Around the golf nation in just 30 days

The wild idea was spawned several years ago over a meal at their favorite Mexican restaurant in Palm Springs, Calif.

Longtime friends Jack Hebner and Roger Crum had just finished a taxing round of desert golf in triple-digit temperatures and were discussing Crum’s dream of playing at least one round of golf in each of our nation’s 50 states.

Crum expressed some doubt that it would happen, noting there were simply too many states he had no reason, or desire, to visit. But Hebner, with his courage and creativity bolstered by a second round of margaritas, refused to let the dream die and suggested, instead, that they plan an extreme golf trip that included a stop in every state.

“I said I thought we could do it in 30 days,” recalled the 56-year-old Hebner, a former Spokane city council member who currently serves as the chief financial officer for Fulcrum Investments in Coeur d’Alene. “We laughed about it at first, but that kind of set things in motion.”

Eventually, the two friends set the summer of 2005 as the target dates for their grand golf odyssey. And they talked a third party, Coeur d’Alene resident Arlie Hansen, 60, into joining them.

Crum, 66, was put in charge of mapping out the route the three would take and selecting the courses they would play. Hebner made the tee times and hotel reservations, lined up sponsors to help finance the trip and talked co-worker Gayle Cooper into designing a Web site, geezergolftours.com, to promote and document their venture.

The only things left to chance were the weather and the timing of the trip – which proved to be disastrous for Crum.

Spokane’s former city manager, who returned last fall after retiring from a similar position in Evanston, Ill., had been searching for a house to buy and was involved in closing the deal when the month-long trek kicked off on June 1. He teed it up with Hebner and Hansen at The Creek at Qualchan Golf Course at 5 that morning and also drove to Pendleton, Ore., for a midafternoon round at Wildhorse Resort.

But his housing issues forced him to return home and miss all but 12 of the 50 rounds the threesome had scheduled.

Hebner and Hansen pressed on however, traveling more than 10,500 miles by car and flying to Alaska and Hawaii. They managed to play golf in all 50 states, but were forced to dodge a near-hurricane, survive a couple of major thunderstorms and a nearby lightning strike, and endure some other anxious moments along the way.

On two occasions, they played three courses and 54 holes in one day. They got lost only once, stopping at the wrong golf course, but actually saved time when the head pro at Westwinds Golf Club in New Market, Md., convinced them to play his course – free of charge – instead of the one they were scheduled to play.

“I thought it was great,” Hebner said of the once-in-a-lifetime experience, which ended up costing him and Hansen $4707.03 each. “The easiest part was playing golf. The biggest problem, just in terms of stress, was the weather, because back East it got ugly.”

Hebner and Hansen were scheduled to play along the Gulf Shore in Alabama and Florida on June 11, at the same time tropical storm Arlene was supposed to blow through the area.

They ended up calling Crum and asking him to reroute them away from the storm.

“I don’t know why people live down there,” Hebner said. “We ended up driving until 1 that morning so we could get to the eastern side of (Florida). We played that day, but the next few days we were getting thunderstorm warnings every day.”

The two played two courses, one in Lake City, Fla., and the other in Lake Park, Ga., in a driving rain and were within a couple of hundred yards of a tree when it was struck by lightning.

“I’d never seen that before,” Hebner said. “The tree just exploded. It was interesting.”

Crum rejoined Hebner and Hansen in Wilmington, Del., after driving back East with his wife to visit friends. He played eight courses in five days before returning to Spokane, then rejoined his friends in Sheridan, Wyo., on June 27 to play Powder Horn Golf Club and The Briarwood in Billings, Mont.

Crum drove the compact car Hebner had borrowed from his daughter to use on the trip back to Spokane, while Hebner and Hansen caught a flight to Anchorage, where they had a 4:30 tee time scheduled the following morning at Anchorage Golf Course.

“The guy there told me they don’t usually open at 4:30 in the morning,” Hebner explained, “but he was right there to meet us, get us out on the course and make sure we got everything done.”

Because of a tight connection for their flight to Hawaii, Hebner and Hansen each took their own cart and finished the round in just over 2 hours. There was a downside to the Alaska experience, however.

“You hear all the talk about the midnight sun and all the daylight hours,” Hebner said, “but that’s really overrated. It was dark when we teed off.”

Looking back on the trip, Hebner said he was most surprised by the number of nice, affordable courses he and Hansen found scattered across the country.

“When I was on the city council, we always prided ourselves here in Spokane on having the greatest golf courses for the price of anywhere in the country,” he recalled. “But we found out that everybody has golf courses that are just as good at the same price, or maybe even cheaper.

“I thought it was a real eye-opener that you can find so many wonderful courses that are so affordable.”

Hansen, who did the majority of the driving while Hebner entered scores, expenses and analysis of each course played into his laptop, agreed.

“I can’t say how many right off hand, but I was amazed by the number of courses that were in the $25 to $35 range – and that included a cart,” he said.

“And the other thing that comes to mind is that I was flat amazed that there are so many nice people in the golf industry; friendly, generous people that went out of their way far more than I expected to take care of us.”

As for Crum, he doesn’t seem the least bit put out by the fact that he participated in only about 20 percent of the trip. Or that he put in all those hours of planning with little in the way of a reward.

“It just turned out that it wasn’t a good time for me to go,” he said. “And, actually, the planning was as much fun as the playing I was able to do. It was easier on the body, too.

“And even though I didn’t get to play in all 50 states, I picked up a few new ones to add to my list.”

Hebner and Hansen said they were both surprised by how easily they adapted to their hectic schedule.

“When we were originally doing the planning, we figured we could take our first shower on about Day Eight,” Hebner said. “But it actually worked out much better than that once we got into the rhythm of the whole thing.”

Hansen likened the trip to his boot camp experience in the Navy.

“When you’re starting out, you’re apprehensive and thinking it’s going to be impossible to get through,” he said. “But once you really get into it, it becomes almost routine – living out of a suitcase, doing laundry and sleeping whenever you can.”

When asked if they would consider making the trip again, Hebner and Hansen were both slightly noncommittal.

“We certainly don’t have any plans to do it again,” Hebner said.

“It’s difficult to say,” Hansen added. “I don’t have intentions to do it again, but if there was a real good reason and my wife agreed – or came along – we would probably try it.”