00:00Hello everyone, Mike Harris from Golf Monthly and you join me at the Springs Golf Club in
00:07Oxfordshire. It is a fairly ungodly 6.30 in the morning, set my alarm for 4.45 to get up
00:15to 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
00:58of
00:58golf but how are we going to get on? What are we going to learn today? Luke says he loves
01:03speed 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
01:26it
01:27up but 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
01:38it,
01:39find it, hit it again, keep on going for the 18 holes. It's about four and a half miles around
01:44the 18
01:45holes. Luke reckons we might be able to do it in about 70 minutes which is an awful lot quicker.
01:51than I normally play 18 holes. Let's get to the first tee and see what happens.
02:22the first tee and see what happens.
02:49Hey, bye.
02:49Mope.
02:50You are your ASLëł”
02:51Iì§ë„Œ the slud or the future for now living in the field
02:51We are halfway round in 31 minutes so and that was for a five a par. We're actually playing
03:03quite well short and straight off 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 just about to
03:23go on the 10th hole this is unbelievable I am loving it uh path three how far
03:32oh great swing yeah I love your shot 180 I guess
04:08hole 15 55 minutes I think we might break that 70 minute target that Luke set
04:17um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play every time I'm actually playing
04:23all right I overthink my golf and in this format you just can't overthink it can't be
04:29looking at yardages can't be reading putts from both sides it's brilliant I am loving
04:35this it's hard work hamstrings are feeling really tight uh buzzing it's great final
04:41push last three and a half holes
04:44oh
04:45oh
04:46oh
04:49oh
04:53oh
04:54oh
04:54oh
05:02oh
05:02oh
05:04oh
05:05oh
05:15oh
05:15oh
05:15oh
05:15oh
05:15oh
05:3570 minutes 31 seconds so we just missed our target time of 70 minutes going to catch my breath
05:46going to catch up with Luke and try and work out what we've learned from playing speed golf this
05:52morning at the springs but that was a lot of fun so we have finished our round of speed golf
06:00we've
06:00had a chance to have a bit of a rest a little bit of a lie down had a full
06:04English breakfast which I
06:05think I thoroughly deserved Luke just had a cup of coffee and water he is an athlete unlike me but
06:13that was a lot of fun we've had a chance to reflect on it didn't quite break that 70 minute
06:19target we
06:19were 70 minutes and 31 seconds but still that is an awful lot shorter than a regular three ball to
06:28play 18 holes of golf I'm just looking at the scorecard Luke shot one under par he was five
06:37under at the turn turned in 31 then made a birdie chipped in uh for a birdie at the 10th
06:43um uh but yeah incredible I shot 87 uh but with a quadruple and a treble so it could have
06:52been all
06:52right without that and uh Alex third member of our group um got it in under 100 which was which
06:59was
06:59great wheels came off a little bit for him but then it was interesting Luke you helped Alex get the
07:04wheels back on really and and that was like you told me to put the driver away for sure and
07:09start
07:09playing on tell us how do you think we got on in our I mean obviously for you we slowed
07:14you down a lot
07:15you would normally get around in what I said about 35 40 minutes fingers crossed yeah yeah fingers
07:20crossed look you guys were great you embraced the unknown you tried something new golf is one of the
07:26oldest sports around that's what's beautiful about it and guess what you can always experience a new
07:32version of golf and that's what you guys did golf is for anyone yeah and these guys rock that today
07:38yeah it was really interesting I think one of the things that I probably I love my technology I've got
07:43a laser I've got a GPS I'm forever looking at the yardages and a couple of times I think you
07:48laughed
07:49at me when I go what's the yardage here just like just just hit it just hit it you know
07:53what
07:53how often do you go through the back of a green uh certainly missing a green short and at the
07:59front
07:59just bump it up have a putt um so I mean I wouldn't have been that far off off my
08:05handicap
08:05take out the quadruple and the uh and the treble and I'd have been I'd have been okay what do
08:11you
08:11think next time Luke is there anything else because I know you said at the start
08:15you wouldn't hit a driver because you didn't want to peg it up that would take a bit but but
08:19I was sort
08:19of I felt I drove it quite well today I had that little cut going on just almost like a
08:23little
08:24chippy one 180 200 yards found the fairway anything that I could do or Alex could do
08:29differently next time yeah going forward speed golf is all about trying the unknown like we just said
08:36there and it's about exploring you know have a little experiment try stuff out never stop trying
08:42stuff out and that's that's why look today was a great round for me one under par I feel great
08:46it was a good time that's world record stuff um where did I get to how did I get to
08:52that well
08:52it was by exploring yeah so all I would actually say is I'd just say embrace that explore you know
08:58I I will come around with anyone you know I'll leave that open to you guys um you know pick
09:03up the
09:04phone ask me and I'll take you around but the point is just explore yeah and you're it might not
09:11always
09:11be I want to have a fast round but that's kind of cool yeah uh it might be I want
09:15to 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 armadillo's
09:25who knows you know explore it was uh it was brilliant it was a really fantastic experience a really great
09:32buzzer I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and sort of said how does that compare
09:36to other rounds what did I feel like at the end and I reckon the only time that I felt
09:40more of a buzz
09:42is I played the old course once in a competition uh finished par birdie to break 80 um but today
09:50the
09:50elation I felt um finishing on the 18th hole and it's interesting chatting to Alex as well Alex has
09:56done a lot of really intense cycling cycle that place like Alpe d'Huez he was saying similar sort of
10:02buzz once you finish that round of golf the elation you've got um really good workout um gonna it's
10:09what's the time now we've it's sort of half nine uh I'm gonna head home gonna go and do a
10:15day's work
10:15but it has been absolutely brilliant Luke thank you for having us thank you been a brilliant um morning
10:20at the springs speed golf uh I don't know give it a go it's a bit of fun it's a
10:24bit of something
10:25different but um a lot of fun um definitely going to try it again but from the springs golf course
10:32it's
10:32goodbye
10:33you
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