What Is Speed Golf?

Golf Monthly

In this video, Michael Harris and Alex Narey played speed golf at The Springs. They were joined by speed golf expert Luke Willett to see what this unique version of the game is like. How fast can they play a full 18 holes, what will the added speed do to the scoring, would they recommend you give it a go?

Transcript

00:00Hello everyone, Mike Harris from Golf Monthly and you join me at the Springs Golf Club in

00:06Oxfordshire. It is a fairly ungodly 6.30 in the morning, set my alarm for 4.45 to get up to 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 of

00:58golf but how are we going to get on? What are we going to learn today? Luke says he loves speed 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 it up

01:27but 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 it,

01:39find it, hit it again, keep on going for the 18 holes. It's about four and a half miles around the

01:4518 holes. Luke reckons we might be able to do it in about 70 minutes which is an awful lot quicker.

01:50than I normally play 18 holes. Let's get to the first tee and see what happens.

02:20I'm I'm going to let you go.

02:25Bye.

02:29Bye.

02:31Bye.

02:33Bye.

02:35Bye.

02:38Bye.

02:39Bye.

02:41Bye.

02:42Bye.

02:43Bye.

02:45Bye.

02:46Bye.

02:48we are halfway around in 31 minutes so

02:55and that was for uh a five a par actually playing quite well short and straight off the tee definitely

03:08the play doesn't matter if you duff it it's much harder if you are running off line looking for

03:14balls although a couple of times alex has hit it offline has allowed me a chance for a breather so

03:20uh just about to go on the 10th hole this is unbelievable i am loving it uh path three how far

03:29oh great swing yeah i love your shot 180 i guess okay

03:44hole 15 um 55 minutes i think we might break that 70 minutes

04:14target that luke set um definitely nudge it down the middle is the play every time i'm actually

04:23playing all right i overthink my golf and in this format you just can't overthink it can't be looking

04:29at yardages can'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

04:43so

04:48so

04:52Yes! Come on, let's go next!

05:2270 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

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

06:23that is an awful lot shorter than a regular three ball to play 18 holes of

06:29golf. 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

06:43tenth but yeah incredible. I shot 87 but with a quadruple and a treble so could have

06:52been alright without that and Alex third member of our group got it in under a

06:57hundred 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 that was

07:06like you told him to put the driver away and start playing on. Tell us how do you

07:11think we got on in our, I mean obviously for you we slowed you down a lot, you

07:15would normally get round in what I said about 35-40 minutes. Fingers crossed, yeah

07:20yeah fingers crossed. Look you guys are great, you embraced the unknown, you tried

07:24something new, golf is one of the oldest sports around that's what's beautiful

07:28about it and guess what you can always experience a new version of golf and

07:33that's what you guys did, golf is for anyone and these guys rock that today.

07:37Yeah 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

07:47and a couple of times I think you laughed at me when I go what's the yardage here

07:50and 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 treble and I'd have been okay.

08:10What 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

08:18would take a bit, but I was sort of, I felt I drove it quite well today, I had that

08:22little cut going on, just almost like a little chippy one, 180-200 yards, found the

08:26fairway. Anything that I could do or Alex could do differently next time?

08:30Yeah, going forwards, speed golf is all about trying the unknown, like we just

08:36said there, and it's about exploring, you know, have a little experiment, try stuff

08:41out, never stop trying stuff out and 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.

08:48Where did I get to, how did I get to that? Well, it was by exploring.

08:54Yeah. So all I would actually say is, I would just say embrace that, explore, you

08:58know, I will come around with anyone, you know, I'll leave that open to you guys, you

09:03know, pick up the phone, ask me and I'll take you around, but the point is, just

09:07explore. Yeah. And you're, it might not always be, I want to have a fast round, but

09:13that's kind of cool. Yeah. It might be, I want to improve my golf, you can do that, you

09:17can do whatever 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 Armadillo's,

09:25who knows, you know, explore. It was, it was brilliant. It was a really fantastic experience,

09:31a really great buzzer. I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and sort

09:35of said, how does that compare to other rounds? What did I feel like at the end? And I reckon

09:39the only time that I felt more of a buzz is I played the old course once in a competition,

09:46it was par birdie to break 80. Um, but today the elation I felt, um, finishing on the 18th

09:53hole and it was interesting chatting to Alex as well. Alex has done a lot of really intense

09:57cycling, cycled up a place like Alpe d'Huez. He was saying similar sort of buzz once you've

10:02finished that round of golf, the elation you've got, um, really good workout. Um, gonna, it's,

10:09what, what's the time now? We've, it's sort of half nine. Uh, I'm gonna head home, gonna go

10:13and 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, um, morning at the

10:20Springs Speed Golf. Uh, I dunno, give it a go. It's a bit of fun. It's a bit of something

10:25different, but, um, a lot of fun. Um, definitely going to try it again, but from the Springs Golf

10:32course, it's goodbye.

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