What Is Speed Golf?

Golf Monthly

In this video, Michael Harris and Alex Narey played speed golf at The Springs. They were joined by speed golf expert Luke Willett to see what this unique version of the game is like. How fast can they play a full 18 holes, what will the added speed do to the scoring, would they recommend you give it a go?

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, Mike Harris from Golf Monthly and you join me at the Springs Golf Club in

00:06Oxfordshire. It is a fairly ungodly 6.30 in the morning, set my alarm for 4.45 to get up to get

00:15here. This is not just a general easy Friday morning knock though. I'm playing 18 holes of

00:24speed golf with PGA Pro Luke Willett aka the Iron Golfer. Luke is an incredible athlete along with

00:33being a PGA Pro. He's able to play 18 holes. I think his record time is 44 minutes and having

00:41only 78 shots. I don't think I'm going to get anywhere near that today but I'm out here to

00:47find out what it's like to play speed golf. I'm playing with Alex Neri, one of my colleagues from

00:52Golf Monthly. We're not athletes, we're not runners. We do a bit of fitness and we play quite a lot of

00:58golf but how are we going to get on? What are we going to learn today? Luke says he loves speed golf

01:04because it disconnects him to make him feel connected. It's all about being stripped down,

01:09really eyeballing shots, not overthinking golf. Certainly something that I probably struggle

01:14with. So today, really light pencil bag, just got a half set of clubs. Interestingly to see,

01:21Luke has only got four clubs. He told me not to take a driver because not to waste time pegging it up

01:27but I'm afraid the driver is my straightest club in the bag. I'm worried about spraying it around.

01:32We'll see how I get on out there but just a minimal half set of clubs. It is literally hit it,

01:39find it, hit it again, keep on going for the 18 holes. It's about four and a half miles around the

01:4518 holes. Luke reckons we might be able to do it in about 70 minutes which is an awful lot quicker.

01:50than I normally play 18 holes. Let's get to the first tee and see what happens.

02:20We will be able to do it. If you know when we are up there to get away from scratch and your

02:30paragched crown at a bottom I think it's better. Call me a little tiny electronics. This is a

02:38big part of the big park in California. And you can see these sharps due to some

02:42of the close there. But finally, we will show someogyny assistant. If you kırk your

02:47we are halfway round in 31 minutes so

02:55and that was for a five a par we're actually playing quite well short and straight

03:06off the tee definitely the play doesn't matter if you duff it it's much harder if you are

03:12running offline looking for balls although a couple of times alex has hit it offline

03:17has allowed me a chance for a breather so uh just about to go on the 10th hole

03:23this is unbelievable i am loving it uh par three how far

03:29oh great swing yeah i love your shot 180 i guess okay

03:42hole 15 um 55 minutes

04:11i think we might break that 70 minute target that luke set

04:15um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play

04:21every time i'm actually playing all right i overthink my golf and

04:26in this format you just can't overthink it can't be looking at yardages can't be

04:30reading putts from both sides it's brilliant i am

04:34loving this it's hard work hamstrings are feeling really

04:37tight uh buzzing it's great final push last three and a half holes

04:43all right

04:49like

04:59Yes! Come on, go to the next!

05:2970 minutes, 31 seconds, so we just missed our target time of 70 minutes, going to catch

05:44my breath, going to catch up with Luke and try and work out what we've learned from playing

05:51speed golf this morning at the springs, but that was a lot of fun.

05:57So we have finished our round of speed golf, we've had a chance to have a bit of a rest,

06:02a little bit of a lie down, had a full English breakfast, which I think I thoroughly deserved.

06:08Luke just had a cup of coffee and water, he is an athlete unlike me, but that was a lot

06:14of fun. We've had a chance to reflect on it, didn't quite break that 70 minute target,

06:19we were 70 minutes and 31 seconds, but still that is an awful lot shorter than a regular

06:27three ball to play 18 holes of golf. I'm just looking at the scorecard, Luke shot one under

06:34par, he was five under at the turn, turned in 31, then made a birdie, chipped in for a birdie

06:43at the 10th. But yeah, incredible. I shot 87, but with a quadruple and a treble, so it could

06:52have been all right without that. And Alex, third member of our group, got it in under

06:57100, which was great. Wheels came off a little bit for him, but then it was interesting, Luke,

07:02you helped Alex get the wheels back on really, and that was like you told him to put the driver

07:08away and start playing on. Tell us, how do you think we got on in our, I mean, obviously for you,

07:14we slowed you down a lot. You would normally get around in, what, sort of about 35, 40 minutes?

07:19Fingers crossed. Yeah, yeah, fingers crossed. Look, you guys were great. You embraced the unknown,

07:24you tried something new. Golf is one of the oldest sports around. That's what's beautiful about it.

07:29And guess what? You can always experience a new version of golf, and that's what you guys did.

07:34Golf is for anyone, and these guys rocked that today. Yeah, it was really interesting. I think

07:39one of the things that I probably, I love my technology. I've got a laser, I've got a GPS.

07:45I'm forever looking at the yardages, and a couple of times I think you laughed at me when I go,

07:49what's the yardage here? And it's like, just hit it, just hit it. You know, how often do you go

07:54through the back of a green? Certainly missing a green, shorten at the front, just bump it up,

08:00have a putt. So, I mean, I wouldn't have been that far off my handicap. Take out the quadruple

08:07and the treble, and I'd have been okay. What do you think next time, Luke? Is there anything else?

08:13Because I know you said at the start, you wouldn't hit a driver because you didn't want to peg it up.

08:18That would take a bit, but I was sort of, I felt I drove it quite well today. I had that little cut

08:22going on, just almost like a little chippy one, 180, 200 yards, found the fairway. Anything that I could do,

08:28or Alex could do differently next time? Yeah, going forward, speed golf is all about trying the unknown,

08:35like we just said there. And it's about exploring. You know, have a little experiment. Try stuff out.

08:41Never stop trying stuff out. And that's why, look, today was a great round for me. One under par.

08:45I feel great. It was a good time. That's world record stuff. Where did I get to? How did I get to that?

08:52Well, it was by exploring. So all I would actually say is, I'll just say embrace that. Explore. You

08:58know, I will come around with anyone. You know, I'll leave that open to you guys. You know, pick up

09:04the phone, ask me and I'll take you around. But the point is, just explore. And you're, it might not

09:11always be, I want to have a fast round, but that's kind of cool. It might be, I want to improve my golf.

09:16You can do that. You can do whatever you want, but explore and then you'll find stuff out.

09:20I go around this great place here. There's red kites flying around. Your course might be

09:24armadillo's. Who knows? You know, explore. It was, it was brilliant. It was a really

09:30fantastic experience. A really great buzz. I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and

09:35sort of said, how does that compare to other rounds? What did I feel like at the end? And I reckon

09:39the only time that I felt more of a buzz is I played the old course once in a competition,

09:45finished par birdie to break 80. But today the elation I felt finishing on the 18th hole.

09:54And it was interesting chatting to Alex as well. Alex has done a lot of really intense cycling,

09:58cycled up a place like Alpe d'Huez. He was saying similar sort of buzz once you finish that round

10:04of golf. The elation you've got, really good workout. It's what's the time now? It's sort of half nine.

10:12I'm going to head home. I'm going to go and do a day's work, but it has been absolutely brilliant.

10:16Luke, thank you for having us. Thank you. It's been a brilliant morning at the Springs.

10:21Speed golf. I don't know. Give it a go. It's a bit of fun. It's a bit of something different,

10:26but a lot of fun. Definitely going to try it again. But from the Springs golf course, it's goodbye.

10:33Bye.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended