The middle innings of last night’s Twins’ game were loads of fun. The NHL game? Not so much. Just when playoff hockey had its hooks back in us, last night’s game, with the exception of the closing flurry, was pretty much a clunker. We could give you a prediction for the NBA finals, but it wouldn’t last very long: Lakers in 6. Why? They have the best player on the court (and on the planet), and they’re playing better than Boston right now. So as we prepare to depart for wind-swept and rainy Mankato, we offer you this story from the Rochester Post-Bulletin, with which many of you will no doubt identify. Everyone has a holy grail. For us, it’s baseball parks. For these guys, it’s golf courses. What is it for you?

The goal is simple, but daunting.

Consider: Brice and Nick Greene are in the middle of playing every golf course in Minnesota together, and that includes both public and private.

“That’s our mission,” said Brice Greene.

So far, so good.

Brice and his son, Nick, have played 319 out of what they estimate are 541 courses in the state, 50 of which are private.

“Spring, summer and fall, we play most weekends,” said Brice, a dentist in Spring Valley, “and then some.”

The mission started in 2004.

“Nick and I were at the Great Minnesota Golf Show at the Metrodome in February and came across a couple of maps showing the courses in Minnesota,” said Brice. “We started talking about what courses we had already played and realized we had already played a number of them (86) together.”

Then it dawned.

“We thought, why not do them all, and do them all together?” said Nick.

Sure, why not?

“I have kept a scorecard from every golf course I have played,” said Brice, “so it’s all verified. We use pins to plot out the courses on the state map, showing what courses we had played and which ones we still have left.”

It’s not something that’s going to change the world, but it is something two people will remember for the rest of their lives. Seek out experiences, big and small.

Fasola-link! Go, baby, go!

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