After record 600 rounds, Dallas golfer is still playing

December 27 -- The day before notching his 600th round of golf for the year, Richard Lewis wondered if he would ever feel warm again. The Dallas golfer, who was slated to play a world-record 600th round on Sunday for charity, followed his 36th hole on a rainy, blustery, and frigid Christmas Eve with four hours in a hot tub and dry sauna and was still chilled.

“I felt pressure to make the 600th [goal] on Sunday, so I had to play Christmas Eve in the rain,” Lewis said in a phone interview from the 14th tee of his first 18 Monday. With golfers slated to donate $1,000 each to the First Tee of Dallas for the honor of playing with him during his historic round, Lewis teed off in 38-degree temperatures with a wind chill of 26 so he could make the deadline. “It was totally miserable. I thought I was going to die.”

The weather didn’t get much better for his record-setting 18 holes, though at least it wasn’t raining. For sure, a little wind and cold was hardly up to the task of stopping the 64-year-old retiree from making the Guinness Book of World Records -- and more to the point, of raising money for the First Tee.

“People put up a lot of money to play the 600th with me so I couldn’t let the First Tee down,” Lewis said. Members donated some $9,000 to the organization, which uses golf to teach youngsters about integrity and responsibility.

Lewis lay claim to the world’s “Most Avid Golfer” title by playing and walking the most rounds ever in a calendar year. A member of the Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas, Lewis carries his bag and speeds along at a 2.5-hour clip for 18 holes (add another hour if he’s part of a walking foursome). Barring an unforeseen snow storm or lightning, he’ll finish his 611th round on New Year’s eve.

“The last time I didn’t play 18 holes was March 21, when it snowed,” Lewis said. 

That should show his former colleagues, who scoffed when Lewis announced after retiring last year that he planned to play golf daily. “‘You’ll get bored,’ they said,” Lewis recalled. “But I love the game. Everyday’s a different day and every shot’s a different shot.”

Lewis did not set out to break any records; he just wanted to play everyday. Lewis said he “got behind the 8-ball” after an unusual eight inches of snow closed the course in February and March. To make his target, Lewis had to ratchet up his play, walking 36 and sometimes 54 holes a day just to catch up.

It wasn’t until a fellow member wondered about the record for playing the most golf that Lewis learned it was 586. So he rearranged his goals and decided to go after 600. He played his record-setting 587th hole on December 19.

At the start of the year, Lewis would stay off the course if the weather were too cold, rainy, or just plain bad. “That was in January and February, before I went totally insane and decided I was going to do this,” he said.

Since then, he has walked about 2,500 miles, clubbed some 50,000 shots, and lost 33 pounds. He consumes protein shakes and pizza three times a week to keep his weight up. His girlfriend, Debbie Shaw, wasn’t too sure about his sanity when he began his quest but has since backed him up “100 percent,” Lewis said.

A summertime 3-handicapper on a challenging course that hosts the PGA Tour’s annual HP Byron Nelson Championship event, Lewis has watched his GHIN index inch up to about 6 with the tougher off-season greens. As for so-called “winter rules,” no way. “We play the ball down all year long,” Lewis said.

Lewis was understandably proud of his accomplishment but he figured he’d slack off in 2011. “I’ll play on nice days but not on horrible days and during storms,” he said. “I figure I can get 400 rounds in next year.”