"Losing 200 balls a day is depressing!"

I was watching Forrest Gump one night and thought, “Why not do that, but with a golf ball?” The next day I went out to the cornfields in Indiana to test what it would be like. I played for several hours and only lost a couple of balls, so I decided it was definitely possible.

Planning the route and organising everything took over six months, and was pretty much a full-time job.

The first shot was on Ventura Beach, California. It was about 75 yards, but right beyond that was a busy street with a whole bunch of cars on it. I was pretty nervous – as most golfers know, the 60 to 70-yard bunker shot is one of the toughest shots in golf – so I played it pretty safe and only hit it about 45 yards, and then chipped a couple more onto the street.

I tried to avoid busy roads and cities as much as possible, but sometimes they were unavoidable. In busy, urban areas, all I could do was putt. Putting down city streets was the most difficult and tiring, because you had to be constantly aware of your surroundings.

I had to find routes that enabled me to hit over rivers. If there was a big river that I couldn’t possibly clear, we had to find a bridge that I could putt across.

I had a team of three guys supporting me. We had a pick-up truck, a John Deere Gator, which served as my golf cart, and a camper that we slept in. It got pretty cramped and smelly in there, so I slept outside whenever I could. One night in the first week, we were in a remote part of California, I saw a huge mountain lion – it must have been eight feet long. I must have startled it, as it dashed away.

Some of the terrain made golf incredibly hard. In California, the desert went from sand to red rock. You can have what appears to be a good lie, but it’s impossible to see what rocks are underneath. You get a lot of vibration and reverberation going up through the club. I took about 70 old clubs that people gave me, but I only broke four.

As I got further east, the tall vegetation made it tough. It’s really difficult to hit your ball out of three feet tall grass, but it’s even harder to find it again. At times, I was losing a ball almost every other shot. Even though I was using old range balls that had been donated to me, it still takes its toll, losing so many balls. It’s depressing. I lost over 5,500 balls in total.

It was mentally draining, being out there for 12 hours a day, doing the same thing. I was raising money for scholarships for kids from broken homes, so that gave me a lot of motivation. I took it as an opportunity to improve as a golfer, as well. I was a 12 handicap when I left; I’m now down to five.

The journey took 93 days. The last shot was from the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina. That was a very cool shot, using a biodegradable ball.