made my third consecutive 155 holes at Ballyneal seem like old hat. Halliday had me beat before he even got out of bed, as I three-putted the first hole for double bogey at 4:47 A.M. (a disturbing trend for my 2013 hikes). Rigg lapped me on my 140th hole (his 149th). And the only "double" anything I attained on Monday were 17 double bogeys and one double cheeseburger after the marathon was over.

Before you think I'm just going to roll over and play fourth fiddle at my home club in the event I founded, I submit to you one mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, astronomic number:

Jim Colton, Fairways Hit: 85/120 (70.8%)

Happy learned how to hit a fairway.
Ballyneal GM Matt Payne, my Pinehurst caddies Cory, Mark, Scott and Jamie, lifelong golf buddies Jefe and Jimbo, high school golf coach Mr. Kane, and just about every fourball partner (or opponent) I've ever had just had the same universal reaction: you're [bleep]ing kidding me.

You see, I've been playing golf for over the last 25 years, and I've never been able to hit the ball straight. I hold one course record: I'm the only person to go 0-for-14 on the 75-yard wide fairways at Ballyneal (I also went 0-for-14 at Merion last year, but given what we saw in the US Open last week, I can only claim a multi-way tie for that dishonor.) This year, I've been the king of shooting 81 with five or six lost-ball penalty strokes.

The source of my recent Fred Funkiness? My longtime Ballyneal match-play opponent, as well as unofficial (as in, don't ask questions, just take it) HHH nutritionist, Matt 'Balco' Schulte deserves all the credit in the world. I think he finally took pity on me always carrying his bag up "The Climb" after the 18th hole at Ballyneal. Beating on a guy 4&3 time and time again can get rather old after awhile (I wouldn't know, but I would imagine this to be true).

Schulte is the maestro of the "Bunty", an abbreviated driver swing that flies low, straight and 90-95% as far as an all-out swing. The usual ball-flight with the Bunt is a slight fade, but Matt can work it both ways with ease. He's the Greg Maddux of the Bunt swing. Last year, he completed a 144-hole hike using the same golf ball!

After a fairly typical, maybe even above-average 42.5% fairway percentage at the first hike at Pinehurst, I was ready to give up taking the driver altogether. Missing a fairway by 40 yards at a relatively-flat Pinehurst was no big deal. Missing the wide fairways at Ballyneal was a different story. Nothing could wear me down faster than finding and extracting golf balls from the wild, yucca-covered chop hills. I contemplated just hitting hybrid or 4-iron off of every tee during the hike.

Like an older brother imparting wisdom on his (slightly) younger sibling, Schulte took me under his wing and unraveled the secrets of the Bunt swing during the warm-up rounds Sunday, the day before the big event. It took a few holes to dial it in -- occassionally my natural urge to grip and rip with a 17-degree in-to-out path and 11-degree closed face (yes, both true numbers) would take over, but in the end, the results spoke for themselves. 36 holes -- 7 birdies, 1 eagle. I was a believer. If that trend continued, the Evans Scholars and Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy would be receiving a lot more money in bonus pledges.

Come Monday morning, it was wonder if we'd be able to get any golf in, much less 100 or more holes. The skies above this region of the country seem to be good for a nightly thunderstorm, and Sunday night's laser-light show was something to behold. The forecast for Monday looked fine, only 10% chance of rain, but when I woke up at 3:45 AM to start getting prepared for the hike, the lightning was still going. The skies looked ominous and the rain was pounding against the windows. I was reminded of the Ben Cox marathon, where a huge hail storm postponed the event by two days. Given I was now hiking with eight friends, and work and other events prevented any kind of Plan B, the weather could've wreaked major havoc on my 500-hole goal.

Thankfully, in the time it took to shower, get my day's wardrobe and shoes lined up and over to the restaurant for a bowl of pre-hike oatmeal, the storms had cleared up and the lightning was far off in the distance. At 4:44 AM, I launched the first shot of the Ballyneal hike -- a 6-iron shot into the dark, that we eventually found down the left side of the fairway.

Fairway being the key word. In the first round, I hit a remarkable 12 out of 14 fairways. And one of those missed fairways was on the short par 4 7th hole, possibly my favorite golf hole on the planet. With my new bunt swing, I hit a nice little fade over the large centerline bunker, just what the hole calls for. The ball ended up in the greenside bunker. I climbed down into the bunker, stared briefly at the flagstick in the front of the green, swung and plopped the ball out just onto the green. The ball hit the bottom of the stick square, popped up as it were going to stay on the outside lip, then dropped into the hole for an EAGLE. I gave a nice "EEEAAAGLLE" yell to let my fellow hikers know that the flood gates had been cracked open early.

It's remarkable how much easier the game is from the short grass. And quicker too. I hit 12 greens in regulation in the first round, made birdie on the 16th hole, and had quite a few routine pars. In an hour and 21 minutes after I started, I accomplished what I tried and failed to do in 8 rounds at Pinehurst...break 80.

And that streak of solid, quick play carried on for the first five rounds.

