Golfer's score: 1,321 courses and counting

Bruce Clute is a walking guidebook to North American golf — ask him about a course and he probably has played it and can suggest two or three local alternatives.

He knows, and has played, the best courses most golfers have heard of: Pebble Beach in California and Whistling Straits in Wisconsin, among others.

But the owner of license plate "GOLFC2C" also can point players toward some of the best courses they might not have heard of: Old Works in Anaconda, Mont., for example.

It's an obsession, Clute conceded. At current count, the Brier resident has played 1,321 golf courses, most of them in the United States.

His favorite of the bunch: Bandon Dunes on the southern Oregon coast.

His favorite local course: Kayak Point Golf Course between Marysville and Stanwood.

A course he'd like to play but has never been allowed to: Snoqualmie Ridge Golf Club, which is private.

Clute's adventure is chronicled in a binder titled "Golf: The History of an Obsession," which he keeps in a small room off his garage that is dedicated to golf. On display are more than 1,000 balls bearing logos from many of the courses he has played.

Clute, who retired in 1997 after a career as an athletic director and activity coordinator at Ingraham High School in Seattle, is quick to point out that his obsession isn't golf but new golf courses.

"I would probably get really bored playing the same golf course over and over again," he said.

He said he's not a competitive golfer, though he shoots in the mid-80s on a typical course.

Clute's mission to play as many courses as possible began in the mid-1980s, when he took his first golf trip by himself.

He calls these solo trips "golf orgies." They are vacations planned entirely around golf, and he plays as many as 30 courses in 10 days.

A typical trip starts with him flying into a city, renting a car and immediately heading for a golf course.

He prefers to travel by himself, he said. After all, it's hard to persuade most golfers to play 36 or 54 holes in a day.

He plans each round so he has time to drive between courses and pick up logo balls and other memorabilia in the pro shops.

"My original goal was 500 courses in 50 states," Clute said, but he got to 500 before the 50 states, and when he had all 50 states he just kept on playing.

He said he doesn't really have a goal now — he just enjoys playing new golf courses.

Clute's wife, a kindergarten teacher, has been "very, very understanding about all of this," he said. She plays a little golf but doesn't mind his trips alone.

Brian Alexander: 425-745-7845 or balexander@seattletimes.com