After my 45th birthday in March 2021, I had a crazy idea ... that by my 55th birthday, I'd like to have played all the golf courses on Golf Digest's ranking of the top 100 in America. That's a big dream for a guy who isn't rich and doesn't have a lot of rich friends or contacts at many of the private clubs on the list. I just recently joined a private club; that'll help. But ultra-exclusive clubs like Pine Valley? Augusta National? That's going to take some magic.

Then, because I'm a glutton for punishment (like most golfers), it occurred to me to dream even bigger. So, I added to my bucket list the courses on Golf Digest's list of top public courses, GOLF Magazine's Top 100 North American Courses list and Top 100 Courses You Can Play ranking of public courses across North America, and Golfweek's Top 100 US Public Access Courses, Golfweek's Top 100 Classic Courses, and Golfweek's Top 100 Modern Courses. There's some overlap between the lists, but based on the current rankings, that puts the total number of courses at 394. To date, I've played 117. I don't know how I'll make the connections necessary to access many of these courses. But I have to believe the effort it'll take ... meeting new people who share my love of the game and making new friends ... will be a big part of what makes this all worthwhile. And with less than 10 years to go until I turn 55, I've got a lot of work to do and a lot of fun ahead.