Maybe something to shoot for in your home state. Here is the story of the man that just golfed all 526 courses in Minnesota, from the Pioneer Press.
Call it golfing kismet.
The end game for Minnesota's king of recreational golf was played out Thursday afternoon at the Minnesota course that started it all.
When Art Hennington sank his final putt, a 12-footer for bogey, and plucked his Bridgestone ball from the cup on the 18th hole at Town & Country Club in St. Paul, he had just played his 526th Minnesota golf course. The significance? Hennington is presumed to be the only person who has played every course in the state.
Town & Country, the final destination for Hennington on Minnesota golf's ultimate to-do list, opened in 1893 -- the state's first course. And officials at the private club alongside the Mississippi River had arranged last year to play host to the retired schoolteacher from Elk River for the historic -- well, at least in a golf-trivia sort of historical sense -- 18-hole round.
Hennington was joined by club pro Ryan Rindels, who is a former University of Minnesota football player, and two Town & Country Club members. His son Grant, who lives in St. Paul, arrived to watch his dad's final putt.
"It probably was the greatest experience out of all the courses I played," Hennington said.
Though there is no definitive recorded total of golf courses in the state, Hennington has played every one of them he's heard of, and he states with certainty that he has played all 519 on the Minnesota Golf Association's list of member courses.
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He has played at 476 sites (some courses were in a sense "double counted" because they have 18-hole layouts plus executive nines) and has played many courses that no longer exist. He concedes that he hasn't played every hole on every course.
"But I've played every course," he said.
Hennington, 66, has played golf for 50 years -- Course No.
Art Hennington, right, is congratulated by former Vikings player Greg Coleman after sinking his putt on the 18th hole at Town and Country Golf Club. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)
1 for him was the now-defunct Sauk Centre Country Club, in his hometown, where he debuted as a 17-year old in 1964 and once shot a 4-under-par 70 -- but wasn't bitten by the play-every-course bug until 2000, when he was perusing an MGA course directory and decided, why not?
"You know the old adage, 'Why do you climb a mountain? Because it's there?' " Hennington said before Thursday's round.
"I like golfing; I like golfing different courses, and all of a sudden, I got that MGA directory, and I thought, gee, I think I could maybe do a dumb thing and try to play all these courses -- knowing it might be tough to get on all the private ones. Then when I got up to about 350, it's like, now it would be really stupid (to quit)."
Earlier this week, Hennington was concerned his course total might wind up stuck at 525 -- one short of his quest. In late June, he had played the second-to-last course on his list, Pokegama Lake R.V. Park and Golf Course east of Pine City, which features an 80-yard par 3 over a bank of trees.
The tee time at Town & Country Club awaited, but first, Hennington took a September trip to Northern Ireland and Italy.
Upon his return to the States, Hennington learned of a medical condition requiring immediate attention. He underwent an angioplasty Monday and had two stents inserted. Hennington was told he had to take at least two days off from golf.
On Thursday morning, he and his wife, Joni, relaxed in the Town & Country Club clubhouse before he took on course No. 526.
Hennington conceded he was "a little nervous. A little nervous in the sense that Monday the doctor said, well, we could do nothing, we could do stents, we could do bypass surgery. I thought, my gosh, if I have to have a bypass, this thing is shot."
Joni Hennington walked the Town & Country Club layout alongside her husband Thursday. "I'm proud of him," she said. "It's a great accomplishment, something most people would never even attempt."
Art Hennington said he traversed the 526 courses largely on foot, sometimes in a golf cart. The biggest challenge he faced, he said, was getting on private courses. He hadn't been able to arrange a Town & Country tee time until a newspaper story on his quest was published last year. Five club members soon offered to set up a round.
Other tough, tony nuts to crack included Woodhill in Wayzata, Spring Hill in Orono and Oak Ridge in Hopkins. He played the latter two only after spending $700 at fundraising auctions to secure tee times for himself and acquaintances.
Another challenge was knocking off a series of courses in southwestern Minnesota in a veritable blink of an eye.
"I had one stretch two or three years ago where I played five rounds each in two days," Hennington said, "and the fifth round each time was like, oh my goodness, my back is hurting, and it's getting late at night. And I remember one time I thought, 'Oh, I'll skip the fifth one ... but if I do that, I'll have to come back.' "
He soldiered on, completing the 10-course, 48-hour marathon.
Not all of his southwestern Minnesota ventures were as successful.
