Think You Play a Lot of Golf? This Man Is Aiming For 581 Courses in a Year

THINK you play a lot of golf?

By the end of 2025 I reckon that I will have played somewhere in the region of 120-130 rounds. I thought that I was doing pretty well. And then I read about a golfer called Josh Simpson, who is in the process of trying to break the Guinness World Record of playing 581 golf courses in a single year.

Having kicked off on Friday, January 24, by the beginning of May the 27-year-old from King's Lynn had already played 154 golf courses in 98 days – and was 27% of the way to his target.

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Living out of his campervan for the year, Josh told England Golf why he is taking on the challenge and his targets for the year.

He said: "I was on a trip last year to the Netherlands with a good friend called Michael. I said I'd love to retire and buy a motorhome and travel around and play golf. My passion is playing different golf courses and it's just rocketed from there. I mentioned the world record and he said, ‘Why don’t you do it next year?’

"It sounded scary but the more he spoke, the more it made sense. He said, 'You're in the prime of your life in terms of age and fitness and physically you're able to do it. You’ve got a job but other jobs will always come.' I owned a domestic lawn care business with about 450 customers which was passed down to me by dad but I didn’t really enjoy it despite there being perks. I was very fortunate to take over a business like that, but I realised I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life.

"I said I didn’t really have a CV that would get me a job that would pay me the same, but my friend explained that there’d be an opportunity. I thought about it and it made some sense in that if I didn’t do it now, I’d never do it. So then came the task of seeing whether it was financially possible, and with the climate we have, but after six months of pondering and sleepless nights, here we are.”

He is raising money for MacMillan, and also for Tapping House Hospice in Norfolk, which is local to him. His late mother had also raised money for the hospice. He said: "She had a soft spot for it. A charity like Tapping House would certainly see the difference the money can make, while on the flip side if someone is donating from the other side of the country or internationally, they’re less likely to donate to a local charity. So by having a great charity like MacMillan too, we’ve got a happy medium.:

Simpson is a member at  Middleton Hall and a country member at Woodhall Spa where he started his record-breaking attempt.

The motivation for the challenge for Simpson came when he lost his mother a couple of years ago. He said: "That put everything into perspective. I never really saw myself doing something like this, I was never really that kind of person who would think about standing out, but it made me look at life differently. I decided I wanted to do something good whilst I could, and with what happened with mum and how sudden it was - she went from completely normal to being gone within two months - it makes you realise that could happen to anyone at any time. So I thought I’d try and do something good, that I’ve wanted to do, and I’ve found a way to combine the two.”

So who does he play with? "People can fill in a form on the website, which is essentially like saying ‘invite me to your course’. It was a big thing in terms of figuring whether this would be financially viable, as obviously 600 green fees in a year would be quite expensive. I’ve also got a WhatsApp group of 300 where I post spare tee times and they’re gone within seconds. The green fees are free as the clubs usually cover it, but the people playing just need to donate £50 or whatever it is to charity so they can get involved.”

So the next time you complain about the aches and pains you feel after a round of golf, spare a thought for Simpson.

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