Hitting a golf ball around the world

THE PRESS

GOLFING GLUTTONS: Jamie Patton, left, and Michael Goldstein will be playing 365 games of golf through 2010.

Two Wellington amateur golfers are living their sporting heaven – playing golf every day of the year, at courses around the world.

Jamie Patton and Michael Goldstein are trading life as corporate lawyers for the golfing marathon.

Today they will tee off at Kauri Cliffs, in the Bay of Islands.

"It's going to be magic. It's going to be great to hit that first shot," Mr Goldstein said.

The men, both 24, were on an end-of-year hockey trip for their Victoria University premier team to Hawke's Bay in August when the idea came over a hangover and a trip to Cape Kidnappers.

Though they ran out of time to play golf at the course that day, they began talking about what it would be like to chuck in their desk jobs and just play golf.

"We may have been a wee bit hung over and we came up with the idea of playing golf every day for a year," Mr Goldstein said. "We just thought, 'This could be good fun'."

And so puregolf2010 was born.

The first 50 days will be spent at courses around New Zealand, before travelling to Australia, the United States, Britain, Europe and Asia.

They will come back to Cape Kidnappers – where it all began – for their last round on December 31.

Mr Goldstein said: "We're taking the risk, this leap of faith, to do something out of the ordinary."

They were seeking corporate sponsorship for the challenge and would be raising money for First Tee of New Zealand, helping young people through golf.

While both were amateurs – "we can't stress that enough" – they have handicaps of 5 and 3 and were excited about possibly playing at St Andrews in Scotland and Augusta National in the US.

While they travelled the world together their partners, "golfing widows" Gretta O'Connell and Angela Bamford, would be living together here.

Although it sounded like a dream jaunt, the planning was hard work. "We're going to need a holiday after this," Mr Patton joked.

"Yeah, probably separately," Mr Goldstein added.

- © Fairfax NZ News