"In Jackson, I was looking for a course, Rolling Hills, I think it was called. I had GPS, and it was taking me there, and I looked to the right and it was a farm field. I'm thinking, maybe I'm off. I get back in the car and drive around and come back again ,and it's still a farm field, so I stopped somewhere and said to someone, 'There's supposed to be a golf course here.' And he said, 'Oh, that's been closed six, seven years now; it's a farm field."
Hennington's odyssey took him to places such as NW Angle Country Club in Angle Inlet, which had seven sand greens, two grass greens and mosquitoes as thick as a plague of locusts; to Valley High near Houston in southeastern Minnesota, where a tree stands smack-dab in the middle of the 16th green; and to Alexandria Golf Club, which includes greens shaped like the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Minnesota.
"Minnesota's a par 3," Hennington said, "and I always jokingly say the pin was in Minneapolis and I hit it up by Roseau."
Time and perhaps travel have exacted a toll on Hennington's game; he played to an 8 handicap when he began the quest in 2000 and now is up to a 15.
Hennington mentioned Spring Hill, with its uphill par 5s, and The Wilderness and The Quarry at Giants Ridge in northeastern Minnesota as particularly challenging courses; he gives a nod to The Wilderness as one of his favorites. He mentioned unsung holes like the par-4 second at Oak Knolls in Red Lake Falls, which features two encounters with a creek and an uphill approach shot to a green guarded by trees; and unsung courses like Sandhill River in Fertile -- "every hole was unique and different, and it was really in pretty good shape for a little town."
Now that the quest is over? Hennington has played golf in every state except South Dakota, Delaware, Alaska and Utah but says he isn't likely to go for the 50-state sweep. He and Joni planned to have a small, private celebration Thursday night, but after that, it's anyone's guess.
"This was my mission," he said, "and now it's going to be over and it's like now I don't know if I have to have another mission or if I can just golf and do other things. But it has consumed me for over 10 years. The Peggy Lee song says, 'Is that all there is?' and there aren't going to be any fireworks or anything; it's just done.
"It's a heck of an accomplishment. It's kind of like if you run a fast race and you get done, that's great, but it's over with ... But I've got a lot of memories and tons of pictures, so I can always look back and see what's what.
Call it golfing kismet.
The end game for Minnesota's king of recreational golf was played out Thursday afternoon at the Minnesota course that started it all.
When Art Hennington sank his final putt, a 12-footer for bogey, and plucked his Bridgestone ball from the cup on the 18th hole at Town & Country Club in St. Paul, he had just played his 526th Minnesota golf course. The significance? Hennington is presumed to be the only person who has played every course in the state.
Town & Country, the final destination for Hennington on Minnesota golf's ultimate to-do list, opened in 1893 -- the state's first course. And officials at the private club alongside the Mississippi River had arranged last year to play host to the retired schoolteacher from Elk River for the historic -- well, at least in a golf-trivia sort of historical sense -- 18-hole round.
Hennington was joined by club pro Ryan Rindels, who is a former University of Minnesota football player, and two Town & Country Club members. His son Grant, who lives in St. Paul, arrived to watch his dad's final putt.
"It probably was the greatest experience out of all the courses I played," Hennington said.
Though there is no definitive recorded total of golf courses in the state, Hennington has played every one of them he's heard of, and he states with certainty that he has played all 519 on the Minnesota Golf Association's list of member courses.
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He has played at 476 sites (some courses were in a sense "double counted" because they have 18-hole layouts plus executive nines) and has played many courses that no longer exist. He concedes that he hasn't played every hole on every course.
"But I've played every course," he said.
Hennington, 66, has played golf for 50 years -- Course No.
Art Hennington, right, is congratulated by former Vikings player Greg Coleman after sinking his putt on the 18th hole at Town and Country Golf Club. (Pioneer Press: John Autey)
1 for him was the now-defunct Sauk Centre Country Club, in his hometown, where he debuted as a 17-year old in 1964 and once shot a 4-under-par 70 -- but wasn't bitten by the play-every-course bug until 2000, when he was perusing an MGA course directory and decided, why not?
"You know the old adage, 'Why do you climb a mountain? Because it's there?' " Hennington said before Thursday's round.
"I like golfing; I like golfing different courses, and all of a sudden, I got that MGA directory, and I thought, gee, I think I could maybe do a dumb thing and try to play all these courses -- knowing it might be tough to get on all the private ones. Then when I got up to about 350, it's like, now it would be really stupid (to quit)."
