STORY BY AKSH GUPTA

 

 

Imagine waking up one morning and deciding that, for the next 365 days, your life will revolve around just three actions:

 

Hit it. Find it. Putt it.

 

No office emails.
No family schedules.
No routines.
No responsibilities except navigating fairways, weather, and your own thoughts.

 

For most golfers, this sounds like a fantasy straight out of a retirement brochure.
For others, maybe even a nightmare — too much solitude, too much golf, too much… everything.

 

For 27-year-old Josh Simpson, it was neither.

It was survival.
And eventually, a world record.

 

 

THE REAL REASON THE JOURNEY BEGAN

 

When people hear that someone played 581 different 18-hole courses across a single year, they imagine obsession or insanity.

 

But Josh’s story didn’t begin with either.

 

It began with loss.

 

His mother — the person he calls his anchor, his cheerleader, his best friend — passed away suddenly in 2023 after a brief battle with cancer. And as anyone who has ever lost a parent knows, the world shifts a little. The colors fade. The plans you thought you had suddenly don’t feel big enough.

 

Josh describes those months after her passing as falling into a wormhole — not of despair, but of clarity.

 

Life is brief. Tomorrow is a bonus.
And if you are going to do something outrageous, meaningful, or unforgettable, you do it now.

 

So he quit the lawn-care business.
He bought a camper van.
He packed two pairs of shoes, a mountain of socks, and a ball marker engraved with his mom’s name and a little bee — her favourite.

 

And he set off.

 

 

Josh Simpson and the camper van that became his home for a year-long world record journey.

 

 

A YEAR LIVED BETWEEN FAIRWAYS

 

The mission was simple on paper but brutal in reality:

 

Play as many different 18-hole courses as possible.

No repeats.
No shortcuts.
No mulligans.
No starting from the 10th.
No 'that putt is good.'

 

Every round required:

 

A witness.
A club signature.
A course length of more than 6,000 yards.
And all 18 holes played in order.

 

It was less a golf adventure and more a logistical marathon stitched together with tee shots.

 

He started at Woodhall Spa on January 24.

From there, the map became a blur — from England’s heathlands to the windswept coasts of Wales, from Scotland’s legendary links to tiny-town gems no one outside their postcode had ever heard of.

 

He slept in car parks, on cliff edges, beside clubhouses and highways.
He burned through 30 gloves, countless golf balls, and emotions he didn’t know he had.
His first pair of golf shoes lasted 500 rounds — which might be the most shocking stat of all.

 

THE ROUNDS HE WILL NEVER FORGET

 

Some courses were bucket-list icons.
Others were remote, brutal, humbling.

 

At Royal Porthcawl, the rain came in sideways.
In Glasgow, the wind hit 50 mph — and so did his scorecard.

 

He came close to albatross once.
Close to hole-in-ones many times.
And somehow, in more than 10,000 holes, never got the one shot he wanted.

 

But the real memories were not golf shots.

 

It was the people.

 

A greenskeeper who insisted on buying him breakfast.
A poker player who talked strategy between tee shots.
A CEO who shared life lessons on a par 3.
And even an arms dealer, which sounds like a story Josh should not legally repeat.

 

Golf courses became confessional booths.
Playing partners became temporary therapists.
And round after round, Josh stitched himself back together.

 

THE RECORD THAT WAS NEVER REALLY ABOUT THE RECORD

 

 

 

On a grey Monday afternoon, about 90 minutes west of London, he finished round number 581 at The Caversham.

 

A world record.
A benchmark no golfer had ever touched.
The culmination of a year where he lived more life outdoors than many do in a lifetime.

 

It is the hardest thing I have ever done, Josh said.
It is also the best.

 

And then came the line that proves this was always bigger than golf:

 

I would have loved for Mum to see this,
but none of this would have happened if she had not passed.

 

Grief had cracked him open.
Golf had filled the space.

 

SO WHAT NOW?

 

The record is logged.
Guinness has it.
The world knows it.

 

And Josh?

 

He still has a few weeks left in the year.
He might squeeze in more courses — because the rhythm has become addictive.
Because golf, for all its frustrations, also heals.

 

But he confesses something quietly:

 

I am pretty sick of golf.

 

And honestly?
After 581 rounds, he has earned the break.

 

A YEAR OF GOLF. A LIFETIME OF MEANING.

 

 

Simpson played every round under strict Guinness rules — no shortcuts, no repeats, no mulligans.

 

Josh did not set out to chase a number.
He set out to feel alive again.

 

And somewhere between tee boxes, rainstorms, and strangers who felt like family, he found exactly that.

 

Not just a record.
A reason.