Pro Plays All Existing U.S. Open Courses And Wants More!

Thanks to reader Mike for Frank Fitzpatrick's superb story on Cape Fear CC professional Joey Hines playing all of the 49 existing U.S. Open courses.

He's now on a quest to now play the existing Open Championship courses and hosts of PGA's too.

But after three or four of those trips, a friend said, 'You know you've played an awful lot of U.S. Open courses.' That interested me. "I started researching. I found out there were 49 of them - actually 50, but Englewood in New Jersey had closed. So I started nibbling away." Once he gave up his dream of playing on the PGA Tour - he failed to earn a card at qualifying school on several occasions - the pace of his quest quickened. He played Open venues in bunches with friends, then began to pick them off one-by-one on his own. As difficult as the golf was at many of those exclusive venues, securing tee times was even tougher.

"They all had their rules, and you had to respect them," he said. "It wasn't easy getting on at Baltusrol or Riviera. Chicago Golf Club was brutal. Sometimes they paired you with a member. Sometimes you had to beg, borrow, and cry."

Riviera was hard to get on? They take anyone's money!

"And Merion. I've come across that road [Ardmore Avenue] five times and I've been at even, 1 under, 1 over. But I think the lowest I ever shot there was a 77. Fifteen, 16, 17, 18 have just eaten my lunch every single time." Some of the courses, particularly those that haven't hosted an Open since the event's early days, were pleasant surprises. He liked Philadelphia Country Club (1939) much better than the Philadelphia Cricket Club (1907, 1910). Among the other out-of-the-rotation "sleepers" Hines enjoyed were Myopia Hunt near Boston, the site of four Opens from 1898 to 1908; and three Chicago-area courses, Chicago Golf Club, Onwentsia, and Glen View. "Chicago Golf Club is like Merion," Hines said. "If somebody gave you a million dollars and told you to improve it, you'd go crazy because it's already perfect."