TERRY COLUMN: A grueling course, a worthy cause
On the longest day of the year, Jess Roper plans on golfing for nearly every minute the sun is up. And a few beyond that.
Roper, the head golf pro at Village Greens Golf Course, will tee off in the early hours of June 21 and attempt to golf more than 200 holes before midnight, raising money to support the families of wounded and fallen veterans.
It’s a startling pace, 200 holes, one that can’t be done only in the sunlight. Even on the longest day of the year, Roper would have to golf nearly an entire round — an average of nearly 17 holes — every hour if he was golfing only in the daytime.
Instead, he’ll try to cut that pace in half, starting soon after midnight to give himself a better chance.
“I’m either going to start at midnight and play til midnight, or I’ll start at 2 in the morning and play til I’m zonked,” Roper said.
“I’m more prepared in the fact I’m going to start earlier. I have more of a support crew. I kinda drove my own cart last year. I have volunteers that are going to come caddy and drive my cart for me. Drive me up to the ball, get me to the green. I have marshals out there clearing the way. They just kind of part the sea in front of me. Then, I have some lights set up for a little bit of night golf.
“Rudy’s Autosound is sponsoring me. They’re giving me a light box on top of the cart so I should be able to see the ball in the dark a little bit.”
That should help. In his first attempt last year, Roper golfed 184 holes before losing his final shot in the dark. He and his assistants raised more than $3,000 to support local junior golf and Folds of Honor, a nonprofit supported by the PGA that helps provide educational support to spouses and children of America’s fallen and wounded soldiers.
Roper’s lofty goal comes after floating out his 184-hole mark online last year. Polson golf pro Roger Wallace said he golfed 200 holes in a day a while back, but thought Roper could beat the mark this year.
Even with help and preparation, that’s a lot of golf. At a pace of about nine holes an hour, fast by normal standards, he’ll be fighting not only the normal fatigue of swinging a club that many times, but the natural exhaustion of being awake for nearly 24 hours.
“My best before that was Memorial Day probably 8 or 10 years ago,” Roper said. “I played 81 holes in a day. I kept playing around the golf course. That was a good day. That kind of inspired me for this, then incorporating the longest day of the year.”
Even for a scratch golfer, the stretch can get weary, and ugly, with very little time for practice swings or contemplation.
“It’s pretty much head up and hit it,” Roper said of the round where quantity is clearly more important than quality.
“I felt pretty good (last year).
“I had a middle stretch of about five rounds of 18 holes where I didn’t have a birdie. I just hit my lull. My family came out and that perked me up a little bit, I hit my second wind. That carried me through. I felt fine day of, (though) I was exhausted.
“It was the next day. I was sore, my body was fatigued, but my brain did not work the next day at work. I was pretty worthless.”
The hard part, Roper said, will be staying hydrated on what is expected to be a warm, sunny day. He’ll be snacking on the course and take a few breaks for meals at the course deli and should have plenty of support on the course, with volunteers lined up to help make the nearly 72,000 yards of play go smoothly.
With an expected packed day on the course, as well, even if he runs short on energy, Roper shouldn’t run short on encouragement.
“We’ll have a busy day. It goes two-fold. I’m out there, I fly a big American flag off the back of my cart. You get a lot of people on the golf course that see me come through and clapping for you, cheering you on.
“That’s pretty neat and special.”
Pledges, still being taken at the Village Greens clubhouse, are given at a flat rate, per hole, per birdie or per eagle. The event is a part of the PGA’s Patriot Golf Day, which raised $5.4 million for Folds of Honor last year.