We’re glad to welcome a new guest blogger at the Scratch Pad! 72strokes.com is a golf blog run by Derek Franks, where he shares thoughts on golf happenings, equipment, and the tour. We’re glad to have him with us, and will be sharing some of his best posts with you. To date we’ve written a lot about golf around the world – what about right here at home?
This past December, Michigan resident Ed Ronco completed the 50-state checklist by playing a round at the Royal Kaanapali in Maui. He came up with the idea 7 years ago after realizing that he had already played in 23 states.
Through the use of creative routing of family vacations and several golf-specific trips, Ronco was able to bag every state. Alaska and Hawaii were two of the tougher states to cross of the list, mostly due to the travel/cost involved.
It’s a great accomplishment – and one that isn’t too common. Even among Tour pro’s, there aren’t many guys that can claim they’ve teed it up in every state. Honestly, how many people have taken a trip to Alaska or North Dakota with their golf clubs in tow?
I was doing some counting and found that my own personal total is 7 states. I’ll add one to that total in a few weeks when I head to Colorado to play Ballyneal. I’m going to start tracking the states where I’ve played. I like to bring my clubs with me when I travel and it would be pretty cool at some point years down the road to be able to say that I’ve played at least one round of golf in every state.
So, how many states have you played in?