Final Summary << Index

Click on the photos below to enlarge Jim's first shot at Anchorage Golf Club in Anchorage, AK. Jim's final putt (shot #5402) at Pearl Country Club in Honolulu, HI Pat's first shot at Anchorage Golf Club in Anchorage, AK. Pat's final putt (shot #6708) at Pearl Country Club in Honolulu, HI

Here it is the last day of November and we’re still catching up on final details from our trip! We hope that we haven’t missed thanking everyone for their help along the way; from those who opened their homes, to those who sent us encouraging emails, to those who gave us complimentary passes for green fees and/or cart fees - we couldn’t have done it without you! As we look back on our CanAmAthon, we wonder how it all came together so flawlessly. The weather cooperated almost every day. We played in rain a couple of days, played in many extremely hot sunny days, played in some chilly, windy weather, but never had to cancel a day! Our Chevy Venture logged 13,500 miles, and we never had any problems with it, not even a flat tire! Our health remained constant; neither of us caught a cold and other than a few minor aches and pains our backs held up! We were able to catch the flights to and from Alaska and Hawaii on our standby basis for our rounds of golf in each of those places. Somehow we managed to get from one day to the next just in time. A few days we arrived at the motel too late and too tired to complete our journals, but fortunately we were able to catch up the next day. Actually, we both agree that playing golf each day was the easiest part of the trip. The days that we had night driving were probably the most difficult for us, because by the time it got dark we had already been on the road 5 or 6 hours (after an 18-hole round of golf)! It seemed that the universal “First” question of all our media interviews was “WHY?” We suppose it comes from the same mentality that drives the mountain climber, long distance swimmer, parachutist or other people who partake in extreme activities. These people are attempting these feats to prove both their physical and metal strengths. We guess that’s what we were trying to prove to ourselves – that even though we are both over 70, that we still have the stamina to complete something like this! One of the surprises of this trip has been the interest of the print, radio and television media. From time to time during the trip we were interviewed by 14 newspapers, we were on 8 radio talk shows, and we were met at 5 different golf courses by television cameras and reporters. Our story appeared in countless newspapers including USA Today, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, etc. We were featured on several national radio talk shows including Paul Harvey, and we were also featured on several national television channels including the Golf Channel and the Weather Channel. CANAMATHON STATISTICS: Complete trip finances Expenses - summary Complete trip score records Golf stats summary We are not mentioning this just to blow our own horn, but to try to explain the logic of such international interest in our golf odyssey. Our best guess is that we became a human interest story – two septuagenarians trying a marathon which many deemed to be impossible—61 18-hole rounds of golf in 61 days in 61 different locations which included all 50 US states, Washington DC and all 10 Canadian provinces. From the many emails that we received, we determined that even non-golfers took a great interest in our golfathon. Much of the interest came early in the trip, and it had us worried that it would be an embarrassment to all concerned if we should be unable to complete the trip for any one of several reasons: illness, car problems, or bad weather among them. Also, many of the golf courses had let us know that they had some welcoming ceremonies awaiting our arrival, and we certainly didn’t want to disappoint them. Perhaps the fear of failure was another one of the driving forces that kept us going. As of this writing, we haven’t heard back from Guinness about our record. It might take them a while to devise a category or decide whether our CanAmAthon is worthy of being in the record books. So, we’ll just have to wait and see what develops on that front. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to email us at: jfpjhealey@gmail.com In closing, for those of you who have checked in on our website again, we wish you a very wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year! Our very best to you all, Jim and Pat