A couple months ago, I was on a call with one of our Normal Sport sponsors and someone they wanted me to meet. His name was also Kyle, and I was told he was trying to break some kind of world record that had to do with golf.

When we got on the call, I asked him more details about it — I had sort of been paying attention, but there has been a lot going on this year so I wasn’t locked into the minutia. The record he was going for, it turns out, was most golf holes played in 24 hours. And he was going to do it in Houston, Texas. In the middle of summer.

All of this seemed insane to me, but also I run a newsletter and a business about insane golf things so I immediately jumped in. And I’ll never forget the next exchange.

“How far are you going, like 20 or 30 miles?” I asked (I thought I was being generous and optimistic, I thought he would beam at my assessment of his ability).

“No, he said, “more like … 90 or 100.”

Me … ⤵️ 

This is the story about how Kyle Cokinos ran over 90 miles in 24 hours while playing 810 holes (eight-hundred and ten holes!) in the process.

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But First!

Today’s newsletter is (unsurprisingly) presented by Turtlebox, which has been a tremendous partner of Normal Sport this year as well as a partner in Kyle’s record-setting 24 hours.

When I got down to East River 9 in Houston, which is one of the cooler par 3 courses I’ve ever seen anywhere, there were Turtlebox speakers everywhere. One of the coolest features on their devices is the ability to daisy-chain them together. So you can play a song on your phone, hook it to one speaker and then hook that speaker to an endless number of speakers, which is exactly what they did for this world record.

It made for an amazing atmosphere and a ton of juice for somebody who definitely needed it as he got into the 80- and 90-mile range.

OK, onto the Q&A.

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Q&A: Kyle Cokinos

I drove down from Dallas to watch Kyle complete 810 holes of golf at East River 9 in Houston. It earned him an official world record, and he made 66 birdies in the process — a number that should have been 67 after he hit his tee shot on hole No. 810 to about 4 feet and left the putt short (we’ll get to that).

Afterwards, I sat down with Kyle, who I was afraid would not be able to get up to talk about one of the weirder, cooler, more impressive feats I have ever witnessed in golf. If you want to check out any of his 24-hour feat, you can see highlights right here on his Instagram.

Golf’s Hardest Day

KP: How are you feeling?

Kyle Cokinos: Man, I'm trashed. I am absolutely trashed. My legs are completely swollen. I've done three of these things now, 100-mile races, and I did one that was 5,000 feet of climbing, another one that was 28,000 feet of climbing. This was easily five times harder than both of them.

KP: Why?

Kyle Cokinos: Because you're playing golf and the hinging of bending down and focusing on where to land a ball with one club, when it lands in a bunker, you're screwed. With a 52-degree, I'm not that skilled of a player in these bunkers after it rained and there were rocks in it. I open the face, and I hit behind it, but I can't finesse a ball up to the hole. The bunkers are like little potholes here, and the greens aren't that big because it's not that long of a course. So you have to be real precise.

Half the time you're spacing out and you're trying to remember, “Did I have 2,000 milligrams of sodium in the last hour? Did I have 60 grams of carbs? Why is my knee tweaking? Am I going to get to 800 holes?”

The Bear

KP: What's the weirdest thought you had during those 24 hours?

Kyle Cokinos: On seven, there's two tee boxes. And every time I'd come off the green of six to seven, I thought that the trash can in the bag stand next to that tee box was a big black bear. Two or three loops.

KP: That's like borderline hallucination.

Kyle Cokinos: It was. It was the only thing I really hallucinated. And then this big old white bird kept floating in and out. But I don't know if I had any weird thoughts. I was just racing out. I just kept thinking, “I can't believe I'm actually doing this. I can't believe I'm running on a golf course for 24 hours.”

Origin Story

KP: Where did the idea originate?

Kyle Cokinos: I definitely surpassed the 10,000-hour rule in high school with golf. The way I do things is just all or nothing. I put so much time and effort into trying to be a college golfer, and then I didn't become one. Then I just quit golf completely, pretty much. I just played with buddies every now and then. And now I'm in this whole endurance space of pushing my body to do ultra marathons and Ironman and stuff.

