Foursome Hit Seven Golf Courses In Seven States In One Day

The first course was in Henderson, Ky. The group are, left to right, Mike Walker, Rod Wiethop, Terry Baum and Kyle Stortzum.

There's a group of men with ties to the Effingham area who are a little suspect when it comes to doing different things.

They've taken a group to the Hoosier Gym in Knightstown, Indiana to play basketball where the movie Hoosiers was filmed in 1985.

They've traveled to Dyersville, Iowa to play on the baseball diamond used in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams.

This time around, their attention turned to golf and they had a goal to reach . . . playing seven golf courses in seven states in one day.

"It came from a story I saw in Sports Illustrated about 25 years ago," said Rod Wiethop. "The story had the golfers playing 18 holes in fives states in one day. We have a coffee group and were talking about it one morning. We came up with the idea about how many states you could play in a day."

"I looked into it," said Kyle Stortzum.

"We were going to do it three years ago but Covid came. I checked with Guiness about a record but they didn't per se have a record for most states in a day," said Wiethop.

So Wiethop, Stortzum, Mike Walker and Terry Baum, Rod's cousin, hit the road recently to see if they could achieve seven golf courses in seven states in one day.

"We teed off in Henderson, Kentucky at about 6:20 a.m., then we played Evansville, Indiana,  Carmi, Illinois, Carruthersville, Mo., Blytheville, Arkansas, Memphis, Tennessee and South Haven, Mississippi," said Wiethop.

"We finished up in 13 hours and 10 minutes, playing three holes or more at every course," said Stortzum. "That was a total of 26 holes"

"I drive that trip from Carmi to Oxford, Miss all the time and that's how I knew we could do it," said Wiethop. "We were inspired by my cousin Terry, who is 76 years old. He took up golf about two months ago and plays softball four days a week and works out. He's in better shape than I am. I hope at 76 we're able to do what he does. He also was the entertainment. He is set in his ways and he didn't understand why we did things a certain way."

Walker flew in from South Carolina and Baum is from St. Louis.

"We talked with someone at all the courses and a lot of them didn't know if we were legitimate or not," said Stortzum. "Once people knew we were legitimate, they thought it was pretty neat."

"We went over the day before and we played 18 holes at Cambridge Country Club in Evansville," said Wiethop. "It's a Scottish links course. That was our warmup. We stayed in Henderson. Some courses charged us nine holes and other courses let us play for free. It ended up $60 per person to play all the courses.

"On the last one we played five holes. They didn't have any carts so we had to walk it," said Stortzum. "It was a long day, and we had to walk the last one. We finished out the seventh state on the seventh hole.

"A couple funny things, one was the course we played in Memphis was an intercity golf course, called South Links. We didn't know coming in. We were the only white people. Everybody there was so nice. They let us play for free. When it was over, the girl asked if they could take a photo of us.

"The inside was gated all around the course. We loved it and we're going to go back to play again. They told us to play for free because they said we were growing the game. It was the best. We would play that course again in a heartbeat.

"One of the funniest things, the last course, our oldest member, when we played our third hole, thought we should be done. We had to play eight and nine to get back to the parking lot, but he didn't see it that way and was ready to be done.

"We had not bogeyed a hole all day long. We were 12 feet from the hole and Mike, Kyle and I missed it. It came down to Terry who was mad anyhow. It rolled around the cup, went past the cup, sat for two seconds and then it fell in the back door. He didn't even see it. We started jumpiing up and down. We were playing four man best ball."

The round trip was 832 miles as the foursome hit the seven states.

"Getting to the area and getting back was over half the trip," said Stortzum. "Carruthersville, Mo. we played it in 12 minutes. We were supposed to go to Sikeston but they had a tournament, We got in touch with Carruthersville and we were 30 minutes past Charleston. They heard what we were wanting to do and told us, you can play but we went on to Carruthersville and it was under construction. They had temporary greens everywhere.

"They mowed a short spot. Mike almost drove every green that we played. There was nobody there. We put money in an envelope, grabbed a cart and it took us 12 minutes

"We were giving ourselves 10-15 minutes per hole to get in and out of the golf course in around an hour."

"Carmi and Memphis were our two favorites and two nicest," said Wiethop. "They were the two that did not charge us."

"When we got to Henderson the night before. I called and talked to the pro but he did not tell the people," said Stortzum. "He stopped in and they got it worked out."

The foursome went on the longest day of the year, June 21. The sun was up at 5:30 a.m. until 8:20 that night.

"We think we can do Alabama to Memphis next year," said Wiethop. "That way we make eight courses in eight states.

"We're going to be smarter the next time. I have an aunt who can solve mysteries five minutes into the show. We stopped there. My aunt said, 'why are you doing it that way.

You should have started down there and then headed back home.' Mike's wife said she thought the same thing."

" I think we can definitely do eight courses," said Stortzum. "Mike says he's in and Todd Schuette wants to be in. He couldn't come this year.

"As far as how many states you played in one day," said Wiethop. "Guiness didn't have a record. Now I will check back and we've done seven. We have to check on that."

Up next  is the Nick Nosbisch golf outing they are putting on Saturday, July 22 at Foreway Golf Course.

"You can tee off at 8 a.m. or noon," said Wiethop. "Ten groups will have a shotgun start and 10 more groups have an afternoon shotgun start. We wanted to do something to remember Nick Nosbisch and that we could give back to the community the money we raise. The money goes to the  Nick Nosbisch scholarship fund. We want to keep doing that and give Birdies for Brittney, the White Lily Society in Teutopolis for mothers who have lost children. to the American Cancer Society or Lou Gehrig's disease. We want to give back to those type of things.

"The morning group is EJHS or EHS athletes. The afternoon is for friends and family to play. But that that can vary. It's a great chance to see all the kids that played. The coach's group has lost the first couple of years, it was close.

"We've had a lot of support from local businesses and it keeps Nick's memory alive."

The cost is $200 per foursome or $50 per player. They'll take single players and put them on a team. They can contact 217-663-6068 or can email: weetop34@yahoo.com to enter.

The foursome had to push to get through all seven courses in seven states in one day.

The foursome played their final course for seven courses in one day. Left to right, Mike Walker, Terry Baum, Kyle Stortzum and Rod Wiethop.