"You wake up at 5:20, you put your tee in the ground, you hit your shot, and then the four of you walk off to the ball and you hit it again, and you keep on going. It's very simplistic. You go left foot, right foot until you're finished. 72 holes."

Jason has tackled one of golf's most brutal endurance tests 13 times: the Bandon Solstice. This isn't your casual weekend round. Participants play 72 holes of walking-only golf in a single day, starting at 5:20 AM on the longest day of the year at Bandon Dunes Resort in Oregon. What makes this particularly nasty? Try 50,000+ steps across four championship courses with no carts allowed. Jason learned the hard way when his caddie bailed after 36 holes during his first attempt, forcing him to carry his own bag the rest of the way. The preparation is serious business: "You need to eat a lot of food the night before. You should be uncomfortable when you leave the dinner table" because you'll burn around 10,000 calories during the challenge! Weather can be absolutely brutal. Jason recalls 60-mph winds so fierce that "the sand looked like water" flowing across the beach below the clifftop courses. Getting in requires either legacy status (like Jason earned by pestering the original GM into making it official) or winning what's essentially a lottery that sells out within minutes. The waiting list is rumored to be 10 years deep.

"It's absolutely doable to such a broad range of fitness levels," Jason insists, though surviving involves equal parts physical endurance and mental fortitude. Expect rewards in the form of gift bags, stories at McKees Pub, and bragging rights for completing golf's ultimate marathon!

For more information about the Bandon Dunes Solstice, please visit: https://bandondunesgolf.com/golf/golf-events/

For more information on our 2026 Desert Classic Tournament, please visit: DesertClassicTournament.com

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