It wasn’t as if Joey Hines awoke one morning and discovered his own white whale. That’s not how Hines decided to make it his quest to play every existing golf course that has hosted a major championship, not just in the United States but including Open Championship venues.
Like a lot of things, it just kind of happened.
One major-championship course became two and two became 10 and before long, he was closing in on 50. That’s when it got serious.
“When I look back on it, it defies logic. But it has been a major piece of my golf puzzle,” Hines said recently, just days before retiring as head pro at Cape Fear Country Club in North Carolina after 32 years there.
The number is 119. That’s how many major-championship courses are still around. And Hines has played every one of them.
There is a twist to that number. It will increase to 120 next summer when Los Angeles Country Club hosts its first U.S. Open.
Hines has been there, played that.
So let’s get back to how this whole thing started. Hines grew up adjacent to Cape Fear Country Club in Wilmington along the Atlantic coast. His family did not have a membership at the club, but it’s where Hines remembers seeing Sam Snead putting sidesaddle and watching Tom Weiskopf, Tom Watson and Lanny Wadkins play in the PGA Tour’s Azalea Open.
When Hines watched golf, he didn’t just study the players; he studied the courses. He had a sense of the game’s history, knowing the places were as much a part of the story as the people.
As a youngster, Hines had played Pinehurst No. 2 (which has hosted the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open), but that was the extent of his exposure to major venues. Even that didn’t start Hines’ quest because Pinehurst was so familiar, having played it several times.
It was when Hines played a ninth-grade school match at Tanglewood Golf Club in Clemmons, N.C., that his eyes opened.
“It was immaculate. You could literally putt on the tees. I had never seen anything like it,” Hines said of the course where Lee Trevino won the 1974 PGA Championship.
Hines didn’t know it at the time, but he had two courses down, 117 to go.
As a young golf professional, Hines headed to Texas where he intended to work as an assistant at a municipal course. Before Hines started, someone told him to check with the head pro at Northwood Club, site of the 1952 U.S. Open. The pro had an opening, Hines had a job, and his life began heading down paths he never imagined following.
When he realized he had played 49 major-championship courses, a hobby became a quest.
He played Northwood and Cedar Crest, Colonial and Southern Hills, Champions and a new place called Oak Tree, each of which had major-championship DNA.
In 1990, Hines was offered the head professional job at Cape Fear, so he came home.
“The members would say we want to do a golf trip and I would pick a region and a time that was convenient,” Hines said. “The first one I did was National Golf Links, Shinnecock, Baltusrol, Merion and Aronimink.
“They said that was fun; let’s do another one next year. So then we made an Ohio trip to Firestone, Inverness, Canterbury and Muirfield Village, which hasn’t hosted a major, but I wasn’t going to miss that one.”
Then came trips to the upper Midwest for places such as Medinah, Interlachen and Oakland Hills. It took multiple trips to Chicago to get everywhere Hines wanted to play, and the same for the Philadelphia area.
When he realized he had played 49 major-championship courses, a hobby became a quest.
By 2011, Hines had played every U.S. Open course, and he had picked up a round at Augusta National along the way. He had played the 14 Open Championship courses on various trips with members, completing his collection by playing Musselburgh, which is set within a horse-racing track.
All that left was filling out the PGA Championship bracket. That took some time because there had been so many one-and-done sites. A battle with throat cancer in 2018 paused his pursuit, but on Father’s Day weekend in 2019, Hines found the finish line.
“The last one was (Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort) in Shawnee on Delaware, Pennsylvania. It’s where Arnie met Winnie (and where Paul Runyan won the 1938 PGA Championship).
“It had 27 holes designed by Tillinghast, and the best way I can describe the place is it’s kind of like the movie ‘Dirty Dancing’ – very dated, but the bones are great.
“It was right after my cancer scare. It was the only time I had my whole family with me. I played all 27 holes there just to make sure I played the ones they played in the PGA.”
It makes Hines a living reference book when it comes to major-championship venues. To the best of his knowledge only one person can make the same claim of having played every major-hosting course in existence, and that person prefers to remain anonymous.
“He’s retired, has a private plane and a bigger budget,” Hines said.
For years, Hines kept racks of golf balls on his office wall, commemorating many of the places he played. With his retirement approaching, Hines moved the golf balls to his house at Hound Ears Club in the North Carolina mountains.
He turned 64 last Sunday and is ready for the next phase of life.
“That’s the million-dollar question. Members ask me what I’m going to do next, and I tell them I’m going to be able to play some golf now,” Hines said. “For years, I’ve been the one making sure the members had a good experience.
“I’ll continue to teach a little bit and when the summers get hot, I’ll go to Hound Ears. I want to play some golf while I can still do it.”
As for those golf balls on his wall, Hines loves what they represent.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Hines said. “I only wish that I was younger so I could do it all again.”