About Me

My name is Logan, a 56 year old Canadian with a passion for golf.  I’d like to say I’m good at golf, but that would be a wee bit of a stretch.  Like I said, I have a PASSION for golf.  Now there was a time (BK – before kids) where I was pretty decent.  But those days are long gone and unlike objects in a car mirror, they are NOT closer than they appear.

But I absolutely love to golf.  So much so that when I finish a round of golf, I usually want to go right back out and play another.  To me, 18 holes is not enough.  I’m just getting into the swing of things (pardon the pun).

I have had memberships at a couple of courses over the years, but these days I much prefer playing different courses all the time.  I will play the odd course a few times each year, but I actively seek out ones that I’ve never played.  And my attitude toward the price of golf is that if you are a really good golfer, then by all means go crazy and pay those $80/$90/$150 green fees.  But if you’re like me, just an average “duffer”, why do you want to subject yourself to that absurdity?  Just so you can brag to you buddies that you played Pebble Beach?  And no doubt you broke 85.

In the short time I’ve been on this quest, I’ve come to find there are a lot of hidden gems out there.  And you don’t have to put a second mortgage on your house to play them. The fact is, there are a LOT of quality courses that you can play that are under $50 U.S., cart included! And that’s what I’m usually looking for. Sure, you get the odd dud, but overall I look for a quality experience, rather than simply looking for a “name”.

So it is because of this passion for golf and the fact that I enjoy playing different courses. This 50 state quest really fits into what I’m all about.  Someone asked me once why I love golf so much.  My response was that there is nothing like walking down a fairway, bag strapped over your shoulder, leaving a lonely set of footprints in the heavy August dew, the morning birds singing in the surrounding trees as you walk toward your ball.  Absolute, total serenity. The only sad part to that is there isn’t much walking these days. Bad knees from old hockey injuries have taken there toll.

I hope you will find some amusement as I share this adventure with you.

The Beginning:

Golf in all 50 states, that’s my goal.

Without a doubt the most challenging goal I have set for myself is to play golf in all of the US states. And to clarify, I don’t mean playing at some night-lit par 3 or better yet, the local mini-golf course. No, I mean at least 18 holes on a “true” golf course, with bent grass and Bermuda greens.

By no stretch of the imagination do I profess to be the first person to ever attempt this. I’ve read a number of accounts online of others who have gone before me. But I may be one of the few Canadians to have ever attempted this and from most of my readings of others who have done this, I may be one of a handful who have set a finite timeline to accomplish the feat. I have set a target of 5 years or on a simple average basis, 10 states per year.

This is a goal I’ve had for a couple of years now, but it was only during a golf trip to Myrtle Beach in February of 2012 that I actually shared that goal with someone else. And when I informed my good friend Brian of my intentions, his first reaction was to state his admiration for my goal, but then he immediately followed that up by asking me if I’d ever actually looked at a map of the U.S. And he repeated that same question when I stated I wanted to accomplish this over the next five years.

I will admit it is a lofty goal, especially given the fact that I don’t actually live in the U.S. I mean I can knock off the eastern seaboard pretty easily, but getting to places like Utah and Idaho, Oklahoma and Texas? “How the heck are you ever going to get there?” Brian asked when we actually did pull out a map to look at. “I’m not quite sure yet” was my response. And he was even more baffled when I told him that I was going to discount the handful of states that I had already played in previous years. I wanted to start fresh.

So my official quest began with that trip to Myrtle Beach in 2012, playing both of the Carolina’s at that time. In 2013 I lucked out by extending a business trip and lo and behold, I knocked off a few of those “out of the way states”, including Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming. And in the fall of 2013, I added a couple of more to the “played” list, by taking a week’s vacation down to Virginia with my wonderful and patient wife, Maria.

In a nutshell, that’s how it began. The end is nigh, but still a few states to go.