BN-OU445_100HOL_1000V_20160706174323
How to Play 153 Holes of Golf in One Day
Epic golf outings take hold as a fundraising effort; 83,592 steps, no carts allowed
By Brian Costa
Da...
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How to Play 153 Holes of Golf in One Day
Epic golf outings take hold as a fundraising effort; 83,592 steps, no carts allowed
By Brian Costa
Danie Steyn swung an 8-iron, took one step forward and winced. “Ahhh !” he screamed. The shot was a beauty, arching from tee to green on the par-3 16th hole at the Woodmere Club. The problem was his feet. “It’s like walking on freaking fire,” he said.
At that moment, on a recent Monday evening just outside New York City, Steyn was 12 hours into the longest golf outing of his life. He would endure another hour before he and his playing partner walked off with statistics that seem to defy possibility: 153 holes of golf in one day, all without using a cart.
They would walk nearly 45 miles from start to finish, the equivalent of almost two marathons, all while trying to hit the ball straight. Steyn, a 29-year-old Philadelphia golf instructor, would go through three pairs of shoes, four pairs of socks, three shirts, two Advils and a Chardonnay cocktail before knocking in the last, merciful putt for bogey at 6:46 p.m.
“That was brutal,” he said.
A Marathon on the Links
Golfers during the 2016 Hundred Hole Hike at the Woodmere Club in Woodmere, N.Y. on Monday, June 27, 2016.
VIEW Interactive
Golfers during the 2016 Hundred Hole Hike at the Woodmere Club in Woodmere, N.Y. on Monday, June 27, 2016. Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal
If you’ve ever played on a crowded public course on a weekend, you may be familiar with the concept of a daylong golf marathon. It’s commonly known as “18 holes.” But the endurance test that Steyn embarked on was something else entirely. His partner, a 41-year-old radiologist named Bill Boonn, logged 83,592 steps on his pedometer.
The outing was part of a network of golf marathons called Hundred Hole Hike, in which people walk and play 100 or more holes in a day to raise money for a charity of their choice. For Steyn, that was the Junior League of Philadelphia. Boonn played for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
The concept took root in 2011, when a Chicago banker named Jim Colton raised more than $110,000 by walking 155 holes in a day for a caddie who had been paralyzed in a ski accident. The following year, he started the charity that oversees the hikes. Now, they attract nearly 100 golfers per year. There have been hikes across the U.S. and a few in Canada, Scotland and Australia.
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What makes marathon golf different is precisely what makes it effective, as a fundraising device.
“Do the math and 100 holes doesn’t even seem physically possible,” Colton said. “When you bring that up to someone, it’s a good conversation starter. You get sort of funny looks.”
Colton, a 42-year-old managing director at J.P. Morgan Chase, spoke by phone last month from Colorado, a day after playing 162 holes on foot at a course there. He was on his way to northern Michigan, where just a couple days later he would walk and play 108.
By now, he has figured out a few essentials for marathon golf: extra shoes, extra socks and BodyGlide, an anti-chafing balm popular among endurance athletes. But the key to playing so many holes from sunrise to sunset is doing so at a pace that is unlike anything else in golf. Steyn and Boonn finished the first three of their eight and a half rounds in an average of 1 hour, 15 minutes per round. Most golfers take between four and five hours to play 18 holes, though the pace at some courses can be even slower at times.
William Boonn and Danie Steyn celebrate after they putt on the final 18th hole, putting them at 144 holes walked. ENLARGE
William Boonn and Danie Steyn celebrate after they putt on the final 18th hole, putting them at 144 holes walked. Photo: Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal
It helped that the tournament had an alternate shot format, allowing them to take turns hitting one ball. At most Hundred Hole Hike events, each golfer plays his or her own ball. And skill is a factor. Fifteen of the 18 golfers who completed 100 or more holes at The Woodmere Club had handicaps in the single digits.
But the most striking thing about marathon golf is the absence of the dawdling that is typical throughout the sport. In their morning rounds, Steyn and Boonn jogged between shots. When their caddie struggled to keep up, they let him go. After initially sharing a bag, they each walked with two clubs in hand, giving themselves four to share for the rest of the day: a 4-hybrid, an 8-iron, a sand wedge, and a putter.