Round 1: 77, 1 birdie, 1 eagle. 12 fairways, 12 GIR
Round 2: 75, 4 birdies. 7 fairways, 11 GIR
Round 3: 77, 3 birdies. 10 fairways, 11 GIR
Round 4: 77, 0 birdies. 10 fairways, 11 GIR
Round 5: 76, 3 birdies. 12 fairways, 10 GIR

There is nothing about the level or the consistency of those numbers that would lead one to believe that I had birthed them. My caddie for Rounds 3 & 4 was Cierra, a recent Evans Scholar graduate who I managed to drag out of retirement. She had seen me as my absolute worst -- from 2009 to 2011 I spent the entire weekend hacking out of yucca plants. She threw out the word "consistent" after Round 4, far better than the "why me's", "not again's" and "you suck's" that I had grown accustomed to from unfortunate caddies over the years.

Shooting low scores is nice. Making birdies and collecting bonus pledges is nicer. Getting texts from Schulte, who was following my GolfShots scorecards online, saying, "I've created a monster!" and "With you hitting 85% of your fairways, I don't stand a chance of beating you" was outstanding. But playing fast and walking a bunch of holes was still the priority. Even proactively managing my shoes and reactively managing a wonky stomach in between rounds, I was well ahead of the pace of both the Ben Cox 155 and last year's Hundred Hole Hike. My first five rounds were recorded in 1:21, 1:22, 1:27, 1:25 and 1:35. This was six and nine minutes faster for the first five rounds, on average, than the first 2012 Hike and Ben Cox marathon, respectively. And it wasn't because I was in better shape, I assure you. The only thing going for me was splitting those fairways.

I had completed my 100th hole at 2:05 PM, and just like other years, you start doing the numbers game and wonder just how holes you can get in. I toyed with the idea of calling Ben Cox and seeing if he'd be okay if I took the number beyond 155. However, Round 6 was a reality check. I developed some shin splints and my body was generally rejecting the idea of carrying on. The 17th hole and 18th holes destroyed any notion of breaking 80 -- specifically three shots to get out of the green side bunker on 17 signaled a tipping point in my play and focus.

Thankfully, my caddies for holes 109-155, Preston and Skyler were a tremendous help. On the 12th hole, my drive carried too far and found the cavernous right fairway bunker. I took one look at the ball and said, "I can get down there, but I'm not sure I can get back up." Preston agreed to pull me up out of the bunker with my wedge after the shot. In between shots, I used my club in hand as a walking stick to lengthen my strides. Occassionally, Skyler would dig the ball out of the hole on a putt. And on the 16th hole of Round 8, this happened:

My game came around a little bit in Rounds 7 & 8, as I shot 82 and 80, respectively. I was still able to hit 9-10 fairways a round, but the occassional skulled iron or half wedge shot led to a lot more double and triple bogeys than before.

As I completed the 1st hole for the 9th and final time, a long, lanky figure ran down the fairway towards me. It was Steve Hale, aka Pepsi, aka Keegan Bradley's caddie. Steve used to caddie at Ballyneal back in the day, between gigs on the tour when he used to be on Johnson Wagner's bag. An injury to Jamie Lovemark eventually led to him getting a shot with Keegan, and the rest is history. Now, he's a Ballyneal member (if you ever see Keegan on tv, look for the giant Ballyneal logo on his caddie's right sleeve).

Less than 24 hours earlier, he was caddieing for the winner off the 2011 PGA Championship. Now, he was following around a complete hack with 46 miles on his pedometer. And I didn't disappoint. The second shot Pepsi saw me hit was a duck-hooked hybrid on the 2nd hole. On the 4th hole, I hacked out of the native and hit a worm burner down the fairway. On the 5th tee, Steve kneeled down to record some video of my swing, with the hopes of sending it to some of his Golf Channel contacts.

I lined up an 8-iron...and cold-shanked it into the weeds.

"Delete! Let me try that again," I said. Next shot...shanked again.

I made a mess of that 5th hole, but one memorable moment was seeing Pepsi in action. One tell-tale sign of a pro-caddie: he had the longest strides that I've ever seen in a human. He covers more ground per step than Kevin Durant on a fast break. During the hike, we allow for the golfer to keep the flag in while putting, without incurring a penalty. After turning into Shankopotomus, my long putt for double bogey was of little consequence, and Preston and Skyler were already preparing for the next hole. As I took my first practice stroke, Pepsi's reflexes took over. He fast-walked clear across the large 5th green in three steps, took out of the flag with the swift precision of an assassin, and darted to the other side of the green out of the way. It was like watching poetry in motion.

On the sixth hole, Steve tried to record some more video. I responded with a hosel rocket that nearly took his head off. This was a really bad sign. I was still hitting the driver well, so I managed alright on the short 7th hole and hit a good drive on the 8th. Sitting in the 8th fairway, about 250 yards away and petrified about hitting another shank, I seriously considered hitting a lob wedge for my second shot. Thankfully, I concentrated enough to get a 6-iron airborne, and the remaining four holes were shank free.

