Conquering the elements

BEAR CREEK TWP. – Slogging through a round at the Wilkes-Barre Municipal Golf Club on Thursday morning, the self-described “Happy Golfer” appeared to have met his match.

Putting out the 18th hole, he seemed almost pitiful – an elderly man, standing alone, on a gray, lifeless day, in rain that varied from soaking to torrential.

But Nick Karnazes wasn’t there because he had nothing better to do, and he was about as far from worn out as a 73-year-old man who’s competing with his world-famous son can get.

His son Dean is the Ultramarathonman, whose freakish stamina became legend in 2006 when he ran 50 marathons in all 50 states in 50 consecutive days. He’s been the focus of autobiographical books, a guest on talk shows, the covers of magazines and, according to his father, the source of an online Twitter feed, through which overly inquisitive fans query about his breakfast preferences and whether he’s brushed his teeth.

Now the father wants to go shot-for-shot with his son. The California native’s sport of choice is golf, and his self-imposed countrywide grind is playing a round at two courses in each of the 48 contiguous states in 96 straight days.

Having started on March 22 at 4:30 a.m. and stuck to as short a route as possible, he’s more than halfway. Completed are the southern half the nation, the Atlantic Coast and the Northeast. He stopped by Wilkes-Barre Municipal on his way to New Castle, Pa., and points westward because of its convenience to Interstate 81.

He had planned for all 50 in 100 days, developing an itinerary in which he would park the RV in Washington, fly to Alaska, rent a car and a room for two courses, do the same in Hawaii and fly back, but the junket would have added several thousand dollars to the trip’s already mounting costs.

The former wholesale grocer’s frugality, however, has pulled the side trip out of the rough. He had originally budgeted about $17,000, but a sponsorship and his ability to negotiate fees has him now estimating about $9,000.

His challenge could hardly be considered as grueling, but Karnazes is running with a fraction of the crew his son had – himself. Dean Karnazes benefited from about $1.5 million in sponsorships, an entourage of support vehicles and a company to organize the whole circus. Nick Karnazes got about $4,000 in clubs and apparel from Callaway Golf Co., a good deal on a new Winnebago, a listing of the nation’s golf courses and some friends sprinkled along the way.

When he’s not strolling the links, he tends to his secretarial business: mapping routes, stocking the kitchen, fueling up, arranging tee times, negotiating fees, soliciting media coverage, communicating with his family and a host of other incidentals. In Cleveland, he’ll take time for tire and oil changes.

A few times, he’s had to reorganize his plans, either because of weather (the courses in Los Alamos, N.M., were snow-covered) or unforeseen surprises (a Mississippi course had been wiped out of existence by Hurricane Katrina).

But Karnazes, who speaks in a nonstop, rapid-fire interlacing of anecdotes upon anecdotes to flesh out his worldview, has been able to adapt and overcome, rarely belying his moniker. In fact, only on two topics does “The Happy Golfer” not seem happy: when vehemently describing his family’s will to succeed and, with tearful grief, detailing his teenaged daughter’s fatal car crash and the 309 long months since.

Everything else, from gay marriage to the kids these days and their technological toys, is discussed cheerfully.

Karnazes is thinking book deal out of his odyssey, in which he’ll use his new anecdotes to ruminate on issues from philosophy (“live each day”) to positive thinking (“you can’t let the road beat you”) to finding inner peace (“I don’t know what’s right, but I know what I’m doing … is right for me right now.”)

Regrets? “I’m driving by some really great courses,” he said, to stay on schedule. But he plans to solve that with another challenge: next time, 10 courses in each state.

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Extras

Rain doesn’t deter 73-year-old golfer on mission

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