Playing through, a process typically bound by rules of etiquette and occasionally fraught with tension, is much simpler in marathon golf. Slower players simply yield to faster groups coming up behind them, like a car getting out of the left lane to let another pass. The only no-no is fussing over a shot.
“No practice swings,” said 45-year-old Brendan McBride, resting on a chair after playing 108 holes. “They’re just pointless here. Just get over it, hit it and go.”
William Boonn shows off his smartphone's pedometer stepcount shortly before finishing his round of 153 holes. ENLARGE
William Boonn shows off his smartphone's pedometer stepcount shortly before finishing his round of 153 holes. Photo: Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal
Scores are not unimportant, since many donors pledge bonuses for birdies. Steyn and Boonn combined for 705 shots, an average round score of 83. But breaking 90 on the scorecard isn’t nearly as important as passing 100 on the hole count. Without a cart, it is no easy feat.
“I think I tore my ACL,” said 39-year-old Tim Crowley as he limped down the eighth fairway, hole No. 104 for him. He has finished four running marathons. This was tougher, he said, and it wasn’t even close. For one thing, golf marathons require both walking and swinging. They take around three times as long as a typical running marathon. And most people who run marathons spend months training for them.
“That’s the sneaky part,” Crowley said, “because you don’t train for this. There’s not enough beer in the world to train for a hundred-hole hike.”
“
No practice swings. They’re just pointless here. Just get over it, hit it and go.
—Brendan McBride, after playing 108 holes
”
Steyn was a distance runner in South Africa as a teenager. But neither the 10-kilometer runs of his youth nor his current job teaching golf prepared him for walking 153 holes. With each passing round, he walked more and more gingerly. Blisters formed under both feet.
When he and Boonn teed off at 5:26 a.m., their goal was to play 126 holes, or seven rounds. They considered stopping after 144, which was already the highest total on the course that day, but resolved to try for another nine.
With daylight fading, Steyn’s thoughts turned to the following morning. He was scheduled to spend three hours giving instruction to children at the academy where he works, followed by at least nine holes of teaching on the course.
As he limped up the fairway on their 149th hole, Steyn turned to Boonn. “I can promise you this,” he said. “Tomorrow, I’m taking a golf cart.”
Write to Brian Costa at brian.costa@wsj.com
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How to Play 153 Holes of Golf in One Day
By
Brian Costa
Updated July 7, 2016 1:50 p.m. ET
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Fred Smith
Fred Smith
Jul 11, 2016
For some reason, this sounds enticing.
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DAN PENNINGTON
DAN PENNINGTON
Jul 8, 2016
Our head pro played 18 rounds of golf, 324 holes, in one day. Different format with support groups around the course, but 324 holes of golf in one day. With a 71 average.
http:--woundedwarriorsgolfclassic.org-…-content-…-index.php…
We owe much this magnificent accomplishment to our Head Golf Professional Josh Marr who posted a new record of 18 rounds in one day and raised $29,000. He not only played 324 holes non-stop, but he also scored an unbelievable 71 a round average! Here's the official stats:
•Total holes played -- 324 (18 rounds)
•Hours -- 15½ (started at 4:30 a.m. using glow balls)
•Shots hit -- 1,294
•Average score -- 71
•Birdies -- 40
•Rounds of par or better -- 9
•Worst score -- 80 (4:30 a.m.)
•Averaged time per round -- 52 minutes
• with members rotating as caddies,
• forecaddies, cart drivers cheer leaders,
• score keepers and food runners.
Flag ButtonShare
Steve W. Bell
Tom CB Smith
Tom CB Smith
Jul 8, 2016
As a teen I played 45 holes with Paul. We carried our bags and both of us scored around 90 a round. Darkness stopped the final trip. The guy running the course let us do it for free. Upstate NY in the 50s. This AM at 6:30 I walked 9 and carried my bag in Florida.Took 1:45 to do. Shot 38. ( 3231 yards of golf). Had to change all my clothes. Took a nap! Love to be a teen again!!