Pepsi left after 9 holes to fetch us a ride back after the 155th and final hole. It was a great nine holes, shanks and all. My only regret is that I missed out on a HUGE opportunity to record a video like this after making a putt:

I am still kicking myself. But in a day at Ballyneal that saw some very impressive numbers, I guess I can live with just one regret.

299 down, 201 to go. Next Stop: Cabot Links

Please support my Hundred Hole Hike for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy in Denver and the Evans Scholars Foundation, both providing opportunities for young caddies. For more information or to make a pledge, please go to: http://www.hundredholehike.com/golfers/jim-colton

By the numbers:

Holes 155

Miles ~50

Strokes 685, +74

Stroke Avg 79.7

Par 3 Avg 3.31

Par 4 Avg 4.55

Par 5 Avg 5.42

GIR 51.6%

Par 3 GIR 60%

Par 4 GIR 47.9%

Par 5 GIR 53.8%

Fairway 70.8%

Eagle 1

Birdie 16

Par 67

Bogey 54

Dbl Bogey 14

Trp Bogey 2

Quad Bogey 1

Par 3 Bird% 8.6%

Par 4 Bird% 9.6%

Par 5 Bird% 19.2%

Putts/Rd 33.8

Putts/GIR 1.99

0 Putts 1

1 Putts 34

2 Putts 104

3 Putts 17

4 Putts 0

Best Ball Score: 60

Worst Ball Score: 105

Easiest Hole: 7th, 3.44 (-5)

Hardest Hole: 17th, 5.25 (+10)

While We're Young: My 2013 Hundred Hole Hike (Vol 1. Pinehurst)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 03:53:00 +0000

I don't claim to be a Payne Stewart expert or historian, but I recently discovered a little known fact about the late three-time major champion.

Dude was a yoga master.

It should not come to a surprise that no one has ever revealed this nugget until now. I only discovered it after walking 144 holes at Pinehurst on Monday, for the first of my four Hundred Hole Hikes. Pinehurst has been around for over 100 years, but certainly no one had ever walked 144 holes before at the resort. That put me in a unique Vasco da Gama-esque position to drop this little known gem on the golf community. Consider your mind blown.

You see, after 72 holes of the mental and physical toll that must come from winning a US Open (not speaking from personal experience), how does one explain that modified, single-leg warrior pose that Stewart managed pulled off? That now timeless stance has endured, because of the stage, the setting, and the spontaneity of it all. People had never seen anything quite like it.

But was it really spur of the moment? After 144 holes at Pinehurst, I can't help but wonder if he practiced it in front of a mirror on a yoga mat for months, waiting for just the right moment to spring it on the world.

I was fortunate enough to bookend my 8-round journey Monday with rounds on the famed No. 2 course, Donald Ross's gem that is making history by hosting US Open's for the men and women next year in back-to-back weeks. That's 144 holes of professionals (and a handful of amateurs) struggling to make par. Combined with the 144 holes at the resort, what better way to commemorate their first day "on the clock" as Open host with 144 holes of a very amateur golfer really struggling to make par?

Obviously, that meant my 144th and final hole would end on the 18th green of No. 2, site of one of the most memorable moments in golf history. Everybody who knows me knew exactly what that meant. There was no way I was not going to strike that pose. Nothing to it. Right?

After hitting my approach shot on the 18th to just off the back left corner of the green, a mediocre putt left me about 15 feet below the hole. Here was my Payne Stewart opportunity, minus the plus-fours and the roomy sleeveless rain jacket (the resort would make a mint if they sold these in the pro shop). I made a confident stroke, the ball curling right towards the hole for an assured par. I started lifting one leg in the air...what a way to finish the day! Then the ball lipped out. Violently.

Yes, I then proceeded to miss the three-footer coming back, amidst the groans of my two caddies, one newspaper reporter, Executive Vice President of the resort Tom Pashley (and from what i could gather, a guy who might have the best job on earth) and famed writer and Pinehurst local James Dodson. Mercifully, I made the next tap-in putt to complete a not-very stellar 85. The moment was effectively lost, but the guys were ready with cameras for the pose regardless. I planted on one leg, lifted my right arm with putter forward, raised my left leg as high as it would go (probably 6-9 inches off the ground at most). Almost immediately, my right foot gave way to the weight of 40+ miles of walking and 195-pounds of flab, and I fell over. Unlike Payne, I don't think they'll memorialize this on the Walk of Fame anytime soon.

I was determined to get it right though. A second attempt was no better than the first. Finally, I mustered up enough energy to stay upright for the 2.5 seconds it took to snap this picture.

It wasn't pretty. But it got the job done. And that pretty much summed up my golf for the day.

