Making the Rounds to Be Part of U.S. Open History : Golf: Dove Canyon resident Dickinson has traveled the country the past three months to play all existing courses used for the USGA event.

Early this morning, the best golfers in the world will tee off at Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y., in the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Open.

Sometime later today, about 60 miles to the northwest, Sam Dickinson, an eight-handicap golfer from Orange County, will claim an obscure piece of U.S. Open history. When he makes his final putt at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y., Dickinson will have completed a three-month odyssey to play all the remaining U.S. Open courses.

“My original plan was to do in 100 days what took them 100 years, and I’m actually going to do it in 81 days,” said Dickinson, who lives in Dove Canyon.

No one keeps records of such exploits. Dickinson said he has read about people playing the top 100 courses in the country, but he believes he has done something unique.

One of his most convincing arguments revolves around Baltimore Country Club, the Open site in 1899. The club long since relocated its course out of town, but the clubhouse remains at its original downtown location. The first hole is overgrown but still playable. The rest of the land was plowed under for a development.

Dickinson played that hole (he made a bogey 5); club officials told him that he was the first to do so in about 33 years. “There’s no way of proving it per se, but things like that tell me that nobody has ever done it,” he said.

A question begs: Who would even try? “People say, ‘You’re not married, are you?’ Or ‘Are you married?’ ” Dickinson said. “That and ‘What do you do for a living?’ ”

Dickinson, 45, is a pilot with Alaska Airlines. He isn’t married, but he says he loves kids and has coached a Little League team in Rancho Santa Margarita for the last six years.

Golf, of course, has been a serious passion. He picked up the game when he was 23 and attending Air Force pilot training school in Big Spring, Tex. A California native, he moved to south Orange County because of Coto de Caza’s golf course and joined Dove Canyon soon after it opened in 1990.

So how did he get from there to Winged Foot? Well, it has a bit to do with spare time and a strong sense of adventure. Two summers ago, Dickinson rode a bicycle 500 miles across Oregon in a week. The summer before that he and another pilot climbed Mt. Rainier in Washington.

“We fly up there all the time,” Dickinson said. “One time we passed it and said, ‘God that would be neat to climb, let’s look into that.’ So we did.

“I will never have a desire to climb another mountain in my life, but it was just something to do.”

Dickinson’s latest adventure, somewhat inspired by four college students who drove to 28 major league baseball games in 28 cities in 28 days two summers ago, has been expensive (he figures it has cost between $12,000 and $15,000), but money was far from his biggest obstacle.

Clubs that have played host to the U.S. Open are among the most exclusive in the country. You can’t just call up for a tee time, even if you are willing to pay big bucks.

Many told him he would never be able to get on some of the courses. “So I said, ‘OK, well I’ll show you I can do it,’ ” Dickinson said.

Last year, Dickinson sent letters explaining his goal to officials at the 46 remaining Open courses. (Englewood Country Club in New Jersey, site of the 1909 tournament, no longer exists).

He also wrote letters to Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, former President George Bush and former Vice President Dan Quayle asking if they would like to play a round with him on one of the courses. “They all wrote or called back and said, ‘No.’ ”

Responses from clubs varied from enthusiastic to indifferent, but Dickinson was persistent when necessary.

The quest started at 6:30 a.m. on March 27 at Riviera in Pacific Palisades. Dickinson shot 97, his worst round of the 45.

“It was the first course,” he said. “I was worried about playing good and it taught me not to worry about it--just go out and have a good time. And I ended up playing a lot better because of that.”

Later that week, he played Pebble Beach, where he shot 87, and the Olympic Club in San Francisco, where he shot 89.

After a 1 1/2-week break, he picked up the pace, playing 15 courses--and the one hole at Baltimore CC--in 14 days. As a commercial pilot, Dickinson is able to fly free in cockpit seats of other airlines, but that didn’t make it any less grueling.

Case in point: One Friday morning, he played Canterbury in Cleveland. Friday afternoon, he flew to Orange County. Saturday afternoon, he played in a team-play event. Saturday night, he took an all-night flight to Philadelphia, which landed at 6 a.m. At 7:50, he teed off at Merion. Sunday afternoon, he played the nine remaining holes on the original course at the Philadelphia Cricket Club (host in 1907 and 1910).

May was a blur. “I played 20 courses in 17 days, it’s hard to remember all of them,” he said.

Bad weather was a constant threat--he played several rounds in the rain when he was the only one on the course--but he never had to postpone a scheduled tee time.

He played with golf professionals and longtime members. (At Myopia Hunt Club in Massachusetts, he played with author John Updike). Some courses waived his green fee, one (Medinah in Illinois) asked $375 at first but cut that to $200.

The best experiences came when he was paired with those interested in his travels.

“It was not a quest just to chalk up all these courses,” Dickinson said. “It was to play with a member who has pride in their course and would share things about the history of the course and some camaraderie.”

One such member was Chuck Wallace at the St. Louis Country Club. Wallace was a teen-ager when the Open was there in 1947. As the low man on the pecking order of volunteers, Wallace was given the responsibility to carry the scoreboard for Lew Worsham. Worsham wound up beating Sam Snead in a playoff for the title.

“And now here’s this guy, what 48 years later,” Dickinson said. “It was really interesting playing with him.

“They even allowed me to bring a friend of mine who grew up in St. Louis and always wanted to play at that course. That was a very fun day. They wouldn’t let us pay for green fees. They bought us lunch.

“I realized real quick that that’s what was going to be fun about this trip. Not just playing all these great golf courses.”

Of course, much of the appeal lies in comparing your effort to the greats of the game and Dickinson did his share of that. He got a special thrill standing on the 18th tee at Pebble Beach dead even with a friend in a match for a shirt.

Then there was No. 6 at Oak Hill in Rochester, N.Y. In the second round of the 1989 Open, four golfers in a span of 1 hour 50 minutes holed their tee shots on the 159-yard par 3.

Dickinson stepped up to the same hole nearly six years later. “I only birdied it,” he said.

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Playing Through

In 81 days Sam Dickinson of Dove Canyon will have played each of the 46 remaining golf courses that have played host to the 100 U.S. Opens. That includes one hole remaining at the course in Baltimore that was plowed under years ago. Here’s a look at the stops along the way: State: California Golf course: Pebble Beach, Riviera, Olympic

*State: Colorado Golf course: Cherry Hills

*State: Georgia Golf course: Atlanta Athletic

*State: Illinois Golf course: Chicago, Glen View, Medinah, Midlothian, North Shore, Olympia Fields, Onwentsia Club, Skokie

*State: Maryland Golf course: Baltimore, Columbia, Congressional

*State: Massachusetts Golf course: Brae Burn, Myopia Hunt Club, The Contry Club, Worcester

*State: Michigan Golf course: Oakland Hills

*State: Minnesota Golf course: Hazeltine National

*State: Minnesota Golf course: Interlachen, Minikahda

*State: Missouri Golf course: Bellerive, St. Louis

*State: New Jersey Golf course: Baltusrol

*State: New York Golf course: C.C. of Buffalo, Fresh Meadows, Garden City Inwood, Oak Hill, Shinnecock Hills, Winged Foot

*State: Ohio Golf course: Canterbury, Inverness, Scioto

*State: Oklahoma Golf course: Southern Hills

*State: Pennsylvania Golf course: Merion, Oakmont, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Cricket

*State: Rhode Island Golf course: Newport

*State: Texas Golf course: Champions, Colonial Northwood