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.
02:21Have a break.
02:43Would you like to see what happens if your scores are a little bit more easily?
02:44But if you have a good time, you might be able to do it and try and get to get
02:44down and
02:44If you want to get a little bit more, you might get a little bit more
02:44I don't have a little bit more.
02:44You might become a little bit worse.
02:46I might not be able to stop.
02:46You might think that it's a little bit more or you might get a little bit more.
02:48But you might not be able to get 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.
04:17um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play every time i'm actually playing all right
04:23i 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
04:52so
05:13Yes! Come on, let's go next!
05:3670 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
05:51playing speed 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
06:03a
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
06:2818 holes of golf. I'm just looking at the scorecard, Luke shot one under par, he was five under
06:37at the turn, turned in 31 then made a birdie, chipped in for a birdie at the 10th. But yeah,
06:46incredible. 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. Wheels
07:00came 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 and start playing on.
07:10Tell us, how do you think we got on in our, I mean obviously for you, we slowed you down
07:15a lot, you would normally get round in what I said about 35-40 minutes.
07:18Fingers crossed, yeah, yeah fingers crossed. Look, you guys were great, you embraced the
07:23unknown, you tried 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 golf and that's
07:33what 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
07:42my technology, I've got a laser, I've got a GPS, I'm forever looking at the yardages and
07:47a couple of times I think you laughed at me when I go, what's the yardage here? And it's
07:50like, just hit it, just hit it. You know, how often do you go through the back of a green?
07:57Certainly missing a green, shorten at the front, just bump it up, have a putt. Sam and I wouldn't
08:03have been that far off my handicap, take out the quadruple and the treble and I'd have
08:09been 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
08:18would take a bit up, but I was sort of, I felt I drove it quite well today, I had
08:22that
08:22little cut going on, just almost like a little chippy one, 180, 200 yards, found the fairway.
08:27Anything that I could do or Alex could do differently next time?
08:31Yeah, going forward, speed golf is all about trying the unknown, like we just said there.
08:37And it's about exploring, you know, have a little experiment, try stuff out, never stop
08:42trying stuff out. And that's why, look, today was a great round for me, one under par, I
08:46feel great. It was a good time, that's world record stuff. Where did I get to, how did I
08:52get to that? Well, it was by exploring. So all I would actually say is, I'd 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 point
09:06is, just explore. And you're, it might not always be, I want to have a fast round, but
09:13that's kind of cool. It might be, I want to improve my golf. You can do that. You can do
09:17whatever you want, but explore and then you'll find stuff out. I go around this great
09:21place here. There's red kites flying around. Your course might be armadillo's. Who knows?
09:27Explore. It was, it was brilliant. It was a really fantastic experience, a really great
09:32buzz. I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and sort of said, how does that
09:36compare to other rounds? What did I feel like at the end? And I reckon the only time that I
09:40felt more of a buzz is I played the old course once in a competition, finished par birdie to
09:47break 80. But today the elation I felt finishing on the 18th hole. And it was interesting chatting
09:54to Alex as well. Alex has done a lot of really intense cycling, cycled up a place like Alpe
10:00d'Huez. He was saying similar sort of buzz once you finish that round of golf. The elation
10:05you've got. Really good workout. It's what's the time now? It's sort of half nine. I'm going
10:13to head home, going to go and do a day's work, but it has been absolutely brilliant. Luke, thank
10:17you for having us. Thank you. It's been a brilliant morning at the Springs. Speed golf. I don't
10:23know. Give it a go. It's a bit of fun. It's a bit of something different, but a lot of
10:27fun.
10:28Definitely going to try it again. But from the Springs golf course, it's goodbye.
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