Books That Inspired My Quest

Nearly five years ago, I had the idea to try and play every course in Massachusetts. It was an idea baked in the heat of the pandemic. The seed of the idea started in the fall of 2019 when I drove out to Barnardstown, Mass., to play Crumpin Fox. The day trip was a delight, especially considering in a past life I would have been in teaching in classroom on such a lovely fall day.

The day trip to play golf made me realize how accessible the entire state is in the span of a day. In three hours I could be in Williamstown or on the tip of Cape Cod.

Over the winter and spring, I read some golf books that really drove home the idea that golf isn’t always about joining a club and playing the same course 80% of the time I tee it up. It’s about a bit of adventure, meeting new people, and learning a thing or two about my home state.

In the last four years, I have played 140+ different golf courses covering most of the state. I have thought a lot about where the idea came from; these books watered the seed that was planted on the drive to Crumpin Fox in the fall of 2019.

Range Bucket List by James Dodson: Dodson, a famous golf author, stumbled upon a list of golf goals that he wrote down as a 13-year-old. Some of them he had achieved, but some were unfulfilled. So Dodson decided he was going to honor the younger version of himself and hit the road to complete his Range Bucket List as a 60-something. He plays golf with John Updike at Myopia, meets Donald Trump, and catches up with old friends in the USA and abroad.

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