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.
02:21Until then, uh, the first tee and see what happens.
02:39It's a crazy one for me and see what happens. You want to go out there?
02:41It's almost a 15-2 half of the 90's on the front door. This particular thing is
02:41is definitely going to blow up. But at this time, you can get a little bit of a
02:42sound effect and see what happens. You can get a little bit of a
02:42spot at the start of the first tee. You can get a little bit of the following.
02:43You can get a little bit of the truth in your mind. If you want to do that, you
02:44know what happens. So you can get a little bit of the Experience. You can reach out
02:44about the freedom, or you can get a little bit of the air. You can get a little bit of
02:44the
02:44of the air. You can get a little bit. You can go outside. Come around. You can see it.
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
03:16times Alex has hit it offline has allowed me a chance for a breather so just about to go
03:23on the tenth hole this is unbelievable I am loving it. Path three. How far?
03:32Oh great swing. Yeah lovely shot 180 I guess.
04:08Hole 15. 55 minutes I think we might break that 70 minute target that Luke set for a
04:16um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play every time i'm actually playing all right
04:24i overthink my golf and in this format you just can't overthink it can't be looking at yardages
04:30can'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
05:35yes
05:36minutes 31 seconds so we just missed our target time of of 70 minutes gonna catch
05:44my breath gonna 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 that
06:24is an awful lot shorter than a regular three ball to play 18 holes of golf I'm
06:30just looking at the scorecard Luke shot one under par he was five under at the
06:37turn turned in 31 then made a birdie chipped in for a birdie at the 10th but
06:46yeah incredible I shot 87 but with a quadruple and a treble so it could have
06:52been all right without that and Alex third member of our group got it in under
06:57100 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 and that
07:06was like you told him to put the driver away for sure and start playing on to tell
07:10us how do you think we got on in our I mean obviously for you we slowed you down a
07:15lot you would normally get round in what I said about 35 40 minutes fingers
07:19cross yeah yeah fingers cross look you guys are great you embrace the unknown you
07:24tried something new golf is one of the oldest sports around that's what's
07:28beautiful about it and guess what you can always experience a new version of
07:33golf and that's what you guys did golf is for anyone yeah and these guys rock that
07:37today yeah it was really interesting I think one of the things that I probably I
07:42love my technology I've got a laser I've got a GPS I'm forever looking at the
07:46yardages and a couple of times I think you laughed at me when I go what's the yardage
07:50here 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 and the treble and I'd have been I'd have
08:10been okay what do you think next time Luke is there anything else because I
08:13know you said at the start you wouldn't hit the driver because you didn't want to
08:17peg it up that would take but but I've was sort of I thought I drove it quite
08:21well today I had that little cut going on just almost like a little chippy one
08:24180 200 yards found the fairway anything that I could do or Alex could do
08:29differently next time yeah going forwards speed golf is all about trying the
08:35unknown 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
08:43look today was a great round for me one under par I feel great it was a good
08:47time that's world record stuff where did I get to how did I get to that well it
08:53was by exploring yeah so all I would actually say is I'll just say embrace
08:57that explore you know I will come around with anyone you know I'll leave that open
09:02to you guys you know pick up the phone ask me and I'll take you around but the
09:06point is just explore yeah and your it might not always be I want to have a fast
09:12round but that's kind of cool yeah it might be I want to improve my golf you can do
09:16that you can do whatever you want but explore and then you'll find stuff out I
09:20go around this great place here there's red kites flying around your course might
09:24be armadillos who knows it was it was brilliant it was a really fantastic
09:31experience a really great buzzer I was just chatting to Luke after his over
09:34breakfast and sort of said how does that compare to other rounds what did I feel
09:38like at the end and I reckon the only time that I felt more of a buzz is I played
09:43the
09:43old course once in a competition finished par birdie to break 80 but today the
09:50elation I felt finishing on the 18th hole and it's interesting chatting to Alex as
09:55well Alex has done a lot of really intense cycling cycle that place like Alpe d'Huez
10:00he was saying similar sort of buzz once you finish that round of golf the elation
10:04you've got really good workout gonna it's what's the time now we've it's sort of half
10:12nine I'm gonna head home gonna go and do a day's work but it has been actually
10:16brilliant Luke thank you for having us thank you been a brilliant morning at the
10:20Springs speed golf I don't know give it a go it's a bit of fun it's a bit of
10:25something different but a lot of fun definitely gonna try it again but from
10:31the Springs golf course is goodbye
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