I came into this first hike woefully behind in terms of conditioning and golf practice -- work and an injury a couple months ago taking most of the blame. But teeing off at 5:28 am on the first hole on No. 2, I hit a six-iron into the dark abyss. Based on feel and sound alone, I assumed a toey hook into the wire grass (by the way, if you haven't been to Pinehurst since the recent renovation by Coore & Crenshaw, you simply have to check it out. This would've been thick Bermuda rough until recently.) The ball turned up right in the middle of the fairway. My second shot was again straight and just short of the green. I putted up the steep hogsback, then had a Ross-inspired three jack for my first of many double bogeys. Glad we got that out of the way. It was now 5:32 am.

By the third hole, it was light enough to see the ball pretty well, and we zoomed ahead. It was so early that they hadn't even put the flagsticks back in, which made for an interesting experience. Thankfully, one of my two caddies, Mark (FB friend and fellow GCAer Cory Lewis played the role of forecaddie for the first three rounds), looped here on Sunday and was generally familiar with the hole locations. I was just aiming for center of the green anyways, never a bad strategy in general, especially true here.

For many guests, a round on the Number 2 is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something that you'd want to savor. The only downside to my first round was that it was too fast -- an one hour and 26 minute blur. For example, a day later, I knew I made one birdie in the first round, but couldn't recall which of the par 5's it was on (turns out it was #16). The things that did stick out most were the serene beauty and stillness of those early morning hours, the hard-packed sand in the waste areas that was just made for golf and most of all, what a great walking course No. 2 is -- probably the most walkable great course that I've ever played in the U.S. Anyone who takes a golf cart there is really missing out on a wonderful experience.

By the time we made it over to the first tee of the Number 1 course, site of our second round, one single was just finishing the hole and one was about to tee off. The nice older lady on the tee let us play through and wished me luck. We passed the other single on the third hole where he witnessed me split the fairway with a 300 yard bomb, followed by a chunked shot well short of the green. After that, it was smooth sailing. The second round was one of my better ball-striking rounds and I had my fastest round of the day at 1 hour, 17 minutes on this sporty 6,100 yard course. The only thing that prevented a sub-80 round was a self-inflicted dumb shot wound to the head on the par 3 9th, where after missing the green left and on a slope, I lazily tried to chip with my pitching wedge instead of bothering to ask Cory for the 60-degree that I always use it than situation. Predictably, I hit the ball over the green and into the back bunker. Unpredictably (or predictably, based on what you think of my golf game), I skulled the next shot into dogwooded oblivion. A quadruple bogey 7 would comeback to haunt me...81 for Round 2.

Finishing Rd 2 on Course No. 1, 8:16 AM

I was licking my chops to get out to course No. 3, which was the shortest of the eight courses. I figured I could overpower the course and rack up some bonus birdie and eagle bonuses. Let's just say that plan backfired. One can tell that No. 3 has claimed its fair share of similar victims. The course has short holes with sharp doglegs and small, undulation greens that require position golf off the tee and accurate wedge play to score well. In other words, both things that I suck at. No. 3 hung an embarrassing 89 around my neck. I walked off the 18 green of No. 3 completely humbled and slightly befuddled, but with a pace of one hour and 19 minutes, we had finished 54 holes before you had made it through your Monday morning inbox.

All was not lost on Course number 3 however. As I was marching down off on of the tee boxes after yet another errant drive, an older gentleman in a golf cart was making a bee line right towards me. In my checkered history as a golfer, this usually means a ranger is ready to run you off the course for some violation, so my knee-jerk reaction was to dump my driver and run the other direction. But never underestimate a retired golf member who own his own golf carts -- some have them more pimped out than a NBA player's Escalade. After he darted up the hill towards me at break neck speed and slammed on the brakes, he asked, "are you from Geneva High School, Coultrap Middle School?" I instantly recognized him as Mr. Burnell, my gym teacher and the basketball coach while I was in high school. He was a very good golfer back in the day and I knew he had retired to the Pinehurst area, but what were the chances of running into your gym teacher on the golf course 20 years later? It made my day.

Mr. Burnell had found out about my adventure through this introductory card that the resort had printed and left at each starter's hut (see right). Obviously having one guy whip around seven different courses in a day is bound to create a logistical and operational nightmare, but the staff at the club couldn't have been more helpful and supportive. The HHH printout cards were a huge help on Course No. 4 which is one of the most popular courses amongst members and was jammed packed as we rolled up a little before 10:00 am.

For the front nine, we literally played through a foursome on every hole. Because of the preparation of the starters and the work of the rangers, everybody on the course knew I was coming. Every member was supportive of the effort, offering words of encouragement as I blitzed on by. I received every variation of the "While We're Young!" joke imaginable. The other golfers genuinely seemed excited to be out there that day with me. For reasons still unbeknownst to me, two gentlemen even asked me to sign the little handout the resort had made. I guess they wanted to show their friends proof that they played a part in this unique day. Honestly, the support spurred me on, as I played my best golf. Another dumb triple bogey derailed what should've been a round in the 70s, but I made two birdies on the front nine en route to a 40-40 80 in 1:39.

