playing on 1,000 different courses

When Doug Bolls took up golf at the ripe old age of 37, it was not a response to a midlife crisis. It was a means of advancing his career.

Forty-one years ago he bought a set of left-handed clubs, a golf bag, and golf shoes for $ 10 cash only from a neighbor who was selling her ex-husband’s fortune at a flea market. Since then, Bolls, who now lives at the Trophy Club, has achieved what many golfers would consider an impossible dream. Through determination and discipline, Bolls has played over 1,000 different golf courses.

The first was the Knollwood Golf Course. Bolls called it a “garden diversity” course in California’s San Fernando Valley. It cost less than $ 20 to play 18 holes in 1981.

No. 100 was the Old Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. He played his favorite course four more times, including one in the opposite direction.

“I’ll play the Old Course at every opportunity,” said Bolls.

In 2007, Muirfield, also in Scotland, was 500th.

“So I thought a thousand was a possibility,” said Bolls.

Bolls cracked a giant at the Streamsong Resort on September 16. The Central Florida complex has three golf courses that are ranked in the top 100 in the United States. Bolls played all three on consecutive days.

He took the Blue Course for No. 1,000 targeted because it was designed by Tom Doak, a favorite Bolls architect. Also because it’s a public course and he considers himself a public course type.

Before heading to Florida on his epic trip, Bolls, always the salesman, contacted Callaway Golf because he had been using the company’s equipment for a long time. He also invited Doak, who has interacted with Bolls on a website preferred by golf course architecture enthusiasts. Doak told Bolls that he would be out of the country.

Doug Bolls of the Trophy Club was presented with a specially stamped wedge with “Mr. 1000” and his name engraved on it, marking the 1000th different course he had played on September 16, 2021. The 1000th place was Streamsong Blue in Bowling Green, Florida.(Jon Burket)

Callaway responded by showing Bolls a 58-degree wedge with “Mr. 1,000 ″ and Bolls’ name stamped on the racket when he checked in for his 1,000th round. Callaway CEO Chip Brewer also sent a personal letter on the occasion.

A Callaway representative wasn’t sure how many other golfers have played a thousand different courses. Bolls was the first to be recognized. “Nobody else asked,” said the spokesman.

Streamsong staff took care of all of his needs. Food, drinks and a welcoming ceremony for Mr. 1,000.

“My adrenaline was as big as it could get,” he recalled. “I was kind of fluffy.”

A photographer hired by Callaway recorded every move Bolls made, even as he dribbled the ball off the first tee. All the same.

“You treated me like a celebrity,” said Bolls. “I’ve never been a celebrity.”

Bolls, who logs all of his laps and often takes pictures during the lap, has decided not to write any points or take photos that day.

“I’ll just enjoy the experience out here,” he recalled. “I think it turned out right. I had a lot of fun.”

It was almost a necessity for Bolls to leave Texas for 1,000th place. Bolls, who once belonged to the Trophy Club Country Club and has a home there on the Hogan Course, had played 350 courses in Texas, most of them public.

“There is nothing in this area that is public that I haven’t played,” he said.

He thought of a private club or two in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but Streamsong, a high-end resort, beckoned. Out of Bolls and Sherry, his wife of 46, left.

Business decision

Doug Bolls poses on Swilcan Bridge en route to the 18th green in St. Andrews during a 2017 tour of Scotland. Bolls has played the Old Course in St. Andrews five times and calls it his favorite of the 1,000+ courses he has played Has.Doug Bolls poses on Swilcan Bridge en route to the 18th green in St. Andrews during a 2017 tour of Scotland. Bolls has played the Old Course in St. Andrews five times and calls it his favorite of the 1,000+ courses he has played Has.

The journey of a thousand places begins with a single tee.

Born in Los Angeles, Bolls lived in Southern California and worked as a regional sales director for a pharmaceutical company after graduating. He was on his high school tennis team for three years and played in a tennis league with colleagues. As he climbed the corporate ladder in the early 1980s, from home office to district manager with responsibility for a dozen field workers, he noticed that other managers were golfers, not tennis players.

“I realized that if I wanted to rise to the top of the company,” he said, “I had to play golf.”

Business travelers allowed him to play courses like Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill, which are among the most expensive in the country. Today he prefers courses that cost less than $ 100.

With a scientific background and an interest in data, he began keeping a ledger recording the course played, results, weather, and other aspects of his experience.

Its first entry was on August 15, 1982. Hansen Dam in Pacoima, a suburb of Los Angeles. On the first nine it was 98 degrees. He played with a guy named Larry and shot 46. The temperature rose to the second nine. Likewise his score. He shot 56. His 18-hole score matched the temperature.

