50 ROUNDS IN 50 DAYS IN 50 STATES

Meet the man who travelled more than 18,000 miles playing 50 games of golf – and raised $63,000 for charity

Clayton Phillips spent the best part of five years mapping out an epic road trip, which would take him across every US State so that he could play 50 rounds of golf in 50 days.

He never did hear back from Augusta National about arranging a tee time, nor from President Biden about making up a two-ball during the trip. But that didn’t stop Phillips from driving more than 1,100 miles to Oregon, just so he could hop on a plane to Hawaii to begin his charity challenge and help fund clean water worldwide.

After finishing his first round on August 24, he flew over 3,000 miles to Alaska before returning to Oregon eight hours (and 18 holes) later. He then spent the next 48 days driving through every contiguous US state.

“It took a week to get to my starting point, so that meant spending the night in 55 different beds and being away from my wife for 57 days,” says Phillips, an 8-handicapper. “Some of our States are really big so there were six days when I played no golf, and six days when I ended up playing two rounds of golf. It was quite intense.”

After travelling 18,060 miles, Phillips completed his 900th and final hole on October 12, just 20 minutes from his home in San Diego. He sheepishly admits to having only played golf twice since, but he is happier to report that he’s raised in excess of $63,000 for Covenant World Relief – Project Blue and Water1st International, two charities which work to provide clean, readily-accessible water where there isn’t any.

“That was the big motivator because I’ve been to Honduras and experienced first-hand how people’s lives can change from no longer needing to spend so many hours getting poor quality water,” he says.

Despite being retired, Phillips, 67, self-funded the entire trip at a cost of about $12,000. He did save $1,400 from complimentary hotel stays and green fees – money which he has personally donated to both charities.

You can support both causes by visiting