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'll see you next time.

02:22Bye-bye.

02:24Bye-bye.

02:25Bye-bye.

02:27Bye-bye.

02:30Bye-bye.

02:32Bye-bye.

02:39Bye-bye.

02:43we are halfway round in 31 minutes so

02:55and that was for uh 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

03:09duff it it's much harder if you are running offline looking for balls although a couple

03:16of 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

03:26uh par three how far

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

03:36yeah

03:43yeah

03:47yeah

03:51yeah

03:55hole 15 um 55 minutes i think we might break that 70 minute target that luke set

04:02um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play every time i'm actually playing

04:09all right i'm gonna overthink my golf and in this format you just can't overthink it can't

04:16be looking at yardages can't be reading putts from both sides it's brilliant i am loving this

04:20it's hard work hamstrings are feeling really tight uh buzzing it's great final push last three and a

04:27half holes

04:31and a half holes

04:44so

04:47so

04:51and

04:53and

04:55Yes! Come on, let's go next!

05:2570 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. So we have finished

05:59our round of speed golf. We've had a chance to have a bit of a rest, a little bit of a

06:03lie down, had a full English breakfast, which I think I thoroughly deserved. Luke just had

06:09a cup of coffee and water. He is an athlete, unlike me, but that was a lot of fun. We've

06:14had a chance to reflect on it. Didn't quite break that 70-minute target. We were 70 minutes

06:20and 31 seconds. But still, that is an awful lot shorter than a regular three ball to play

06:2918 holes of golf. I'm just looking at the scorecard. Luke shot one under par. He was five under at

06:37the turn, turned in 31, then made a birdie, chipped in for a birdie at the 10th. But yeah, incredible.

06:47I shot 87, but with a quadruple and a treble. So it could have been all right without that. And Alex,

06:55third member of our group, got it in under 100, which was great. Wheels came off a little bit

07:01for him, but then it was interesting. Luke, you helped Alex get the wheels back on, really. And

07:06that was like you told him to put the driver away. For sure. And start playing on. Tell us,

07:10how do you think we got on in our, I mean, obviously for you, we slowed you down a lot. You would

07:15normally get around in, what, sort of about 35, 40 minutes.

07:19Fingers crossed. Yeah. Yeah. Fingers crossed. Look, you guys are 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 rock that today.

07:37Yeah, it was really interesting. I think one of the things that I probably, I love my technology.

07:43I've got a laser. I've got a GPS. I'm forever looking at the yardages. And a couple of times,

07:48I think you laughed at me when I go, what's the yardage here? And it's like, just, just hit it.

07:52Just hit it. You know, what, how often do you go through the back of a green? Uh, certainly missing a

07:58green, short and at the front, just bump it up, have a putt. Um, Sam and I wouldn't have been that far off,

08:05off my handicap, take out the quadruple and the, uh, and the treble. And I'd have been,

08:10I'd have been okay. What do you think next time, Luke? Is there anything else? Because I know you

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

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

08:23just almost like a little chippy one, 180, 200 yards, found the fairway. Anything that I could do or

08:29Alex could do differently next time? Yeah. Going forward, speed golf is all about

08:34trying the unknown, like we just said there. And it's about exploring, you know, have a little

08:39experiment, try stuff out, never stop trying stuff out. And that's, that's why, look, today was a

08:44great round for me. One under par. I feel great. It was a good time. That's world record stuff. Um,

08:50where did I get to? How did I get to that? Well, it was by exploring. Yeah. So all I would actually

08:55say is I'll just say, embrace that, explore. You know, I, I will come around with anyone,

09:00and you know, I'll leave that open to you guys. Um, you know, pick up the phone, ask me and I'll

09:05take you around. But the point is just explore. Yeah. And you're, it might not always be, I want to

09:12have a fast round, but that's kind of cool. Yeah. Uh, it might be, I want to improve my golf. You can

09:16do that. You can 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 armadillos. Who knows?

09:25You know, explore. It was, uh, it was brilliant. It was a really fantastic experience and really

09:31great buzzer. I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and sort of said,

09:36how does that compare to other rounds? What did I feel like at the end? And I reckon the only time

09:39that I felt more of a buzz is, uh, I played the old course once in a competition, uh, finished par birdie

09:47to break 80. Um, but today the elation I felt, um, finishing on the 18th hole. And it was interesting

09:54chatting to Alex as well. Alex has done a lot of really intense cycling, cycled up a place like

09:59Alpe d'Huez. He was saying similar sort of buzz once you finished that round of golf, the elation

10:05you've got, um, really good workout. Um, gonna, it's what, what's the time now? We've, it's sort

10:11of half nine. Uh, I'm going to head home, going to go and do a day's work, but it has been

10:16absolutely brilliant. Luke, thank you for having us. Thank you. It's been a brilliant, um, morning

10:20at the Springs 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.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended