{"id":8749,"date":"2021-10-19T13:22:17","date_gmt":"2021-10-19T19:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/?p=8749"},"modified":"2021-12-19T22:25:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-20T04:25:41","slug":"farris-hollidays-golfing-odyssey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/tombedell\/golf\/personalities\/8749\/farris-hollidays-golfing-odyssey","title":{"rendered":"Farris Holliday\u2019s Golfing Odyssey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FH<\/a>It began in September, 2019, at the Coeur d’Alene Golf Course in Idaho, but by the time I caught up with Farris Holliday he was was about to tee off on the 48th of his 50-rounds-in-every-state odyssey. It was a cool morning in early June, 2021, when we met for 18 holes at the Montcalm Golf Club in Enfield, New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

After the round Farris and Riley Jones, his golfing buddy on the closing New England leg of the trip, were heading to the Woodstock Golf Club in Vermont, and two days later the goal would be achieved at the Red Tail Golf Club in Massachusetts. (The other New England courses were the Lake of the Isles Golf Club in Connecticut, the Newport National Golf Club in Rhode Island and Belgrade Lakes in Maine. The complete 50-state list is below.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s no mean feat to play in every state. I\u2019ve been traveling the world and writing about golf for more than 20 years, and I haven\u2019t managed it. Holliday set out to do it in a plan that originally stretched out to five years, but once the pandemic set in everything changed, and he wrapped it up in less than two years, with the writing of a book about the endeavor in mind.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old was lucky in that as the U.S. director of strategy for a London-based marketing consulting agency, he was already working remotely for the most part. Jones played in 15 states with Holliday, while early in the 50-state quest Holliday\u2019s wife, Laura, took a sabbatical from her job with Alaska Airlines and accompanied her husband for about three months.<\/p>\n

The couple lived in Seattle when Holliday began thinking about his pursuit (they\u2019ve since relocated to Kansas). At the time Holliday felt that golf was stigmatized as a sport inherently reserved for a few, geared toward the affluent, inaccessible to many and lacking diversity. As a person of color, sporting dreadlocks and tattoos, he\u2019s certainly not the stereotypical country clubber, and he felt like a bit of an outcast at courses and in pro shops. But he was about to get a surprising education.<\/p>\n\"FH<\/a>\n

\u201cI set out at a time when there was greater than usual racial unrest in the country, and there were certainly some some states I was less excited to play than others. I was anticipating and intended to have some intense conversations out on the golf course.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I found that a golf course really isn\u2019t a great space for such conversations. It provides something else, something that seemed new to me\u2014a place of equity. So what I thought was going to be a culturally disruptive story became something else, and it was a bit of a surprise to me. The idea that golf is inaccessible? That has nothing to do with reality. Classism? No, golf doesn\u2019t give a shit who you are. There\u2019s a home for everyone somewhere on a golf course.\u201d<\/p>\n

His father was Libyan, his mother European. If of mixed race, Holliday is relatively light-skinned, stocky, with dreadlocks erupting upward through his golf visor and adding about five inches to his already impressive height. He hits the ball a mile, if not always at the target. He\u2019s an average golfer, though he did card a 78 in a non-50 state round in Montana.<\/p>\n

The scores the day we played at Montcalm seemed more approximate than precise, and besides the point in any case. It was just a lovely day winding through the various elevations and views of the Green and White Mountain National Forests that the George Sargent-designed Montcalm wends around.<\/p>\n\"FH<\/a>\n

Curiously for a millennial, Holliday kept a low-key social media profile while in the throes of his journey, tossing out only the occasional Instagram post (@farrisplays50). But the local press was out that day, a television reporter interviewing Holliday with the suitable Green Mountain backdrop that adorns Montcalm\u2019s driving range, and following him around for a few holes.<\/p>\n

Holliday certainly played some ranked courses\u2014Torrey Pines in California, Bethpage Black in New York, Tobacco Road in North Carolina, the Prairie Club in Nebraska and others\u2014but that wasn\u2019t really his goal. He kept Golf Digest\u2019s \u201cBest Places You Can Play\u201d list at hand and did much of his planning on the go. (Montcalm, formerly highly private, is now under new ownership and accepting outside play.)<\/p>\n

Almost three months after his final 50-state putt on the Red Tail Golf Course, Holliday remembered it as a bittersweet moment: \u201cAfter being almost constantly on the move in the last two years, I felt a bit sad on the flight out of Boston, picking up the car and driving home, thinking, it\u2019s all over. I\u2019m still sifting through the experience now, working on my writing, trying to determine the story I want to tell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some ways I didn\u2019t realize how big an accomplishment this was. When I talk about it to other golfers, even strangers, they say, \u2018You did what? Why? You\u2019re only 31 and you\u2019ve done that?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then they also ask me, \u2018What\u2019s next?\u2019 I don\u2019t really know. No idea. Bowling?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A couple of holes Holliday faced at the Montcalm Golf Club<\/p><\/div>\n

States and Courses:<\/strong>
\nIdaho – ID – Coeur d\u2019Alene Golf Club
\nWashington – Gold Mountain Golf Course
\nWisconsin – White Eagle Golf Club
\nMinnesota – The Jewel Golf Club
\nCalifornia – Torrey Pines
\nOregon – Quail Valley Golf Club
\nPennsylvania – Glen Mills Golf Course
\nDelaware – Deerfield Golf Club
\nNew Jersey – River Winds Golf Course
\nIllinois – Annbriar Golf Course
\nMissouri – Peavly Farms
\nTexas – Avery Ranch
\nArizona – Golf Club of Estrella
\nMississippi – Grand Bear Golf Club
\nLouisiana – English Turn
\nTennessee – Golf Club of Tennessee
\nAlabama – The Shoals
\nKentucky – Mineral Mound
\nUtah – Thanksgiving Point
\nColorado – Arrowhead Golf Club
\nKansas – Auburn Hills
\nOklahoma – Cimmaron National
\nArkansas – Stonebridge Meadows
\nWest Virginia – Sugarwood Golf Club
\nOhio – Stone Ridge Golf Club
\nMichigan – Shepherds Hollow
\nIndiana – Prairie View Golf Club
\nIowa – Blue Top Ridge
\nNebraska – Prairie Club
\nSouth Dakota – Prairie Green
\nNorth Dakota – Bully Pulpit
\nWyoming – Olive Glenn Golf Club
\nMontana – Old Works
\nSouth Carolina – Caladonia Golf and Fish Club
\nNorth Carolina – Tobacco Road Golf Club
\nVirginia – Golden Horseshoe Golf Club
\nMaryland – Maryland National Golf Club
\nNevada – Toiyabe Golf Club
\nAlaska – The Golf Club of Anchorage
\nFlorida – The Raven Golf Club
\nGeorgia – The Frog
\nNew Mexico – Red Hawk Golf Club
\nHawaii – Ko\u2019Olina Golf Club
\nNew York – Bethpage Black Course
\nConnecticut – Lake of the Isles Golf Club
\nRhode Island – Newport National Golf Club
\nMaine – Belgrade Lakes
\nVermont – Woodstock Golf Club
\nNew Hampshire – Montcalm Golf Club
\nMassachusetts – Red Tail Golf Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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