Friday, January 06, 2006

Golfers Who Have Played the Top 100 Golf Courses


The Most Difficult Golf Club in the World to Join . . . The Global Golf Centurions Club

Somebody's got to keep the unofficial list of people who have completed this difficult feat, so we've nominated ourselves to take on the task.

Thank you for those of you who have contacted me regarding additions to the list. We attempt to verify the authenticity of the claim before posting the name. The year in parenthesis is the year completed.

1. James A. Wysocki (1986) of Louisiana, the first man ever to do so! *
2. Robert McCoy (1988) of North Carolina and Maine (all courses ever on the list) **
3. Norman Klaparda (1993) of California 
4. Oliver 'Bud' Thompson (1995) of Ohio ****
5. Jimmy Dunne III (1995) of New York
6. Rich Hoover (1997) of Pennsylvania
7. Bernie Hiller (1997) of New York
8. Samm Klaparda (1998) The first woman to have played all 100 ***
9. Mel Hughes (1999) of Colorado
10. Rod Boren (2000) of Ohio *****
11. Tom J. Clasby III (2000) of California, completed every course ever ranked in the top 100!
12. Sunil Kappagoda (2000) of New York
13. Selwyn Herson (2004) of California
14. Alan Heuer (2004) of Connecticut
15. Leon Wentz (2005) of California
16. Randy Pace (2006) of Florida
17. Dick Michaux (2006) of California
18. Marc Brown (2007) of California (all courses on lists from 1999-2013)
19. Quentin Lutz (2007) of Ohio
20. Mark Lampert (2010) of North Carolina
21. Jim Rothenberg (2011) of California
22. Bill Schulz (2012) of Arizona (all courses on lists from 1997-2021)
23. Hank Wolf (2012) of Virginia
24. John Sabino (2013) of New Jersey
25. Erlend Malfait (2013) of Belgium
26. Paul Rudovsky (2014) of North Carolina and Massachusetts (all courses ever on any list of any golf magazine)
27. Hong-Seh Lim (2014) of California (all courses on the list from 2003-2019)
28. Michael J. Durham (2014) of Texas
29. Gary Deems (2014) of California
30. Larry Nicholls (2015) of Nevada (completed lists from 2013 & 2015)
31. Fergal O'Leary (2015) of Ireland ******
32. Jonathan Orszag (2015) of New York
33. Mitch Reese (2015) of Florida
34. Jeff Lewis (2016) of New York
35. Moss Ngoasheng (2016) of South Africa
36. Joseph Andriole (2017) of Florida (all courses on lists from 2001-2013)
37. Keith Dennis (2017) of Ohio
38. Terry Lundgren (2017) of New York
39. John Bolger (2018) of California
40. David Hendler (2018) of Florida
41. Anonymous
42. Roger LaVoie (2018) of California
43. David Davis (2018) of the Netherlands
44. Simon Holt (2019) of Scotland
45. Greg Ohlendorf (2019) of Illinois (all courses on lists from 2005-2013)
46. Dave Forgan (2019) of Canada
47. Bruce Callahan (2019) of Texas
48. Dan Stephenson (2019) of California
49. John Cornish (2019) of Australia (first Australian to complete)
50. Ron Csigo (2020) of New Jersey
51. Steve Anthony (2020) of Washington D.C.
52. Ted McCarthy (2022) of California
53. Steven Smith (2022) of Canada
54. James Gold (2022) of New York
55. Paul Jones (2023) of Louisiana
56. Jonathan Cummings (2023) of Florida
57. Keith Bank (2023) of Illinois
58-59. Scott and Chris Hartman (2023) of Pennsylvania *******
60. Rich Levine (2023) of Florida
61. Brian Knoetze (2023) of South Africa




* Wysocki was the original golf quester and list collector. An amateur pilot, he flew his own plane to many courses he played and tragically died several years after completing the quest in a plane he was flying.

** McCoy has completed playing the top 100 twice, including the unreal feat of doing it again in 100 consecutive days in 1997!

*** An especially difficult feat for a female golfer given how hard Garden City and The Golf Club are to access. Samm and Norman Klaparda are also the first husband and wife team to play all 100.

**** Thompson was a lawyer who represented many golf organizations. Like Jim Wysocki, Thompson flew his own plane to many courses he played in the U.S.

***** In addition to the top 100, Rod played all the courses that have ever hosted major championships including the US Open, US Amateur, PGA Championships, Masters, British Open, British Amateur and plus the US venues for the Ryder Cup and Walker Cup

****** Fergal completed the US Top 100 at age 28 and completed the World Top 100 at age 32. Fergal is the youngest person in history to complete the US 100 and the World 100, and is the only Irishman to complete either feat. Fergal is also on the verge of completing all courses ever ranked by GOLF Magazine in both USA and World since their inception.

