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.
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