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.
02:33So we'll try it.
02:37We'll have time to find out what happens. Thank you.
02:37Bye.
02:41Bye.
02:43Bye.
02:44Bye.
02:46Bye.
02:46Bye.
02:46Bye.
02:48Bye.
02:49Bye.
02:50we are halfway round in 31 minutes so
02:58and that was for a five a par actually playing quite well short and straight off the tee
03:07definitely the play doesn't matter if you duff it it's much harder if you are running off line
03:13looking for balls although a couple of times alex has hit it offline has allowed me a chance of a
03:19breather so uh just about to go on the 10th hole this is unbelievable i am loving it uh path
03:28three
03:28how far
03:32oh great swing yeah i love your shot 180 i guess
04:07hole 15 um 55 minutes i think we might break that
04:1370 minute target that luke set um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play every time i'm
04:22actually playing all right i overthink my golf and in this format you just can't overthink it
04:28can't be looking at yardages can't be reading putts from both sides it's brilliant i am loving this
04:35it's hard work hamstrings are feeling really tight
04:39uh buzzing it's great final push last three and a half holes
04:46so
05:00so
05:13Yes! Come on, let's go to the next one!
05:3670 minutes 31 seconds so we just missed our target time of 70 minutes, gonna catch my breath, gonna catch
05:46up with Luke and try and work out what we've learned from playing speed golf this morning at the springs
05:53but that was a lot of fun.
05:56So we have finished our round of speed golf, we've had a chance to have a bit of a rest,
06:02a little bit of a lie down, had a full English breakfast which I think I thoroughly deserved.
06:07Luke just had a cup of coffee and water, he is an athlete unlike me but that was a lot
06:14of fun.
06:14We've had a chance to reflect on it, didn't quite break that 70 minute target, we were 70 minutes and
06:2031 seconds but still that is an awful lot shorter than a regular three ball to play 18 holes of
06:29golf.
06:29I'm just looking at the scorecard, Luke shot one under par, he was five under at the turn, turned in
06:3831 then made a birdie, chipped in for a birdie at the 10th.
06:45But yeah incredible, I shot 87 but with a quadruple and a treble so it could have been alright without
06:53that and Alex third member of our group got it in under 100 which was great.
07:00Wheels came off a little bit for him but then it was interesting, Luke you helped Alex get the wheels
07:04back on really and that was like you told him to put the driver away.
07:08For sure.
07:09And start playing on, tell us how do you think we got on in our, I mean obviously for you
07:13we slowed you down a lot, you would normally get round in what I said about 35-40 minutes.
07:18Fingers crossed, yeah fingers crossed. Look you guys were great, you embraced the unknown, you tried something new, golf is
07:26one of the oldest 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 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 at me when I go what's the yardage here and it's like just hit it, just hit it, you
07:53know what, how often do you go through the back of a green, certainly missing a green, shorten at the
07:59front, just bump it up, have a putt.
08:03Sam and I wouldn't have been that far off my handicap, take out the quadruple and the treble and I'd
08:09have been okay, what 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 would take a bit,
08:18but 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 Alex
08:29could do differently next time?
08:30Yeah, going forward, speed golf is all about trying the unknown, like we just said there, and it's about exploring,
08:38you know, have a little experiment, try stuff out, never stop trying stuff out, and that's why, look, today was
08:44a great round for me, one under par, I feel great, it was a good time, that's world record stuff.
08:50Where did I get to, how did I get to that, well, it was by exploring, so all I would
08:55actually say is, I would just say embrace that, explore, you know, I will come around with anyone, you know,
09:01I will leave that open to you guys, you know, pick up the phone, ask me and I'll take you
09:06round, but the point is, just explore, and you're, it might not always be, I want to have a fast
09:12round, but that's kind of cool, it might be, I want to improve my golf, you can do that, you
09:17can do whatever you want, but explore.
09:18Explore, and then you'll find stuff out, I go round, this great place here, there's red kites flying around, your
09:24course might be armadillo's, who knows, you know, and explore.
09:27It was, it was brilliant, it was a really fantastic experience, a really great buzz, I was just chatting to
09:33Luca afterwards over breakfast, and sort of said, how does that compare to other rounds, what did I feel like
09:38at the end, and I reckon the only time that I felt more of a buzz is, I played the
09:43old course once, in a competition, finished par birdie to break 80,
09:49but today, the elation I felt, finishing on the 18th hole, and it was interesting chatting to Alex as well,
09:55Alex has done a lot of really intense cycling, cycled up a place like Alpe d'Huez, he was saying,
10:00similar sort of buzz, once you finish that round of golf, the elation you got, really good workout,
10:09I'm gonna, it's what, what's the time now, we've, it's sort of half nine, I'm gonna head home, gonna go
10:14and 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 morning at the Springs Speed Golf, I don't know, give it a go, it's
10:24a bit of fun, it's a bit of something different, but a lot of fun, definitely gonna try it again,
10:30but from the Springs Golf Course, it's goodbye.
10:33Bye.
10:33Bye.
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