In addition to the autograph seekers, another unique experience was when a camera crew from the Fox outlet in Greensboro, NC pulled up and recorded the last few holes on Course No. 4. Thankfully, I was playing some of my best golf at the time, and recorded much of what was my longest stretch of pars in a row, five in a row from holes 12 to 16. Caddy Mark & I laughed after I hit a great shot from a fairway bunker to about 15 feet, zipping the ball back like a tour pro. I hope they use that shot! After the round, the reporter Tim interviewed me for five minutes or so, definitely a first for this relative nobody.

In my previous HHH experience, the halfway point is always a big milestone. "It's all downhill from here" is a common refrain. I wonder if marathon runners have the same thought after mile 13? It was time say goodbye to Mark and welcome in the second shift of caddies, 38-year old Jamie and 23-year old Scott. I grabbed some BLOKS electrolyte chews & some Gu gel, literally the only two things I "ate" all day. Even with the interview and the short break, we were well ahead of schedule. Getting four rounds done in just over six hours, and with about nine hours of daylight left, visions of possibly getting in a ninth round danced in my head. Last year, I also played this kind of numbers game, and it almost led to me going crazy in the oppressive 107-degree heat at Ballyneal.

The two-caddie system worked well during the Ben Cox 155, and I've just stuck with the same approach since. I don't believe any other HHHers have tried this method. Admittedly it is a little strange to have a guy carrying just three of your clubs by hand, but it is a tremendous help over the course of the day. Jamie held the driver, hybrid and putter and tended the greens (similar to Mark's role in the first shift). Scott, like Cory before him, carried the approach clubs and walked ahead to forecaddie. And given how erratic my swing was during rounds 5-8, his presence was a huge time saver.

They say a caddie is equal parts Sherpa and psychologist. This might even be more skewed to the latter during a Hundred Hole Hike. One of my other main reasons for having two caddies is just having someone to talk to. Being alone with your thoughts when you are 81 holes down, 63 to go can be a dangerous thing. Jamie and I talked about all sorts of topics - golf mostly, but also hoops, family and anything else that would make the round go by faster. Scott and I joked about how many greens I missed and how often he had to pull that 60 degree wedge for my next shot. It was like he had grown a third arm. He usually had it cocked and ready before I even hit my approach shot.

The round on Course No. 5 was probably the biggest blur of them all. Two days later, I can honestly only recall the first hole and the walk to the second vividly. My Golf Logix app shows that I birdied the par 4 5th. I am pretty sure that I rolled in a decent-length putt there. The app also shows that I shot an 81 with a time of 1:43.

With the overcast skies giving way to sun and the temperature approach 90, I could sense myself getting a little loopy mentally. Given the first five courses at Pinehurst are part of the main resort, and the other three courses are on separate properties requiring one to hop in the car, it seemed liked an opportune time to head back to my room for a quick shower to hopefully recharge the batteries. A change of clothes (channel your inner-Pat Summerall: brought to you by...Linksoul) socks (again, with feeling...Kentwool) and shoes (one more time...TRUE linkswear, of course) had me feeling like a new man. Hopefully this new man could hit the ball a little straighter than the old one.

Given when they were built, the original five courses were designed to be walker friendly. Courses No. 6 & 7 are newer courses built in that era where golf was used as a vehicle to sell houses. Course No. 6 especially has some very long green to tee walks.

On the front nine, I ran into Alex, the social media guy for the resort. Like the Fox reporter, he recorded some shot footage and a quick interview. Unlike the Fox reporter, I played some of my worst golf of the day. Two bogeys, two doubles, and a triple. A bunch of lumber hit, a few lost balls and a couple punch out shots. I can't wait to see that footage. Amazingly, Alex skipped ahead one hole briefly, a par 5 that I reached in two with a towering 6-iron from 195 yards. Where was he for that? The minute he showed up again, I was back to my foozled-self.

"Jim, tell us what was going on in your head as your were lining up that double bogey putt?"

For whatever reason, after Alex left, I was able to play some better golf. A birdie on the 12th combined with 13 putts on the back nine salvaged a 46-39 85. Time of play was 1:59.

From there, it was a short drive over to course #7. We were in the homestretch now, and it was officially the "grind it out" portion of the day. I was moving a little slower, and despite a birdie on the opening hole, my iron and wedge play had decided to catch an earlier flight back to O'Hare. A bunch of unforced errors just added unnecessary time and strokes to my tally.

When we started the round, the pro said there were only a couple twosomes on the course, and that we probably wouldn't catch them. I promised him that we would try. We caught the first group on the fourth hole, then another on the 7th tee. When we finished the front nine, the ranger informed us that "four foursomes of Asians" had just teed off on the back and urged us to play the front nine again. That sounded like a fine idea to me.

My initial thought was the added familiarity would only speed up my time and help me play a little better. Well, that turned out to be a misguided notion. I hit a large stone house off the first tee, quickly crushing any hope of birdieing it for a second time. I triple-bogeyed the third hole (see pics below and you'll understand why). After missing a five-footer for par on the last hole, without having really kept close tabs on my scores, I said to Scott, "That sucks. I think that putt was to break 90." Moments later, the Golf Logix app confirmed my internal golfological clock: 43-47 90 in 2 hours and 3 minutes, my only round that surpassed those two undesirable milestones.

