At forty-seven, David Wood sold everything he owned and set out to fulfill every golfer’s dream: For one year, he traveled the world (covering sixty thousand miles and every continent except Antarctica) by plane, boat, train, motorcycle, and rickshaw, to play the game he loves in the most exotic locales, including the world’s highest, driest, hottest, coldest, and most remote golf courses, and lived to tell the tale. Along the way, he met a bevy of fascinating characters, including surly cabbies, taxi drivers with a death wish, welcoming golf-course managers, threatening kangaroos, and golf pros out for a quick game. David faced dire situations, such as bouts of food poisoning in India and Egypt, altitude sickness in Argentina, getting booted out of the Ukraine by armed guards, and muddling about with limited language skills. But through it all he maintained a sense of humor and, of course, his passion for golf, which he played every chance he got.
David Wood - author of Around the World in 80 Rounds, Keynote Speaker, Adventurer
While circumnavigating the globe en route from the southernmost to northernmost golf courses on Earth - Ushuaia, Argentina to Tromso, Norway - author David Wood relied on a wide array of conveyance. Trains, planes, cars, vans, buses, ferries, jeeps, two camels with extreme halitosis and one ornery elephant hauled Wood and his golf clubs to courses in 26 counties and over 60,000 miles.
The result was his book, Around the World in 80 Rounds, called "laugh out loud funny" by golf analyst Bobby Clampett.
Wood played on the world's most extreme golf courses: the highest in La Paz, Bolivia; the driest at the edge of the Atacama Desert in Arica, Chile; and the hottest in Alice Springs, Australia. His favorite golfing locals were China's Spring City, Royal Nepal and Elephant Hills in Zimbabwe.
Wood says he learned the true value of patience over his year of traveling as he frequently found himself hopelessly lost and stranded. He also suffered ghastly food poisoning in India and Egypt, severe altitude sickness when crossing the Andes and was arrested in Ukraine for not having a proper visa. Civil wars in Bolivia and Nepal provided additional hazards.
"It wasn't exactly a golf weekend in Myrtle Beach," says Wood.
Wood is a former comedian with several appearances on Late Night with David Letterman.
Around the World in 80 Rounds is available in hardback, paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com.
