Elk River man plays every golf course in Minnesota

Retired schoolteacher Art Hennington has played every golf course in Minnesota — all 526 of them.

The Elk River resident completed his obsessive, decades-long quest last Thursday on the greens and fairways of the Town & Country Club course in St. Paul. His family watched him sink the final putt and toasted his accomplishment afterward.

The achievement is unofficial — the Minnesota Golf Association doesn't keep records of such things — but Hennington has now played all the courses listed in the Minnesota Golf Directory, as well as 70 other more obscure locales that he's found along the way.

"This thing has probably cost me thousands of dollars," he said, including the thousands of miles driven and countless lost balls. "All I get is a kiss from my wife when it's done. But it's an obsession."

So much so that, four days before playing the final course, Hennington was on the operating table as a surgeon installed two stents into his heart.

"Before the surgery I thought, 'Dang, here I am one course left and I might not get to ever finish,' " said Hennington, 66. "But all went well and the doctors said I can golf Thursday, but that was earliest and to take it easy swinging."

The journey has taken Hennington to the far corners of Minnesota and, surprisingly, even required him to cross state and international borders. One course he played straddled a state line, with nine holes in North Dakota and nine in Minnesota. To play a course in Minnesota's Northwest Angle on Lake of the Woods, he needed his passport: He had to drive through the Canadian province of Manitoba to get there, and had to leave his friend at the border because he forgot his passport.

Then on the way home, U.S. Customs put him through the wringer because he had two sets of golf clubs in the car.

"I thought they were going to rip that golf bag apart," Hennington recalled.

Hennington confesses that he even skirted the law once. Denied access to a small private course that was part of a resort community, he and his friend impulsively jumped the fence and hurriedly played the course.

Hennington has always loved to golf. The first "course" he played was one he built himself as a kid: nine holes on his parents' two-acre resort in Sauk Centre, with tin can cups and 50-yard fairways. The first non-homemade course he played was at the Sauk Centre Country Club in 1965.

In the late 1990s, Hennington got his hands on a state golf directory and realized he'd played quite a few courses.

His wife, Joni, played some courses with him. His friend Guenther Sagan accompanied him on many adventures.

"He's just a great guy to bear with me." Hennington said.

For the most part, he shunned the golf cart, walking 95 percent of them. At times, he played 65 holes in a day.

Over the years he has lingered on the silky greens of elite courses and has played through some rougher terrain.

"There are some courses that are really bizarre out there," he said.

Hennington said that although he has finished his quest, he's not through with golf. He recently returned from an annual golf trip to Ireland.

He quips that the play-every-course pursuit didn't do much for his game.

"I always say I am in the twilight of a mediocre career," he said. "When I started, my handicap was 8. It went up to 15."

Shannon Prather • 612-673-4804