The combination of the break after round 5, the drive between courses and the longer walks and poorer play, I went from 45 minutes ahead of schedule to 30 minutes behind. The original expected time to tee off back on Number 2 was 6:45 pm. We teed off at 7:12 pm. With dark skies, the threat of thunderstorms (going in, there was a 50% chance of storms in the afternoon) and my lengthening pace of play all looming large, for the first time all day I wondered if we'd get the full 144 in.

Thankfully, I split the first fairway again (with driver and daylight this time) and we were off to a quick start. I was quickly reminded of my earlier assessment of No. 2 -- this is simply a fantastic course to walk. Being out there with the caddies (and reporter Bret, who came back after walking the first two rounds), in the quiet of the early evening -- it felt like I owned one of the greatest golf courses in the world. How could any avid golfer, 130+ holes in the bag or not, not get a little extra spring in their step?

Further adding fuel to my fire was a well-timed call from my good friend and fellow hiker Wyatt Halliday (aka "Great Name, Even Better Guy"):

Wyatt: You answered the phone?! I totally expected to get voice mail. How'd it go?

Jim: I'm still going. I just piped down the 5th fairway.

Wyatt: I called while you're on the 5th hole of Number 2? That's the best hole in North Carolina!!!

After a few more pleasantries, further encouragement, and a couple "I love you mans", I had reached my drive with Scott ready to hand me my 6-iron.

The fifth hole at Pinehurst No. 2

That timely phone call from Wyatt flipped some kind of switch. I smoked that 6-iron -- uphill and just over the signature hogsback green. A very cautious lag putt got me to within three feet and I tapped in for par. A par that Jamie said was the first one he had seen on that hole in a month. Funny, the caddies said the same thing when I made par here when I first played the course back in 2000. You think I can talk my pledgers into a half-birdie bonus?

After that call, I realized it was no longer a question of if I was going to finish. Even if was dark, we'd be able to get the last few holes in regardless. So my focus shifted more to soaking in the moment and enjoying the surroundings, something that I didn't have time to do in the first go around. I went on to par the next three holes and finished the front nine with a respectable 40.

The thought of breaking 80 for the last round did cross my mind. But the body didn't quite cooperate on the back nine. I hit a drive on the 12th hole that was literally 100 yards right of where Jamie told me to hit it. It was a rare, dreaded quadruple-cross, which somehow avoided hitting any trees and just kept going deeper and deeper into the forest. Eagle-eye Scott was able to find it, and I actually had a small opening through the canopy. Amazingly, I hoisted an 8-iron high into air, through the 10-foot wide gap fifty feet in the sky, and the ball ended up on the green 20-feet below the hole. A birdie there would've been a storybook ending to an epic day. And so would have Phil Mickelson winning the US Open at Merion on his birthday. Neither was meant to be. I took it one step further by three-putting for bogey.

The rain started on the 14th hole and got progressively harder as it got progressively darker. But it was all-good at that point. Tom appeared to greet us on the 15th hole, one of very few par 3's that I hit in regulation all day (stats to follow soon, I promise). I parred 16 as well, then hit well short of the 17th hole and putted up to the green while Dodson came out of the darkness as if he were Bagger Vance.

Despite the growing gallery, no one could quite tell where my drive on 18 was headed. It felt like a low, skunky hook into the bunker to me. Jamie thought it was in the left wiregrass. Tom provided an impromptu local ruling for a free drop (no phone-ins please), and I hit my approach shot to the 144th and final green, setting up my aforementioned pathetic attempt to copy the 1999 US Open champion.

With caddies Scott (L) and Jamie (R)

After the round, we stood on the newly constructed veranda behind the green and recapped the day. Tom popped a glass of champaign, offered a toast and presented me with a replicate putter boy figurine as a trophy for shattering the all-time record for holes walked in a day at Pinehurst. Tom had a tall can of Arnold Palmer mix ready for me as well. I mixed a little with the champaign and took a sip -- it was actually pretty good!

As I stood (and eventually sat) on the veranda, I thought a lot about the special day. I thought about the bond established with the caddies through this shared experience. I thought about the opportunities we would be creating for young caddies through the fundraising for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy and the Evans Scholars Foundation. I thought about the numerous members and guests that had offered words of encouragement throughout the day. I realized that this crazy little idea of walking a bunch of holes in a day for charity might actually have some legs.

Most of all, I thought about Payne Stewart. The overcast weather, the intermittent rain and the fading light brought me back to the memorable battle with Mickelson (and Tiger and Vijay) in 1999. Even the caddies commented on the similarities in the conditions.

Stewart and Pinehurst have been so intertwined, even 14 years after his death. He's almost as synonymous with the resort as Donald Ross at this point. They set the Sunday pin every week in the same spot where Stewart canned his putt. Resort guests all get a picture in front of the statue. Many, like me, try to mimic that pose. In the three days I spent at the resort, I'd estimate that at least one in five conversations I overheard was somehow related to Payne Stewart or the '99 US Open.

