A total synthesis of the laurencia metabolite (+)-obtusenyne has been completed. The key stepsinclude a Sharpless kinetic resolution and an asymmetric glycolate alkylation to establish the stereogeniccenters adjacent to the ether linkage and a ring-closing metathesis reaction to construct the nine-memberedether without the aid of a cyclic conformational constraint. The synthesis was completed in 20 linear stepsfrom commercially available 1,5-hexadiene-3-ol.