When he and Sherry travel, it’s usually by car, golf clubs in tow. He is always looking for new courses. But he has become special.

“I have a rule when I’m out,” he said. “When I play, I play a course that I’ve never played before.”

You might expect the Boll’s house to be cluttered with keepsakes from its rounds. Bolls said he decided early on that scorecards would be his keepsake. Easier to store. He keeps them in a folder that is alphabetically sorted according to the name of the course. At the beginning he left the cards blank.

“After about 900,” he said, “I got a little more meticulous.” He started recording the date, front nine and back nine scores. He broke protocol and sent a flag of Streamsongs Blue Course for Doak to sign.

To do list

Bolls has not yet played any hard scrabble courses with a lack of grass. The worst course he remembers was in Louisiana. He didn’t like it because of its design, or rather because of its lack of design qualities.

“It was just the boring round of golf,” he said. “It was uninteresting and as indisputable as it gets.”

He also classified the famous Firestone Golf Club in this category. “Up and back. Up and back. It looked like a big highway. “

National Golf Links of America is high on his list of courses he hasn’t played but would like to play. “That would be a dream come true.”

Augusta National and Pine Valley? Not as much.

“I was at the Augusta National. It’s not my type of golf course. Too many ups and downs. “

After running Pine Valley, widely regarded as one of the best courses in the United States, he decided, “It’s too tough for me. I wouldn’t want to play it. “

Accompany

Doug Bolls and his wife Sherry will pose with his Callaway Wedge on September 16, 2021 at Streamsong Blue in Bowling Green, Florida to play on his 1000th different golf course.Doug Bolls and his wife Sherry will pose with his Callaway Wedge on September 16, 2021 at Streamsong Blue in Bowling Green, Florida to play on his 1000th different golf course.(Jon Burket)

After a few years, Bolls transferred his handwritten log to a computer table to make it easier to keep track of the venues and to avoid duplication.

He can quickly quote details like the eight states he didn’t play: Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia. He has made four trips to Scotland, one to Ireland, five to Canada, one to Mexico and several to islands in the Caribbean.

In his late 70s, Bolls lowered his expectations. He said he wanted to play in all 50 states but admits that his age will prevent him from pursuing another big number.

Health was not a problem, although he gave up beating a rider because the full swing caused back problems. On the advice of his doctor, he did without the driver, installed a set of tees and drives with a 3-blade – a Callaway model, of course.

Bolls took lessons when he started playing to get a grip on the basics. Since then he’s been alone. He does not visit the range before a lap, but prefers to go to the first tee and hit without warming up. He says he doesn’t see the point. Accuracy and lack of distance give him an advantage.

“I don’t think it’s good for me,” he said of the time on the shooting range. “I play three rounds with the same golf ball. If I lose a golf ball, it’s because I hit it in the water. It’s been since I stopped hitting my driver. “

He has two aces. The first was at No. 7 of what was then the Hills Course in the Trophy Club. (It’s now called the Whitworth Course.) It arrived on July 7, 2002 and brought him $ 800 from a hole-in-one pot at the club. He pocketed his prize and took it to Callaway’s headquarters in Carlsbad, California to prepare for a set of Big Bertha irons that he played with until recently.

Bolls has been shooting since his 73rd birthday at the age of 31. He usually shoots in the 80s. His Golf Handicap and Information Network Index was 9 for a month in the Trophy Club, he said. It is now 1:58 p.m.

Sherry never started golf, but Bolls said his wife likes to drive the golf cart.

“She was so supportive of all of this,” he said. “The last words out of her mouth are ‘Have fun’.”

Doug Bolls’ favorite Texas classes

The Tribute (The Colony): I’ve played a lot of holes in Scotland. Links golf is the best.

Tierra Verde (Arlington): Challenging golf holes; nice height differences.

Tangle Ridge (Grand Prairie): Every hole is different.

Trinity Forest: No tree to be seen. Excellent connections in the south of Dallas.

Fossil Creek (Fort Worth): Arnold Palmer designed courses for recreational players. This is a good place to play one of your best.

Rockwood (Fort Worth): Always in good shape and interesting to play.

Stevens Park: Same design group as Rockwood. Excellent munich.

Trails of Frisco: Each hole makes you think about where to hit it.

Greyrock (Austin): The best of the Austin Munis.

Lakecliff Golf Club (Spicewood): Another very pleasant Palmer course.

Pine Dunes (Frankston): Excellent country routing; one good hole at a time.

Irving Golf Club: wide fairways with interesting greens; excellent improvement over the old twin wells.

More golf coverage in the Dallas Morning News can be found here.

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