Aside from the pose and that awkward moment where Stewart grabbed Phil's face and looked for a second like he might plant a kiss on him, the other thing that I recalled about Stewart were the stories of him growing in his Christian faith the last couple years of his life, and how the pieces were all falling into place to him, leading to a peace and strength that were the key reason he was able to win the tournament. Here is what he said after winning the US Open:

"I'm proud of the fact that my faith in God is so much stronger and I'm so much more at peace with myself than I've ever been before in my life," he said that night, his face still wet from the rain, sweat and tears. "That's the reason I was able to gather myself and collect myself [before the putt]."

Four months later, he was gone, but is still not forgotten. It's hard not to wonder if this, albeit tragic, was all part of God's plan for Stewart. Would a single Open win have had the same impact on people if he had won at Olympic in 1998 instead (he had a four-stroke lead heading into the final round). Or what if Payne were still around today? Would that moment be quite as etched into people's minds?

I can't help but think about Ben Cox and his family, who after Ben's accident were only able to get through the tough times through their strong faith, leaning heavily on Romans 8:28: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him." Seeing the impact that Ben had on others through his accident was amazing, and literally a life-changing experience for me. I questioned how a 23-year old kid could be so much more spiritually mature than a grown man who attended church every week, but like many dad's with young families, struggled just to get through the week in one piece. I wondered why I was so focused on my golf game but going through the motions in nearly every other aspect of my life. I wondered what would folks say about me if my time was cut short, other than, "Nice guy. Mean hook. Played a lot of really, really nice golf courses."

Fast forward two years...not only can I appreciate the strength that Payne Stewart must've had to hold that pose, but I am beginning to relate a bit to that peace he felt walking up that storied 18th fairway. Some folks are destined to win giant trophies. Some are destined to have their lives cut short but live on forever. Perhaps God just injected me with a passion for this great game and the uncanny ability to walk forever? Until I met Ben Cox, it never really made any sense to me. It probably still doesn't make much sense to others. But for whatever reason, walking 500 holes and 165 miles in a 17-day stretch made perfect sense at the time (though admittedly a little less sense now). I think all of us long for a life of purpose. I am the first to admit that I struggled with it for a long time. Only after faith and fate helped me discover a way to channel my life's passion into a way to help others did that sense of purpose start to reveal itself.

With the pieces starting to fall into place, I'm more firmly committed than ever to keep on hiking for meaningful causes until I can't walk anymore. At the end of my days, I hope someone will say something similar to what Paul Azinger said at Payne Stewart's memorial service:

"Payne Stewart has finished the race, he has kept the faith, and now the crown of righteousness is his. Payne Stewart loved life and loved people.. During this past year, everyone who knew Payne Stewart saw a dramatic change in his life. They saw in Payne what the Bible calls a 'peace which passes all understanding'."

Next week: Ballyneal

Please support my Hundred Hole Hike for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy in Denver and the Evans Scholars Foundation, both providing opportunities for young caddies. For more information or to make a pledge, please go to: http://www.hundredholehike.com/golfers/jim-colton

Stuck in a Rut: Hundred Hole Hike Update

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 20 May 2013 22:55:00 +0000

With exactly a month left before my first of four Hundred Hole Hikes, I finally got my training started in earnest.

Frankly, it's been a brutal spring. My HHH training has been in a rut. Falling down and injuring my hip and wrist set me back about a month. My wrist was slow to fully heal, which sapped any motivation to get out and to the gym. This was later made an impossibility by a string of 16-hour work days, including weekends. Meanwhile, our house was upside-down with a kitchen remodel. Golf wasn't even on the radar.

Thankfully, light started to shine through the tunnel over the course of the last week. Like many others, I was inspired by Kevin Cahoon's commitment and training regimen. I even picked a FitBit like he did, to provide that tracking, feedback and little extra motivation. Staying at my in-laws house about a mile away from our house during this renovation project, I took any opportunity to walk or ride back to/from the houses as errands warranted. And I simply had to start getting back in golf shape if there was any chance of walking 500 holes over 2 1/2 weeks at Pinehurst, Ballyneal, Cabot Links and St. Andrews (w/ Tom Doak!) Besides, who wouldn't want to play as many holes as humanly possible at those destinations?

One key part of my training the last two years has been a late-May/early June trip to Ballyneal, specifically to get the legs going again. I 'floated the concept' of a short-notice golf trip to my wife Sue, filed under the guise of HHH Training. You might think this was a pretty pathetic attempt to squeeze in an extra golf getaway. And I might think that you are one pretty perceptive fella. In either case, yada, yada, yada...there I was on Friday getting picked up from the airport for a ride out to the Chop Hills.

