Imagine setting aside a year just for golf. No work obligations. No family obligations. There’s nothing to do but hit it, find it, get to 18 – and then drive to the next lane and do it again.
Does this seem dreamlike or dystopian to you? A blissful year of guilt-free self-indulgence, or an overdose of goodness?
For Josh Simpson, it contained elements of both.
But now he has done it. It’s official. On a gray Monday afternoon, about an hour and a half west of London, Simpson, a 27-year-old Englishman, completed a lap of The Caversham to set a new benchmark. The round – his 581st of 2025 – set the world record for most 18-hole rounds played on different courses in one year.
“It’s by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” Simpson told GOLF.com. “It’s also the best thing I’ve ever done.”
His feelings about the achievement were mixed, but so were his emotions as the odyssey began. The inspiration for this was Simpson’s mother, who succumbed to cancer in 2023, just months after diagnosis. For Simpson, who calls himself a mama’s boy, her death sent him into what he calls a “wormhole” of reflection. Life is short, he realized. Tomorrow is not promised to anyone. At the urging of a friend, Simpson left the family lawn care business and took on a portable golf party, raising money along the way for charities tied to his mother’s memory.
The search started on January 24 with a 36-hole day on the two courses at Woodhall Spa, in England. From there it was pretty much non-stop. He lived out of a camper and traveled through England, Wales and Scotland. The miles faded away. This also applied to the rounds, although some stops were unforgettable. As he walked from course to course, Simpson tapped dozens of big names, many of which were Open Championship host sites. One exception was the Old Course, which was reserved for an event on the day he had hoped to play on it.
Simpson has a single-digit index, although his handicap fluctuated during the trip. Good rounds. Bad rounds. An almost albatross. In more than 10,000 holes, Simpson never made an ace, although he witnessed several close calls. He just can’t remember exactly where they happened.
Angus Murray
What he remembers more clearly are the people. His playing partners ran the gamut – greenskeepers, CEOs, poker players, arms dealers – the human carnival that marches on golf courses everywhere.
Bad weather days also stand out in the memory. At Royal Porthcawl he came through the 18 in heavy, horizontal rain with a jovial club member producing his own sunshine. In Glasgow he faced a downpour and 50mph winds, recording his worst score of the year. Not that he was concerned about the number. He was only thinking about keeping up the pace.
Golf marathons are hard on the body. But the more lingering pains were logistical issues: booking times, mapping routes, adhering to required criteria. Guness provided plenty of it. To qualify for the record, each course had to be an 18-hole longer than 6,000 yards, a standard that surpassed dozens of courses in Britain, which is rich in 9-hole layouts and designs that predate the era of the long ball. According to Simpson, more than half of courses in Scotland were ineligible.
In addition to these requirements, Simpson had to play each hole in the correct order. No mulligans. No gimmies. It is not allowed to start on the 10th tee. Each round required a witness and a signature from the club. As if following the rules of golf wasn’t enough.
“You got the feeling that maybe these criteria weren’t written by someone who actually plays golf,” Simpson said.
Anyone who plays knows that packing for a big trip can be a chore. Simpson’s approach to this was pragmatic. He didn’t think about it. Clubs? Balls? Gloves? Check, check, check. He knew rain gear would be a must. Ditto a mother lode of socks. Otherwise, he thought, he could pick up what he needed at the next stop.
During the year he burned thirty gloves and who knows how many balls. But he’s only wearing his second pair of shoes. His first, a pair of G4s, lasted 500 laps before he finally put them to rest.
One possession he carried with him every day was a custom-made ball marker, decorated with his mother’s name and pictures of bees, which she loved.
“It’s a bittersweet feeling,” Simpson said. “I would have liked my mother to have seen what I was doing, but none of this would have happened if she hadn’t died.”
The record is now his. Done and dusted. But Simpson isn’t done yet. He has a few weeks left in the year and plans to cancel more courses. How much exactly? It’s hard to say. On the one hand, he’s in a forest and might as well move on.
On the other hand, he admits, “I’m pretty tired of golfing.”
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