Earlier this week, Hennington was concerned his course total might wind up stuck at 525 -- one short of his quest. In late June, he had played the second-to-last course on his list, Pokegama Lake R.V. Park and Golf Course east of Pine City, which features an 80-yard par 3 over a bank of trees.
The tee time at Town & Country Club awaited, but first, Hennington took a September trip to Northern Ireland and Italy.
Upon his return to the States, Hennington learned of a medical condition requiring immediate attention. He underwent an angioplasty Monday and had two stents inserted. Hennington was told he had to take at least two days off from golf.
On Thursday morning, he and his wife, Joni, relaxed in the Town & Country Club clubhouse before he took on course No. 526.
Hennington conceded he was "a little nervous. A little nervous in the sense that Monday the doctor said, well, we could do nothing, we could do stents, we could do bypass surgery. I thought, my gosh, if I have to have a bypass, this thing is shot."
Joni Hennington walked the Town & Country Club layout alongside her husband Thursday. "I'm proud of him," she said. "It's a great accomplishment, something most people would never even attempt."
Art Hennington said he traversed the 526 courses largely on foot, sometimes in a golf cart. The biggest challenge he faced, he said, was getting on private courses. He hadn't been able to arrange a Town & Country tee time until a newspaper story on his quest was published last year. Five club members soon offered to set up a round.
Other tough, tony nuts to crack included Woodhill in Wayzata, Spring Hill in Orono and Oak Ridge in Hopkins. He played the latter two only after spending $700 at fundraising auctions to secure tee times for himself and acquaintances.
Another challenge was knocking off a series of courses in southwestern Minnesota in a veritable blink of an eye.
"I had one stretch two or three years ago where I played five rounds each in two days," Hennington said, "and the fifth round each time was like, oh my goodness, my back is hurting, and it's getting late at night. And I remember one time I thought, 'Oh, I'll skip the fifth one ... but if I do that, I'll have to come back.' "
He soldiered on, completing the 10-course, 48-hour marathon.
Not all of his southwestern Minnesota ventures were as successful.
"In Jackson, I was looking for a course, Rolling Hills, I think it was called. I had GPS, and it was taking me there, and I looked to the right and it was a farm field. I'm thinking, maybe I'm off. I get back in the car and drive around and come back again ,and it's still a farm field, so I stopped somewhere and said to someone, 'There's supposed to be a golf course here.' And he said, 'Oh, that's been closed six, seven years now; it's a farm field."
Hennington's odyssey took him to places such as NW Angle Country Club in Angle Inlet, which had seven sand greens, two grass greens and mosquitoes as thick as a plague of locusts; to Valley High near Houston in southeastern Minnesota, where a tree stands smack-dab in the middle of the 16th green; and to Alexandria Golf Club, which includes greens shaped like the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Minnesota.
"Minnesota's a par 3," Hennington said, "and I always jokingly say the pin was in Minneapolis and I hit it up by Roseau."
Time and perhaps travel have exacted a toll on Hennington's game; he played to an 8 handicap when he began the quest in 2000 and now is up to a 15.
Hennington mentioned Spring Hill, with its uphill par 5s, and The Wilderness and The Quarry at Giants Ridge in northeastern Minnesota as particularly challenging courses; he gives a nod to The Wilderness as one of his favorites. He mentioned unsung holes like the par-4 second at Oak Knolls in Red Lake Falls, which features two encounters with a creek and an uphill approach shot to a green guarded by trees; and unsung courses like Sandhill River in Fertile -- "every hole was unique and different, and it was really in pretty good shape for a little town."
Now that the quest is over? Hennington has played golf in every state except South Dakota, Delaware, Alaska and Utah but says he isn't likely to go for the 50-state sweep. He and Joni planned to have a small, private celebration Thursday night, but after that, it's anyone's guess.
"This was my mission," he said, "and now it's going to be over and it's like now I don't know if I have to have another mission or if I can just golf and do other things. But it has consumed me for over 10 years. The Peggy Lee song says, 'Is that all there is?' and there aren't going to be any fireworks or anything; it's just done.
"It's a heck of an accomplishment. It's kind of like if you run a fast race and you get done, that's great, but it's over with ... But I've got a lot of memories and tons of pictures, so I can always look back and see what's what.