Flag ButtonShare
Fred SmithAl SwearengenMichael La Penna
Read less
Epic golf outings take hold as a fundraising effort; 83,592 steps, no carts allowed
By Brian Costa
Danie Steyn swung an 8-iron, took one step forward and winced. “Ahhh !” he screamed. The shot was a beauty, arching from tee to green on the par-3 16th hole at the Woodmere Club. The problem was his feet. “It’s like walking on freaking fire,” he said.
At that moment, on a recent Monday evening just outside New York City, Steyn was 12 hours into the longest golf outing of his life. He would endure another hour before he and his playing partner walked off with statistics that seem to defy possibility: 153 holes of golf in one day, all without using a cart.
They would walk nearly 45 miles from start to finish, the equivalent of almost two marathons, all while trying to hit the ball straight. Steyn, a 29-year-old Philadelphia golf instructor, would go through three pairs of shoes, four pairs of socks, three shirts, two Advils and a Chardonnay cocktail before knocking in the last, merciful putt for bogey at 6:46 p.m.
“That was brutal,” he said.
A Marathon on the Links
Golfers during the 2016 Hundred Hole Hike at the Woodmere Club in Woodmere, N.Y. on Monday, June 27, 2016.
VIEW Interactive
Golfers during the 2016 Hundred Hole Hike at the Woodmere Club in Woodmere, N.Y. on Monday, June 27, 2016. Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal
If you’ve ever played on a crowded public course on a weekend, you may be familiar with the concept of a daylong golf marathon. It’s commonly known as “18 holes.” But the endurance test that Steyn embarked on was something else entirely. His partner, a 41-year-old radiologist named Bill Boonn, logged 83,592 steps on his pedometer.
The outing was part of a network of golf marathons called Hundred Hole Hike, in which people walk and play 100 or more holes in a day to raise money for a charity of their choice. For Steyn, that was the Junior League of Philadelphia. Boonn played for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
The concept took root in 2011, when a Chicago banker named Jim Colton raised more than $110,000 by walking 155 holes in a day for a caddie who had been paralyzed in a ski accident. The following year, he started the charity that oversees the hikes. Now, they attract nearly 100 golfers per year. There have been hikes across the U.S. and a few in Canada, Scotland and Australia.
Advertisement
What makes marathon golf different is precisely what makes it effective, as a fundraising device.
“Do the math and 100 holes doesn’t even seem physically possible,” Colton said. “When you bring that up to someone, it’s a good conversation starter. You get sort of funny looks.”
Colton, a 42-year-old managing director at J.P. Morgan Chase, spoke by phone last month from Colorado, a day after playing 162 holes on foot at a course there. He was on his way to northern Michigan, where just a couple days later he would walk and play 108.
By now, he has figured out a few essentials for marathon golf: extra shoes, extra socks and BodyGlide, an anti-chafing balm popular among endurance athletes. But the key to playing so many holes from sunrise to sunset is doing so at a pace that is unlike anything else in golf. Steyn and Boonn finished the first three of their eight and a half rounds in an average of 1 hour, 15 minutes per round. Most golfers take between four and five hours to play 18 holes, though the pace at some courses can be even slower at times.
William Boonn and Danie Steyn celebrate after they putt on the final 18th hole, putting them at 144 holes walked. ENLARGE
William Boonn and Danie Steyn celebrate after they putt on the final 18th hole, putting them at 144 holes walked. Photo: Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal
It helped that the tournament had an alternate shot format, allowing them to take turns hitting one ball. At most Hundred Hole Hike events, each golfer plays his or her own ball. And skill is a factor. Fifteen of the 18 golfers who completed 100 or more holes at The Woodmere Club had handicaps in the single digits.
But the most striking thing about marathon golf is the absence of the dawdling that is typical throughout the sport. In their morning rounds, Steyn and Boonn jogged between shots. When their caddie struggled to keep up, they let him go. After initially sharing a bag, they each walked with two clubs in hand, giving themselves four to share for the rest of the day: a 4-hybrid, an 8-iron, a sand wedge, and a putter.
Playing through, a process typically bound by rules of etiquette and occasionally fraught with tension, is much simpler in marathon golf. Slower players simply yield to faster groups coming up behind them, like a car getting out of the left lane to let another pass. The only no-no is fussing over a shot.