******* The Hartmans are the first father and son team to complete the top 100. York, Pennsylvania is a town of only 45,000, yet three people from York (the Hartmans and Rich Hoover) have played the top 100. Must be something in the water or air? Or maybe all those York Peppermint Patties?

Ralph Kennedy of New York gets an honorable mention as he played 3,000 courses between 1910-1952 around the world including many of the world's best. Although there was no ranked list at the time, we give him credit. The original golf fanatic!

18 comments:

Robert Thompson said...

I played with Leon when he came to Canada. It was quite a quest and I was glad to see him complete it.

Anonymous said...

Mr. Top 100 Golfer -
I know alot of it will be subjective, but I'd be interested to hear your feedback on the total cost associated with playing the Top 100.
You are blessed in the fact that you can play at least 10-15 courses within the NY/New England area and drive comfortably to get there.

Top 100 Golfer said...

Ryno - this is something we don't like to think a lot about because the cost is probably very frightening if added up. As the Mastercard commercial goes - the experience is PRICELESS. If I had to guess, I would say roughly $1,000 per course due to travel, hotels, rental cars, greens fees, etc.

Anonymous said...

I played with Mel Hughes at Royal Melbourne in 2008 and he continues to repeat the list as it changes.

Anonymous said...

Top 100 Golfer:

Your posts are very interesting. Good luck.

I have played Golf Magazine's top 100 world lists for 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007. I've also played Golf Digest's top 100 U.S. lists for 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007.

I completed my first world's top 100 list in May 2007 when I played Durban CC.

Marc Brown - mbrown@troygould.com

alex the droog said...

Nice belt-notching one might say. Impressive.

However, the list past about the top 30 is really up for discussion. Top 100 in the world arguably includes Prince de Provence in France and Ellerston in Australia and I'll bet you're not bluffing your way into those. (You should) On the other hand, kudos for your success in Japan, that is often very tough.

I hope that you are doing it because you really love golf and its architecture and not just to brag.

Bill said...

Mr. Top 100,

Do you have any further info about Robert McCoy playing the Top 100 in 100 days? I'm really fascinated by this and haven't been able to find anything out about it, other than your post.
Thanks,
Bill

Top 100 Golfer said...

Bill - I have added a hyperlink, click on McCoy's name above to see more background. John

Mel Hughes said...

Hello,

Just an update from Mel Hughes. I have been busy playing around the world and have now completed playing the Golf Magazine World's Top 100 courses for 1995, 1997, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009.

I have the list for 1993 and have played every course except one in Morocco and another in Columbia. I am uncertain if I will attempt to play these due to concerns about traveling to these locations. I would be interested in any advice from other bloggers about my concerns.

I am now on a quest to finish playing the Top 100 courses in the British Isles according to the UK based Golf World Magazine. I have about 25 to go and they are mainly parkland/heathland courses in England and Wales. Hope to finish it this summer if work allows - a 40 day trip!

Cheers and happy golfing.

Mel Hughes

Anonymous said...

Greetings,
I like the website. I have a few footnotes for Tom Clasby. I did play everything on the Golf Magazine list since 1979 when it started. It is documented in an article on their web site. I completed my first top 100 in 2000. I have also played all the courses in th US rated by Golf Magazine. Also I have played every course rated by Golf Digest since 1969 in the US. I played all the US Open Courses except the one or two that do not exist. I played all the British Open courses as well. There you go. A true golf nut with a bit of Gypsy in him.
Thanks,
Tom Clasby

macboube said...

I know of two people on the cusp of completing the TOP 100 US list
and it is no surprise they both need Augusta. I know of another trying to complete the World Top 100 who is at 75. Also, one of the two mentioned above who is at 99 on the US list is doing the World Top 50. Wonder why he is only doing 50? Because he refuses to go to Mexico (Cabo Del Sol). Can't say that I blame him.

macboube said...

My personal quest is to play the Golfweek TOP 100 Classic Courses list. I am approaching 50 completions. Some of these are a lot more difficult than you think. Wondering if anyone else has attempted this?

Anonymous said...

i am looking for people to play the top courses of the united states. have found ways through auctions to play merion, country club at brookline, medinah, among others. but I am only a single and they are usually threesomes or foursomes..alot of them run between 300.00-600.00 each to play.email me at rnscurtiss@yahoo.com

Rjpace said...

I completed the 2005 list and have one course left to play to complete the 2003 list. Does anyone know how to get copies of lists prior to 2003. I cannot seem to find them online.

Randy Pace

Anonymous said...

Have you played Ellerston yet Mel?
If not you unfortunately have not played the top 100 in the world

Anonymous said...

California Golf Club of San Francisco.. gotta be in the top 100 now or sometime soon

Anonymous said...

Hi, great site. Have you ever played Notts(Hollinwell)it apparantly used to be in the top 100?

Anonymous said...

Why choose the Golf Magazine Top 100 over the
Golf Digest Top 100 in the World list?

What year is the list you have completed?

Will you continue to play all 100 on each
updated list from Golf Magazine?

Thanks