It’s 50 courses in 50 states in 50 days as a 50-year-old.
That’s the ultimate dream vacation, right? But Pete Crozier isn’t doing this for a getaway. He is, in fact, playing 50 different golf courses, one in every state in the country, in just shy of a two-month span, in honor of his late father, George, who died after a stroke with complications from Type 2 diabetes 20 years ago. Crozier is also doing it for his 15-year-old son, Gavin, who has Type 1 diabetes. And now Pete, at age 50, is raising money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
According to the American Diabetes Association, as of 2015 the disease was the seventh-leading cause of death in the United States with 79,535 death certificates listing it as the underlying cause of death and 173,271 death certificates listing it as a contributing cause.
Pete’s dream of playing 50 courses in 50 states in 50 days – a journey he has dubbed “Fifty for Father” – started 20 years ago after his father died. Every year since then, 16 of his friends get together on June 20 for the Crozier Open, to remember George. And every year, Pete said, “If I win the lottery, I’m gonna do this trip.”
His lottery numbers never hit but Crozier went through with it anyway. “I’m going through a midlife crisis, but in a good way,” he said.
He started by meeting Austin Sipe, a diabetic golfer who lives near Dayton, Ohio, not far from Columbus, where Crozier resides. Sipe worked for Titleist.
“Once I built that relationship, the rest was history,” Crozier said. “I spoke with Brian Sparks, who is with Swing King, who put me in touch with his CEO, Mike Jakob, who invented the yellow (first-down) line you see on TV during football games, and then with Gregg Kaplan, who invented Redbox. Everyone wanted to help me in some way.
“The golf world is so small.”
His sponsorship list grew: Advantage Rent A Car, Titleist, KemperSports, Linksoul, Troon, the PGA Tour’s TPC Network, Marathon Petroleum and Billy Casper Golf.
And so did his plans.
His trip will begin May 27 in Southport, N.C., at St. James Plantation, one of the many rounds of golf donated by Troon. He then will head to Charleston, S.C., for a day of golf there, while also catching some of the U.S. Women’s Open Tuesday practice round at the Country Club of Charleston.
After South Carolina, he will head to Florida and then go west toward Texas, which has a special draw.
President George W. Bush heard about Crozier’s journey, and, if his schedule permits, would like to play with him. “Can you imagine, me, playing with President Bush?” Crozier said.
He then will travel to Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, Hawaii, Alaska and Oregon.
As for his trips to Hawaii and Alaska, Crozier has an interesting story of how he got his flights paid for by a gracious man.
“I was sitting at the bar and this guy next to me started talking,” Crozier said. “I really didn’t think anything of it. He asked what I did for a living, so I told him. But I also told him about the project I was working on. Next thing you know he said, ‘What if I paid all of your expenses to Hawaii and Alaska?’ I was shocked.
“People hear this story and want to be part of it. His early enthusiasm really pushed me to plan out this journey in full.”
While Crozier travels to Hawaii and Alaska, his brother and daughter will retrieve his van in California and drive it to Oregon, where he’ll pick it up upon his return.
Crozier is still working out details for the latter stages of his journey, but he’s excited to visit St. Louis, Denver and Chicago, all places where he worked as a young adult.
He also has plans to play a few 36-hole days. For example, one day he’s playing in Robinsonville, Miss., in the morning and will travel 20 miles across the Tennessee border to Memphis to play again in the afternoon. Another day he’ll play 18 holes each in South Dakota and North Dakota, and then will travel to Iowa for next day’s play.
“That will be a long day,” he said.
“There are going to be long nights on the road. There will be loneliness. But I have to remember I’m doing something good and I will push through this.” – Pete Crozier
Crozier plans to finish his projected 50-day journey in Worcester, Mass., where his father learned to play golf, bringing the journey full circle.
Crozier hopes to put fewer than 10,000 miles on his van. He wanted to balance his travel and not always take the quickest route to the next state, an approach of which his dad would approve, he said.
His wife and four children will visit along the way to keep him company and to keep him motivated.
Crozier is not treating this as a vacation. He wants to, as best he can, emulate the hardships people with diabetes experience. So he’ll sleep in the van most nights and eat out of a cooler.
“Traveling, sleeping out of a van, it terrifies me,” he said. “There are many things that could go wrong. What if there’s (bad) weather? Lightning or a tornado? But diabetes is hard so this is going to be hard. You have to adjust. There are going to be long nights on the road. There will be loneliness. But I have to remember I’m doing something good and I will push through this.
“I’m doing something I love for people I love.”
To donate to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, fill out a foursome for Crozier during his journey or learn more about Fifty for Father, visit www.fiftyforfather.com.