[Speaking of Ballyneal, I get a lot of questions about why someone living in Chicago would be a member at a golf club 850 miles away. There are a couple of responses: a) have you been there? b) it's a great solution for a guy with a young family, condensing scarce golf days into a few quality trips per year and c) I can wake up in Chicago and be on the first tee in Colorado at 10:15 AM, plenty of time to get in 36+ holes on both the getaway and return day.]

Fellow Hundred Hole Hiker Brandon Urban did whatever spousal negotiations were necessary to join me, driving 6 1/2 hours that morning from Kansas. HHHer John Penny already had plans to be there as well, and joined us after the first nine holes Friday. My nutritional guru and former HHHer/HGHer 'Magic' Matt Schulte provided the transportation and came out for the day, pouncing on the opportunity to beat up on some young (he just turned 40, so I'm going to use that adjective while I still can), injured and doughy prey. From his perspective, forcing the loser of the match to carry his clubs up from the 18th hole wasn't just Ballyneal tradition, it was an opportunity for me to do some additional leg strengthening exercises. Thank you, Matt?

For perhaps the first time ever, Matt and I were teammates against John and Brandon in the afternoon, and we played what turned out to be a 9-hole match off the back nine. As I continually walked up the dunes to find my (and Brandon's) erratic drives, I came to realize what everybody else already knew but was afraid to say: man, I'm out of shape. 22 holes into the trip and I was completely gassed.

Worse yet, whenever I tried to swing my driver, my calves would cramp up, producing some awkward swings but surprisingly decent results (I turned it around and carried our team to the victory...and Brandon and John carried the clubs up 'The Climb' after the round!). After a big drive on 18, both my legs seized up, I hobbled around in pain and fell straight to the ground. Needless to say, my friends
~~showed great concern for my well being and helped me up~~laughed hysterically at my predicament. When it was apparent that I wasn't going to be able to get up anytime soon, I said to the guys, "go ahead and hit while I try to roll out of the way." While Brandon wishes he had gotten the whole ordeal on video, he did manage to snap this picture:

Fortunately for me, I was able to get past the leg cramp issues with some electrolyte chews (leftover from last year's hike). Unfortunately for me, that wasn't the most embarrassing picture of the weekend.

My other motivation for getting out to Colorado was to scope out some land that I had routed a golf course on, mainly just for kicks but also just in case I had won the $600 million Powerball lottery. I mean, who wouldn't want to play a golf course designed by the 7th place finisher in the Golfclubatlas armchair architecture contest? After completing that entry and discovering the mystical powers of Google Earth, I started scouring the virtual land surrounding Ballyneal for potential golf holes. While there's probably enough land (if not enough water) for four courses, I honed in on a portion of land a couple miles south of the current course (and beyond the course already routed out by Bruce 'Hep-B' Hepner), in quieter dunes relative to the jagged Chop Hills of the original. I envisioned a tight, walking only design, even toying with the idea of having something work backwards and forwards, a la St. Andrews (though I wasn't smart enough to pull that off). I put together a rough routing (below), with the caveat that a site visit and some pictures would really help me visualize whether the holes worked or not.

So my plan was to wake up at the crack of dawn, borrow Brandon's car and drive over this plot of land and walk the routing and take notes and pictures along the way. My plan was not to turn onto a makeshift road, realize it was a) a bad idea and b) north of the property I wanted to look at it, try to turn around Brandon's car and get it dead stuck in the sand. But that's exactly what happened. Five minutes into my career as a golf course designer, and it was effectively over before it started.

It was a little bit like the opening scene of Breaking Bad, minus the gun and the roving meth lab in back (Yes, I was wearing pants). I searched the back of Brandon's car for a shovel, a survival kit and maybe an emergency flare gun, but had to settle on trying to dig the car out of the sand with a tire iron. The more I tried to extricate the car, the deeper it got buried in the sand. It had to be the single most ridiculous moment of futility in my 39 1/2 years of existence.

Finally, I gave up, called and woke up Garrett from the club at 5:30 am and told him I was stuck. They sent someone out to get me, then later brought a truck to pull the car out of the rut. There were about 42 lessons learned that morning. Among them: Stick to pavement. Don't quit your day job. And first and foremost, you're an idiot.

Thankfully, things looked up from there. Saturday and Sunday were good days of golf, and I slowly got my sea legs back. I felt like a golfer again. A walking golfer. A Hundred Hole Hiker. Thanks to a great weekend with friends at Ballyneal, I pulled myself out of the rut, with a five-iron instead of a tire iron. I even tried out some lefty hickories for the first time, and had a blast with them. I might have to put them in the rotation for a round or two during the Ballyneal hike.

Please consider supporting my Hundred Hole Hike for the Solich Caddie & Leadership Academy in Denver and/or the Evans Scholars Foundation by clicking here. Please note that a pledge for any of the four events is a pledge for the entire multi-stage hike, so please keep my target of 500 holes in mind as you pledge. You do not need to pledge to each event individually. At the end of the event, you will receive instructions on how to fulfill the pledge with one or both causes, allowing you to choose how you'd wish to split your pledge. Please feel free to e-mail me at jim@onedivot.com if you have any questions. -- Jim