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.
02:21We'll be fine.
02:22We'll be on out there.
02:23done it.
02:40Yeah.
02:50I'll be fine.
02:51I know you're here by the chance, where you're caught up and todo this
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
05:14oh
05:14oh
05:14oh
05:14oh
05:15oh
05:3570 minutes 31 seconds so we just missed our target time of
05:4370 minutes gonna catch my breath gonna catch up with Luke and try and work out
05:50what we've learned from playing speed golf this morning at the Springs but
05:53that was a lot of fun so we have finished our round of speed golf we'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 think I thoroughly deserved Luke just had a cup
06:10coffee and water he is an athlete unlike me but that was a lot of fun we've had
06:14a chance to reflect on it didn't quite break that 70 minute target we were 70
06:20minutes and 31 seconds but still that is an awful lot shorter than a regular three
06:28ball to play 18 holes of golf I'm just looking at the scorecard Luke shot one
06:33under par he was five under at the turn turned in 31 then made a birdie chipped
06:40in for a birdie at the 10th but yeah incredible I shot 87 but with a
06:50quadruple and a treble so could have been alright without that and Alex third
06:55member of our group got it in under 100 which was which was great wheels came off
07:00a 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
07:08for sure and start playing on tell us how do you think we got on in our I mean
07:12obviously for you we slowed you down a lot you would normally get round in what I
07:16said about 35 40 minutes fingers crossed yeah yeah fingers crossed look you guys
07:22are great you embrace 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
07:31can always experience a new version of golf and that's what you guys did golf is
07:34for anyone yeah and these guys rock that today yeah it was really interesting I
07:39think one of the things that I probably I love my technology I've got a laser I've
07:44got 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 just like just just hit it just hit it you
07:53know what how often do you go through the back of a green certainly missing a
07:58green short and at the front just bump it up have a putt Sam and I wouldn't have
08:03been that far off off my handicap take out the quadruple and the and a treble
08:08and I'd have been I'd have been okay what do you think next time Luke is there
08:12anything else because I know you said at the start you wouldn't hit the driver
08:16because you didn't want to peg it up that would take a bit but but I was sort of I
08:20thought I drove it quite well today I had that little cut going on just almost
08:23like a little chippy one hundred and eighty two hundred yards found the
08:26fairway anything that I could do or Alex could do differently next time yeah
08:31going forwards 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
08:41never stop trying stuff out and that's that's why look today was a great round
08:44for me one under par I feel great it was a good time that's world record stuff
08:48and where did I get to how did I get to that well it was by exploring yeah so
08:55all I would actually say is I'll just say embrace that explore you know I will
08:59come around with anyone you know I'll leave that open to you guys you know pick
09:03up the phone ask me and I'll take you around but the point is just explore yeah
09:08and you're it might not always be I want to have a fast round but that's kind of
09:13cool yeah 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
09:21great place here there's red kites flying around your course might be
09:24armadillos who knows explore 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 old course once in a competition finished par birdie to break 80 but today
09:50the elation I felt finishing on the 18th hole and it's interesting chatting to
09:54Alex as well Alex has done a lot of really intense cycling cycle that place
09:59like Alpe d'Huez he was saying similar sort of buzz once he finished that round of
10:04golf the elation you've got really good workout gonna it's what's the time now
10:10we've it's sort of half nine I'm gonna head home gonna go and do a day's work
10:15but it has been actually brilliant Luke thank you for having us thank you been a
10:18brilliant morning at the Springs speed golf I don't know give it a go it's a bit
10:24of fun it's a bit of something different but a lot of fun definitely gonna try it
10:30again but from the Springs golf course is goodbye
