WYANDOTTE, Mich. — Ed Ronco played golf maybe only a half-dozen times a year from college on until he finally got serious about the game in 1982.
It took a humbling trek around some tough courses in South Carolina to motivate him.
"I took a trip with family to Hilton Head, and I wasn't really that good of a golfer," Ronco said recently. "And my brother-in-law and I played Hilton Head and sort of made (fools) of ourselves, we were terrible, so we said, 'We're gonna learn this game to get good enough so we can go anywhere and not make fools of ourselves.' And I think we're pretty much there."
Ronco, a retired teacher and school administrator who lives in Wyandotte, has put that to the test, playing golf from coast to coast over the last 30 years. And when he walked off the course after firing an 80 at Royal Kaanapali, a 4.5-star resort in Maui, this past December, he did so knowing he had finally put the finishing touches on a remarkable feat.
He had finished his journey of playing at least one 18-hole round of golf in all 50 states.
The idea began about seven years ago, when Ronco and his wife, Anne, went out to dinner in Trenton with the Mitrokas, John and Kelly.
Kelly Mitroka first came up with the plan, and Ronco, almost instantly, said, "I'm in."
"When I counted them that day we're having dinner, I said, '... I got like 23 of them in already," said Ronco, noting most were east of the Mississippi. "So I said I'm gonna just do it, and I made a point to, as I'm passing through a state, stop overnight and play, or if I want to go on a golf trip, I would just schedule the golf trip at a place I hadn't played."
Like the time they visited his wife's family in Boston, and they spent one night in Delaware. Or the time Ronco and his wife planned a trip to Utah — where Anne flew to, while Ronco drove solo, stopping along the way to play in Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming before meeting up with family in Park City, Utah, where, of course, he played, too.
A golf trip three years ago with buddies helped get him three states. They flew into Washington and played there, before making a 30-mile drive east to Idaho and another 150-mile drive east for Montana.
When you set out on a trip like this, you need two things: good weather and an understanding wife.
Ronco knew he had the latter and got lucky with the conditions. Being retired for the last seven years, Ronco, 62, knew he had the time.
Meanwhile, Mitroka, his 50-in-50 partner, has at least another five years teaching drafting at Wyandotte High, and thus still is a ways from the finish line.
"It's great for him," said Mitroka, 50, who also is the golf coach at Wyandotte, having taken over the program from Ronco more than 15 years ago after Ronco got into administration in the Southgate school district.
Mitroka's got about 20 to go, but there's no shame in playing in more than half the states. Even the most hard-core amateur golfers aren't anywhere close to 50 in 50.
And many touring professionals haven't done it, either. PGA Tour member Tom Gillis of Lake Orion, for example, counted 47 when asked recently — with Wyoming, Montana and Alaska his missing trio.
Alaska is the obvious tough one. Hawaii's another.
Ronco got a little help from his son on Alaska. Ed Ronco Jr., in 2009, took a job as a reporter for a public radio station there, and got help moving from — who else — his dad. Too convenient?
That trip also helped him cross off North Dakota before teeing off in Sitka, Alaska, at Sea Mountain Golf Course. It's a nine-hole course, but Ronco played twice to make it official.
He finally got to Hawaii this December, earning the final pushpin for the 18-by-24 map of the United States.
After the round, he celebrated quietly.
"I had about three or four beers in the clubhouse and then my wife and I went out to dinner," Ronco said. "When you know it's gonna happen, it's just sort of a nice feeling that you accomplished it."
Information from: The Detroit News, http://detnews.com/