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Golf photographer Patrick Koenig is living the dream. He just set a new world record for the most golf courses played in a year at 450 courses and he plans to play 500 by the year’s end with 78 days to go.
Koenig achieved his record when he teed it up at the Omni Interlocken in Broomfield, Colorado on Tuesday, October 17th. It was the 450th new golf course he had played so far this year, a new Guinness World Record for the most golf courses in a calendar year.
The previous Guinness World Record for the most golf courses played in a year was 449. That record was set by Jonathan Weaver and his wife Cathie back in 2009 so this record has stood for 14 long years.
And as far as ‘most golf’ records go, this isn’t to be confused with the Most Golf Played In A Year. I wrote about that record last year.
A Wisconsin man set that Most Golf Holes Played In A Year world record last November when he successfully completed 17,820 holes of golf, averaging 49 holes a day for an entire year. That man, Nolan Krentz, averages playing 15,000 holes of golf a year.
New World Record For Most Golf Courses Played In A Year
This new world record is obviously of a different nature. It requires a different type of planning because mapping out 500 different golf courses over the course of 365 days is no simple feat. In fact, the simplest way to achieve that would be to put it in the hands of an algorithm and let AI optimize the challenge for you.
For this record, Patrick Koenig has been chronicling his adventure with a ‘RGV Tour 2.0’ blog. He has been traversing the nation in a Class A RV and raising money for charities along the way. Here he is at Stone Ridge Golf Club a month ago:
It all began at Monarch Beach Golf Club on January 3rd. Koenig printed a full list of courses on his record-setting schedule on his website. There are some VERY nice and VERY expensive courses on the list, from Pebble Beach to TPC Sawgrass, to all 5 Beth Page courses and many many more.
He also played at all 100 public golf courses in America along the way:
They say it hurts to see someone else living your dreams and honestly, it does when I see this.