Being a course completist is a Cool Golf Thing

Avid golfers form a mutual-affinity group by virtue of their common zeal for the game. But there are many smaller niche groups within that fraternity. There are the architecture geeks (I'm one), the competitive junkies (yep, me too), the equipment experts (not so much, but I'm learning) and more.

One niche-within-niches is the golf course completists: golfers who have played a staggering number of courses. I aspire to join their ranks someday. At 31 years of age, my tally of 507 is good but pales in comparison to that of my colleague Jason Deegan (more than 1,050). Or Cory Lewis, a club pro in South Carolina who will be checking off his 2,000th career course played late this year or early next.

Then there are completists who make it their goal to play every course in their home state. For Floridians or Californians, this might be too tall an order, but in several other states, it is an attainable though still impressive feat. The newest member of this select group is David Jones, who earlier this week played his last of 214 courses in Oklahoma.

Jones joins the likes of Dick Montroy and Art Hennington of Minnesota; H. John Krueger of Wisconsin; and Vic Nunan of Maine, among others to tee it up at every course in a given state. I wrote about them in 2018.

A new quest, one of the most ambitious yet, is getting underway in Michigan. Jason Winchester, a P.E. teacher at Bemis Junior High School north of Detroit, has set out to play all of the state's 650 public golf courses, as he recently announced on his Instagram page, @averagesouthpawgolfer, over the coming summers. As a fellow lefty and lover of golf courses, I wish him luck.