I think it was this meshing of two things that I put so much time and effort and training. And I was like, “These are two highly skilled things.” To be able to manage yourself running a 100-miler and then also be able to play a course decently well. I'm not that great. I fatted a lot of shots today. But I was like, “There's not a lot of people who could do it.”

Last year, yeah, I tested it out in 12 hours. It actually wasn't my idea. Clayton, who owns East River, he came up with this place.

And then this year, I was looking for something to do. It's always been a goal of mine to have a Guinness World record, and so I was like, “Oh, Let's double the time, block out East River, and just see what we can do.”

Problem Solving

KP: You did an interview with somebody where you talked about the idea of problem solving during races, and how important that is, and how you feel like you've gotten good or better at it. How much did that come into play today?

Kyle Cokinos: Oh, like literally all day.

KP: What does it even mean to problem solve during a race?

Kyle Cokinos: You have really simple goals of I'm going to have X amount of carbs and X amount of sodium. And you go buy all this stuff before an ultra marathon, snacks, everything that looks good. And then you actually get out there and you have no appetite for any of that. If I would have had Nerds or bananas or any of that stuff I had planned, I would have thrown up. And I really felt like I was going to throw up.

I was able to take down fruit, but we got french fries out there, and I had no plans of having french fries out there. And then you could train for this stuff for months and never have an injury. And then my knee was flaring up today, big time, twitching, and I couldn't put any pressure on it for probably five hours through the night. It was just real finicky. And I've never had that before. And then my hamstring is tight. It's just like you're putting so many reps on these muscles that there's just a lot of personal injury unforeseen. And in these races, you can get off the course or you just start having GI issues.

I mean, there's a million things. Something always goes wrong. And today, for me, it was food. I probably got $400 in groceries. I didn't eat anything other than like, strawberries and pineapple.

KP: You had Whataburger fries. I heard you had pizza without cheese. What else?

Kyle Cokinos: Coca-Cola.

KP: That doesn't bother you? Is this a pregnancy craving thing? Are you out there and you're like, I'm craving Whtaburger fries?

Kyle Cokinos: It's weird. You just have a random craving that pops up. I don't know why it happens, but more often than not, you don't crave 95 percent of the stuff you actually buy for these things. Fries just sounded good because they're salty, and it's really good carbs, and it's greasy. So it nets out all the stomach acid you have from that sodium and all that stuff. And so you just like... I mean, I was going in, I was stuffing fries, downing it with Coca-Cola. And I was like, “I've never done that, but this is working.” I'm doing this every loop, and I did.

By the Numbers

KP: How many steps?

Kyle Cokinos: 105 right now is what it says, 105,000 steps. That's from midnight to now. I bet you it's 125,000 steps. It's crazy. My legs. You think I look really cool finishing this thing. The next week of my life, my wife's just going to hate me because I can't move.

KP: What's the worst score?

Kyle Cokinos: I had an eight on three. It took me five shots to get it out of the bunker. Then I proceeded to get it on the green. It was five, six. No, it was a nine. I got it on the green in four. Five, six, seven, eight, nine.

KP: What does recovery look like?

Kyle Cokinos: I have a sauna and an ice plunge. I have a physical therapist that will come over. But I'm going to be tender to the touch tomorrow. The last time I did 100-miles, I could not walk for two or three days. I was just sliding on the ground.

KP: Which lap over the last 24 hours was the hardest?

Kyle Cokinos: So it's hard to pick one individual. But once that sun came out, it was really hard. When we hit nine o'clock, I did the math, and I was like, if I don't start skipping the aid station, I'm not going to get to 800. And all I've been saying the whole time is somewhere between ballpark between 800 and 900. I hate when people do that stuff and they [only] do like 650 or like 700.

At that point, I was just like, “All right, we got to go.” And we were limiting my time in the tent to one minute max, which is not a normal thing. But my back was to the flame. And then we finished 810 with 20 minutes to spare. But I was not stopping. I would come through, I'd have a swig of Coke, stuff my fries, Advil, sodium, and then just keep ripping.

Glimpses of Joy

KP: What was the most joyful moment you had out there?

