That was a long ‘fore’

Just what makes for a long round of golf?

Maybe the length of the course? Costa Mesa Golf and Country Club’s

Mesa Linda course is a rather tidy 5,500 yards. Newport Beach County

Club, sight of this month’s Toshiba Senior Classic, is a more typical

6,600 yards. Anyone who’s played both can tell you there’s a sizable

difference in that extra 1,100 yards.

Or maybe it’s all in the crowds. It’s possible to breeze through

18 holes in less than four hours, provided you’re willing to get up

well before dawn and a legion of others isn’t. A five- or even

six-hour round isn’t unheard of, though, when everyone’s stolen a few

hours from work.

Then there’s the rounds played last month by Larry Olmsted.

Rounding off, they were about 7,496 -- miles. That’s a Guinness Book

of World Records length round.

Olmsted’s rounds, detailed a week ago in the Pilot, started in

Sydney, Australia, and ended on Pelican Hill Golf Club’s North

Course. They were the two farthest apart rounds of golf ever played

in one day.

They maybe were not the best ever, however. Over the 36 holes,

Olmsted birdied only one: the North Course’s par-4 18th. Still, a

pretty fine finish.