CALIFORNIA HOLES
CALIFORNIA’S LONGEST HOLES AND COURSES By RANDY YOUNGMAN
PHOTO: MICHAEL WEINSTEIN
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upposedly, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the longest known golf course in the United States started in California and was so long that it stretched over the state line – across many state lines, in fact – all the way to the East Coast. It was a one-hole course that covered 3,397.7 miles from coast to coast and was played only once, by Floyd Rood, who needed nearly 13 months to finish. Rood, formerly a teaching professional at St. Mary Golf Club in Berwick, La., began his “round” off the Pacific Coast in California on Sept. 14, 1963 and hacked his way across the continental United States, finally reaching the Atlantic Coast on Oct. 3, 1964, presumably celebrating with a tap-in into the Florida surf. In case you’re wondering, Rood said he needed 114,737 strokes to play the course, which was tricked up with National Park-sized bunkers such as the Grand Canyon and forced carries over entire mountain ranges and winding rivers such as the 1,900-mile Rio Grande. (Sounds as if Pete Dye designed the course, doesn’t it?) Along the way, Rood reported that he lost 3,511 golf balls. So if the entire country were played as a lateral hazard, that means par has been established at 18,248. We’ll also call it the course record. If that’s the longest “course” in the world, the longest individual hole in the world – that is, a traditional golf hole with a tee and a flagstick – currently is believed to be No. 3 at Gunsan Club in the North Jeolla Province of South Korea. It’s 1,100 yards long. (“It’s a par-7!” Ladies European Tour player Florentyna Parker wrote on Twitter in 2018 after making par: “Driver, 3 wood, 3 wood, 3 wood, 5 wood and 2 putts = par.”) Before that, the longest golf hole in the world had been a 1,007-yard, par-6 at Chocolay Downs in Michigan, which broke the previous record of a 964yard, par-7 at Satsuki Golf Course in Sano, Japan, which broke the previous record of a 948-yard, par-7 at Koolan Island Golf Club in western Australia. Get the idea? Everybody wants to build the longest golf hole in the world. But here at California Golf, we’re more interested in the longest courses and longest holes in the
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California Golf + Travel
Golden State. Those seem to change regularly, too, and are subject to debate, of course. Current leader in the clubhouse, so to speak, is Martis Camp in the Northern California golf mecca of Truckee, an ultra-exclusive private club with as many mansions and palatial estates as Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. From the back tees, Martis Camp stretches to 7,707 yards, including the 645-yard 10th.
