Mike Sale is a first-year psychology and economics and accounting major at UCSB. He hails from Chicago, Illinois, and chose UCSB for its weather, academics, and distance from home and because folks here know how to party. And soon, when Sale is asked to share an interesting fact about himself in class, he can say he holds the Guinness World Record for most number of disc golf holes played in 24 hours.
Sale hit the campus full speed, starting a disc golf club at UCSB through the Office of Student Life. He quickly got a team together, and in November, after winning a qualifying tournament in Monterey Bay, they are heading to North Augusta, South Carolina, in April for the National Tournament.
As a way to raise money to send themselves to nationals, Sale decided he would break the current disc golf holes record. “I’d seen the record online before; since I’ve gotten actively involved in disc golf, I just wanted to break it. I wanted to prove that the human body can do so much, and if you set your mind to it, you can achieve it.”
In order to break the 24-hour record — which is currently 1,305 holes — Sale calculated that he needed to finish a round every 10 minutes, giving him about 1.6 minutes per hole. The first 450 holes he completed in about six hours, but didn’t really start to feel the enormity of what he had gotten himself into until about 12 hours in.
“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my whole entire life,” said Sale, “just the mental endurance it took to do it. After 12 hours, I was like, ‘Wow, I’m only halfway through this.’”
Sale completed 1,310 holes February 11, at 9:05 a.m., with 15 minutes to spare; he had the help of about 30-35 volunteers and only took a total of 30 minutes of breaks throughout the whole 24 hours. His feat raised more than $900 for the team’s trip to nationals but not without consequences.
“The next day, I didn’t go to any classes,” said Sale. “From the event, I had to be carried into the car, I had to be carried from the car to the couch, and any time I had to go to the bathroom, I had to be carried to the bathroom because I couldn’t walk.”
The record is still in the process of being officiated by Guinness, but Sale feels confident that he’ll have no trouble being named the world record holder.