It started as a travelogue through the British Open rota (that is, courses that are, or once were, in the rotation to host an Open Championship).  That would have been a whopping fourteen tracks in total.  Goodness, how my little golf trip has grown.

It sprouted side-trips.  It swelled with possibility.  It grew arms and legs and portions and pieces.  It multiplied itself, like a gremlin swim team.  It went sideways and upways and outways; it hopped over seas and lochs and landed on far flung islands.

It went to Wales.

It grew out of curiosity, and obsession, and easy courage.  It was the prodigal golf trip, run away from me and gone wild, barely recognizable as the trip I had envisioned.  Bigger, bolder, than anything I had imagined–as the plan stretched from fourteen to fifty to near a hundred courses, I set my aim on the century mark, and then blew clear past it.  And for getting away from me, my lost and wanton golf trip–I love it so.

It was a golf journey.  It was a June trip to Scotland.  What was going to be a summer of high teas and lazy golf and staring at Loch Ness has become what might be the most ambitious golf itinerary ever attempted.  At least that’s what I’ll be calling it in A Course Called the Kingdom.

I didn’t design this trip. My own efforts and arrangements and machinations would have come up short.  I sort of just collected what the UK golf gods were throwing down.  And they threw and threw and threw.

This impossible plan was guided by the wisdom and friendship of my most wonderful reader, Gramma Billy, whose love of golf and of life inspired me to give the links of the UK a shot.  The courses she and her husband Gene have enjoyed became my playing priorities, and broadened this trip’s perspective.  The itinerary took further inspiration from Malcolm Campbell and George Peper’s True Links, and from Gary Sutherland’s Golf on the Rocks.  Its bloat was hastened by the ease of Google Maps, my cursor rambling fearlessly around the coast of the UK, clicking my way across the golfing globe with hope and abandon, always adding, rarely subtracting, and purposely forgetting that somebody was going to have to strap on their spikes and chase down each click.

Visit Scotland made it possible.  Golf Tourism England, too, along with Visit Wales, partners who each added suggestions to this itinerary, allowing this to truly become a A Course Called the (United) Kingdom.

This list has been in flux for over a year, and with less than two months to teeing off, that flux may continue.  The wrinkles and snafus and road blocks will come, but as of March 1st, I have a final list of courses for the biggest golf dream I never dreamed.

In case anyone is looking for me during the 57 days between April 26th and June 22nd, this is where I’ll be:

1. ROYAL CINQUE PORTS GOLF CLUB
2. PRINCES GOLF CLUB
3. ROYAL ST. GEORGE’S GOLF CLUB
4. MULLION GOLF CLUB
5. PERRANPORTH GOLF CLUB
6. TREVOSE GOLF CLUB
7. ENODOC GOLF CLUB
8. HOLYHEAD GOLF CLUB
9. BULL BAY GOLF CLUB
10. CONWY GOLF CLUB
11. WALLASEY GOLF CLUB
12. ROYAL LIVERPOOL
13. ROYAL LYTHAM & ST ANNES
14. ROYAL BIRKDALE
15. ANNES OLD LINKS
16. EYEMOUTH GOLF CLUB
17. DUNBAR GOLF CLUB
18. GLEN GOLF COURSE
19. NORTH BERWICK GOLF CLUB
20. ARCHERFIELD LINKS
21. MUIRFIELD GOLF CLUB
22. GULLANE GOLF CLUB
23. KILSPINDIE GOLF CLUB
24. LUFFNESS NEW GOLF CLUB
25. CRAIGIELAW GOLF COURSE
26. EDEN COURSE, ST. ANDREWS LINKS
27. THE OLD COURSE, ST. ANDREWS
28. BURNTISLAND GOLF CLUB
29. KINGHORN GOLF CLUB
30. LUNDIN GOLF CLUB
31. LEVEN LINKS
32. THE GOLF HOUSE CLUB, ELIE
33. THE JUBILEE COURSE, ST. ANDREWS
34. ANSTRUTHER GOLF CLUB
35. CRAIL GOLFING SOCIETY BALCOMIE
36. CRAIL GOLFING SOCIETY CRAIGHEAD
37. THE NEW COURSE, ST. ANDREWS
38. KINGSBARNS GOLF LINKS
39. THE CASTLE COURSE, ST. ANDREWS
40. PANMURE GOLF CLUB
41. SCOTSCRAIG GOLF CLUB
42. MONIFIETH GOLF CLUB
43. THE CARNOUSTIE GOLF CLUB
44. MONTROSE GOLF LINKS
45. STONEHAVEN GOLF COURSE
46. ROYAL ABERDEEN GOLF CLUB
47. MURCAR LINKS GOLF CLUB
48. NEWBURGH ON YTHAN GOLF CLUB
49. TRUMP ABERDEEN GOLF COURSE
50. CRUDEN BAY GOLF CLUB
51. PETERHEAD GOLF CLUB
52. CRAIGEWAN LINKS
53. INVERALLOCHY GOLF COURSE
54. FRESERBURGH GOLF CLUB
55. ROSEHEARTY GOLF CLUB
56. ROYAL TARLAIR GOLF CLUB
57. CULLEN GOLF CLUB
58. STRATHLENE GOLF CLUB
59. BUCKPOOL GOLF CLUB
60. SPEY BAY GOLF CLUB
61. MORAY GOLF CLUB
62. COVESEA GOLF LINKS
63. HOPEMAN GOLF CLUB
64. COVESEA GOLF CLUB
65. NAIRN DUNBAR GOLF CLUB
66. NAIRN GOLF CLUB
67. ASTA GOLF CLUB
68. SHETLAND GOLF CLUB
69. WHALSAY GOLF CLUB
70. STROMNESS GOLF CLUB
71. CASTLE STUART
72. FORTROSE & ROSEMARKIE GOLF CLUB
73. TARBAT GOLF CLUB
74. TAIN GOLF COURSE
75. SKIBO CASTLE
76. GOLSPIE
77. ROYAL DORNOCH LINKS
78. ROYAL DORNOCH STRUIE
79. BRORA GOLF CLUB
80. WICK GOLF CLUB
81. REAY GOLF COURSE
82. DURNESS GOLF CLUB
83. ULLAPOOL GOLF CLUB
84. GAIRLOCH GOLF CLUB
85. ISLE OF SKYE GOLF CLUB
86. TRAIGH GOLF COURSE
87. COLONSAY GOLF CLUB
88. THE MACHRIE GOLF LINKS
89. MACHRIHANISH GOLF CLUB
90. MACHRIHANISH DUNES
91. DUNAVERTY GOLF CLUB
92. SHISKINE GOLF AND TENNIS CLUB
93. TURNBERRY AILSA GOLF COURSE
94. PRESTWICK ST. NICHOLAS GOLF CLUB
95. PRESTWICK GOLF CLUB
96. ROYAL TROON GOLF CLUB OLD
97. BARASSIE GOLF CLUB
98. GAILES LINKS GOLF COURSE
99. WESTERN GAILES GOLF CLUB
100. IRVINE GOLF CLUB
101. BARRA GOLF CLUB
102. ASKERNISH GOLF CLUB
103. HARRIS GOLF CLUB
104. MUSSELBURGH LINKS
105. BRITISH OPEN QUALIFIER – BRUNTSFIELD LINKS

God bless us, every one.