This year has seen a chap by the name of Josh decide he would like to try and break the world record for playing the most amount of golf courses in a calendar year to raise money for charity in the name of his mum whom he lost to cancer.
He’s been on a massive trek throughout the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in a camper van playing 18, 36 or even 54 holes in one day.
As I write this he has just gone through the 300th day and 558th course.
On his instagram channel he has updated people every day on where he’s played, who he’s played with, what he’s had for dinner, where he’s managed to wash his clothes and even rates golf club showers. You can take a look at his channel here – https://www.instagram.com/ginger.golf/
On quite a few of his videos you can see railway lines with trains whizzing past the holes on the course so I thought I would do some analysis of the venues he’s visited and how near (or far!) they are away from the nearest railway station.
So far he’s visted 508 unique venues as some have multiple courses such as St Andrew’s, Woodhall Spa, Celtic Manor. He’s played 43 courses within half a mile of a station, the closest being a mere pitch from the end of the platform to some nearly 100 miles from the nearest tracks!
I’ve done 8 of these clubs on my “Walk to the Course” 1 minute videos which you can check out here – https://www.instagram.com/golfbyrailuk/
So with the nearest 16 clubs being within just 0,2 miles or 352 yards of a station I had to do the 16 furthest away from the station. The two ‘outliers’ are those courses near Campbelltown on the Kintyre Peninsula, both around 100 miles away from the nearest National Rail station by road (yes, I know there are ferries which are less in distance but you can’t walk on water unless your initals are JC!). Needless to say non of these courses are on my Walk to the Course list. I like walking, but not that much!
You can see exactly when and where he has played by using the tracker on his website
https://gingergolf.travelmap.net
Links to the organisations who’ve kindly sponsored him on his epic attempt, how you can donate and where he’s playing next can be found on his website – https://gingergolf.co.uk/