Kyle Cokinos: When I came in with two hours left and I saw how many people were here. And then definitely the last nine. Half the people that were here came and just followed for nine holes. And then I just looked at the green and I just closed my eyes. I said a prayer. I was like, “God, put this on the green. I'll miss the putt. Just help me get this on the green.”

KP: You did miss the putt.

Kyle Cokinos: It was so bad. I'm so ashamed.

KP: Did you learn anything about how you hit a wedge?

Kyle Cokinos: Once you've swung that many times and you're also putting that much wear into your hips, ankles, and knees, you don't have lower body rotation in your lower back. You don't have rotation like you have when you're fresh.

It's hands. It's arms. It's like a pickup in a half turn and throw the hands down. So I ended up swinging over the top with a shut face. I was playing a pull fade. I just had to keep doing that and just coming over the top and hitting, because especially at night when you can't see the ball that well. I just kept coming over the top, and that became my swing for the next 500 holes.

Turtlebox Support

KP: That's fascinating. So obviously, we're both out here because of Turtlebox, and I'm just curious about what their influence was or how they helped get through this 24 hours.

Kyle Cokinos: They were huge. When I came to them with the idea, they introduced me to Protekt. They introduced me to Bruce Bolt, which was the glove I wore the whole time. Ed. note: I was told Kyle went through two total gloves in 810 holes.

So without that, we have really no sponsors for this. It was a cool thing. And so Turtlebox really just stepped up and said, “We'll help you put this event together.” And they did, and I love them for it.

Camp Aranzazu

KP: Why did you decide to do this?

Kyle Cokinos: I do a lot of these endurance events for myself and to see how far Kyle can push himself. But raising money for Camp Aranzazu. Camp Aranzazu is a camp that takes kids with disabilities, cancer, illnesses, and brings them out of the hospital or brings them from their disability and gives them a week outdoors.

I'm a huge outdoorsman. It's why I know the guys at Turtlebox. Now that I have kids, I really think about this a ton. It's just such a great cause. It's such a great camp. The money we raise is going to help kids go to camp. They cover two-thirds of a lot of kids' dues. The underwriting expenses are like 2 million a year for this camp because they have to have medical staff around.

It just felt like a perfect fit. It's down in Rockport. It's 100 acres of protected coastline where they take these kids sailing, fishing, birding, a lot of really cool stuff.

Ed. note: Kyle raised nearly $80,000 — including a tiny donation from Normal Sport. You can give right here if that’s something that’s on your heart.

What It’s Really Like

KP: What is something that people watching don't have any idea about? They're watching and they're like, “Oh, if I tried that, this is what it would be like.” And you're like, “Actually, this is something that you have no idea about.”

Kyle Cokinos: It was so lonely at night. I think it's the chafing and just the pain. It looks real leisurely, and it's like, “Oh, that looks fun. I'm going to go running.” There's so many tweaks and creaks in your body that you just literally have to be one foot in front of the other. We're going to keep moving. Eventually, this pain goes. But it's so internal that when you watch someone do it, you're not thinking it's that bad.

When I was having fruit on the course last night, it was spicy. And I don't know why it was spicy. I was like, What did you put on those? And she's like, nothing. It's the fruit that you bought. And your taste buds just start tricking you. They're just like, they think stuff's bad. So my tongue burns because I was just trying so many different things.

KP: Does the pain ever get numb?

Kyle Cokinos: No. It's constant until the end. You just cancel it out. You just block it out. And a lot of that pain is mental. If you start panicking in your mind, that's why a lot of people DNF these races, is because they get one tweak and they don't have the willpower to just work through it and just keep problem solving.

There's so many times it crept in the back of my mind and my saying was like, “The devil's the best deceiver.” And I just kept pushing it to the side.

KP: That was your swing thought?

Kyle Cokinos: Yeah. Whenever I had any doubts, then I got to past 700 holes or something, and I was thinking about quitting.

KP: You're constantly thinking that as you're going.

Kyle Cokinos: Yeah. Just cast out the freaking negativity and justifying quitting or slowing down.

What Now?

KP: Are you thinking I should go for the 48-hour record or I'm never doing this again.

Kyle Cokinos: It's the latter. Never doing this again. I'm not sure I'll play golf for six months. I played more holes today than I played in the last 10 years.