“No practice swings,” said 45-year-old Brendan McBride, resting on a chair after playing 108 holes. “They’re just pointless here. Just get over it, hit it and go.”
William Boonn shows off his smartphone's pedometer stepcount shortly before finishing his round of 153 holes. ENLARGE
William Boonn shows off his smartphone's pedometer stepcount shortly before finishing his round of 153 holes. Photo: Adrienne Grunwald for The Wall Street Journal
Scores are not unimportant, since many donors pledge bonuses for birdies. Steyn and Boonn combined for 705 shots, an average round score of 83. But breaking 90 on the scorecard isn’t nearly as important as passing 100 on the hole count. Without a cart, it is no easy feat.
“I think I tore my ACL,” said 39-year-old Tim Crowley as he limped down the eighth fairway, hole No. 104 for him. He has finished four running marathons. This was tougher, he said, and it wasn’t even close. For one thing, golf marathons require both walking and swinging. They take around three times as long as a typical running marathon. And most people who run marathons spend months training for them.
“That’s the sneaky part,” Crowley said, “because you don’t train for this. There’s not enough beer in the world to train for a hundred-hole hike.”
“
No practice swings. They’re just pointless here. Just get over it, hit it and go.
—Brendan McBride, after playing 108 holes
”
Steyn was a distance runner in South Africa as a teenager. But neither the 10-kilometer runs of his youth nor his current job teaching golf prepared him for walking 153 holes. With each passing round, he walked more and more gingerly. Blisters formed under both feet.
When he and Boonn teed off at 5:26 a.m., their goal was to play 126 holes, or seven rounds. They considered stopping after 144, which was already the highest total on the course that day, but resolved to try for another nine.
With daylight fading, Steyn’s thoughts turned to the following morning. He was scheduled to spend three hours giving instruction to children at the academy where he works, followed by at least nine holes of teaching on the course.
As he limped up the fairway on their 149th hole, Steyn turned to Boonn. “I can promise you this,” he said. “Tomorrow, I’m taking a golf cart.”
Write to Brian Costa at brian.costa@wsj.com
top
How to Play 153 Holes of Golf in One Day
By
Brian Costa
Updated July 7, 2016 1:50 p.m. ET
0
Share your thoughts
Sign In to comment
There are 11 comments.
Livefyre
Newest
Oldest
Reader Recommended
Fred Smith
Fred Smith
Jul 11, 2016
For some reason, this sounds enticing.
Flag ButtonShare
DAN PENNINGTON
DAN PENNINGTON
Jul 8, 2016
Our head pro played 18 rounds of golf, 324 holes, in one day. Different format with support groups around the course, but 324 holes of golf in one day. With a 71 average.
http:--woundedwarriorsgolfclassic.org-…-content-…-index.php…
We owe much this magnificent accomplishment to our Head Golf Professional Josh Marr who posted a new record of 18 rounds in one day and raised $29,000. He not only played 324 holes non-stop, but he also scored an unbelievable 71 a round average! Here's the official stats:
•Total holes played -- 324 (18 rounds)
•Hours -- 15½ (started at 4:30 a.m. using glow balls)
•Shots hit -- 1,294
•Average score -- 71
•Birdies -- 40
•Rounds of par or better -- 9
•Worst score -- 80 (4:30 a.m.)
•Averaged time per round -- 52 minutes
• with members rotating as caddies,
• forecaddies, cart drivers cheer leaders,
• score keepers and food runners.
Flag ButtonShare
Steve W. Bell
Tom CB Smith
Tom CB Smith
Jul 8, 2016
As a teen I played 45 holes with Paul. We carried our bags and both of us scored around 90 a round. Darkness stopped the final trip. The guy running the course let us do it for free. Upstate NY in the 50s. This AM at 6:30 I walked 9 and carried my bag in Florida.Took 1:45 to do. Shot 38. ( 3231 yards of golf). Had to change all my clothes. Took a nap! Love to be a teen again!!
Flag ButtonShare
Fred SmithAl SwearengenMichael La Penna
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