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'll see you next time.
02:21We'll see you next time.
02:22Bye.
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02:48we are halfway around in 31 minutes so
02:55and that was for uh a five a par actually playing quite well short and straight off the tee definitely
03:08the play doesn't matter if you duff it it's much harder if you are running off line looking for
03:14balls although a couple of times alex has hit it offline has allowed me a chance for a breather so
03:20uh just about to go on the 10th hole this is unbelievable i am loving it uh path three how far
03:29oh great swing yeah i love your shot 180 i guess okay
03:44hole 15 um 55 minutes i think we might break that 70 minutes
04:14target that luke set um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play every time i'm actually
04:23playing all right i overthink my golf and in this format you just can't overthink it can't be looking
04:29at yardages can't be reading putts from both sides it's brilliant i am loving this it's hard work
04:36hamstrings are feeling really tight uh buzzing it's great final push last three and a half holes
04:43so
04:48so
04:52Yes! Come on, let's go next!
05:2270 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
05:51playing speed golf this morning at the Springs but that was a lot of fun. So we
05:57have finished our round of speed golf, we've had a chance to have a bit of a
06:02rest, a little bit of a lie down, had a full English breakfast which I think I
06:06thoroughly deserved. Luke just had a cup of coffee and water, he is an athlete
06:12unlike me but that was a lot of fun. We've had a chance to reflect on it, didn't
06:17quite break that 70 minute target, we were 70 minutes and 31 seconds but still
06:23that is an awful lot shorter than a regular three ball to play 18 holes of
06:29golf. I'm just looking at the scorecard, Luke shot one under par, he was five under
06:37at the turn, turned in 31 then made a birdie, chipped in for a birdie at the
06:43tenth but yeah incredible. I shot 87 but with a quadruple and a treble so could have
06:52been alright without that and Alex third member of our group got it in under a
06:57hundred which was which was great. Wheels came off a little bit for him but then it
07:01was interesting Luke you helped Alex get the wheels back on really and that was
07:06like you told him to put the driver away and start playing on. Tell us how do you
07:11think we got on in our, I mean obviously for you we slowed you down a lot, you
07:15would normally get round in what I said about 35-40 minutes. Fingers crossed, yeah
07:20yeah fingers crossed. Look you guys are great, you embraced the unknown, you tried
07:24something new, golf is one of the oldest sports around that's what's beautiful
07:28about it and guess what you can always experience a new version of golf and
07:33that's what you guys did, golf is for anyone and these guys rock that today.
07:37Yeah it was really interesting, I think one of the things that I probably, I love
07:42my technology, I've got a laser, I've got a GPS, I'm forever looking at the yardages
07:47and a couple of times I think you laughed at me when I go what's the yardage here
07:50and it's like just just hit it, just hit it, you know what, how often do you go
07:54through the back of a green, certainly missing a green, short and at the front
07:59just bump it up, have a putt. Sam and I wouldn't have been that far off off my
08:05handicap, take out the quadruple and the treble and I'd have been okay.
08:10What do you think next time Luke, is there anything else, because I know you said at
08:14the start, you wouldn't hit a driver because you didn't want to peg it up, that
08:18would take a bit, but I was sort of, I felt I drove it quite well today, I had that
08:22little cut going on, just almost like a little chippy one, 180-200 yards, found the
08:26fairway. Anything that I could do or Alex could do differently next time?
08:30Yeah, going forwards, speed golf is all about trying the unknown, like we just
08:36said there, and it's about exploring, you know, have a little experiment, try stuff
08:41out, never stop trying stuff out and that's why, look today was a great round
08:44for me, one under par, I feel great, it was a good time, that's world record stuff.
08:48Where did I get to, how did I get to that? Well, it was by exploring.
08:54Yeah. So all I would actually say is, I would 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
09:03know, pick up the phone, ask me and I'll take you around, but the point is, just
09:07explore. Yeah. And you're, it might not always be, I want to have a fast round, but
09:13that's kind of cool. Yeah. It might be, I want to improve my golf, you can do that, you
09:17can do whatever you want, but explore and then you'll find stuff out. I go around this
09:21great place here, there's red kites flying around. Your course might be Armadillo's,
09:25who knows, you know, explore. It was, it was brilliant. It was a really fantastic experience,
09:31a really great buzzer. I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and sort
09:35of 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,
09:46it was par birdie to break 80. Um, but today the elation I felt, um, finishing on the 18th
09:53hole and it was interesting chatting to Alex as well. Alex has done a lot of really intense
09:57cycling, cycled up a place like Alpe d'Huez. He was saying similar sort of buzz once you've
10:02finished that round of golf, the elation you've got, um, really good workout. Um, gonna, it's,
10:09what, what's the time now? We've, it's sort of half nine. Uh, I'm gonna head home, gonna go
10:13and do a day's work, but it has been absolutely brilliant. Luke, thank you for having us.
10:18Thank you. It's been a brilliant, um, morning at the
10:20Springs Speed Golf. Uh, I dunno, give it a go. It's a bit of fun. It's a bit of something
10:25different, but, um, a lot of fun. Um, definitely going to try it again, but from the Springs Golf
10:32course, it's goodbye.
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