What Is Speed Golf?
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?
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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. I set my alarm for 4.45 to get up to get here.
00:16This is not just a general easy
00:20Friday morning knock though. I'm playing 18 holes of speed golf with PGA Pro Luke Willett,
00:28aka The Iron Golfer.
00:30Luke is an incredible athlete along with being a PGA Pro. He's able to play 18 holes.
00:37I think his record time is 44 minutes and having only
00:4278 shots. I don't think I'm going to get anywhere near that today,
00:46but I'm out here to find out what it's like to play speed golf.
00:49I'm playing with Alex Neri, one of my colleagues from Golf Monthly. We're not athletes. We're not runners.
00:56We do a bit of fitness and we play quite a lot of golf, but how are we going to get on?
01:00What are we going to learn today? Luke says he loves speed golf because it disconnects him to make him feel connected.
01:07It's all about being stripped down, really eyeballing shots, not overthinking golf.
01:13Certainly something that I probably struggle with. So today,
01:16really light pencil bag, just got a half set of clubs. Interestingly, you'd see Luke has only got four clubs.
01:23He 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.
01:37It is literally hit it, find it, hit it again, keep on going for the 18 holes.
01:42It's about four and a half miles around the 18 holes. Luke reckons we might be able to do it in about 17 minutes,
01:48which is an awful lot quicker than I normally play 18 holes. Let's get to the first tee and see what happens.
02:49We are halfway round in 31 minutes, and that was for a five, a par.
03:02I'm 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 offline, looking for balls.
03:15Although a couple of times Alex has hit it offline, it has allowed me a chance for a breather.
03:19Just about to go on the 10th hole. This is unbelievable. I'm loving it. Par three. How far?
03:32Oh, great swing.
03:33Yes, I love your shot. 180, I guess.
03:45Hold 15, 55 minutes, I think we might break that 70-minute target that we set for the first tee.
04:15Definitely, 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.
04:29Can't be looking at yardages, can't be reading putts from both sides.
04:33It's brilliant. I am loving this. It's hard work.
04:36Hamstrings are feeling really tight, but I'm buzzing. It's great.
04:40Final push, last three and a half holes.
05:10Yes, come on, go on Alex.
05:24Very good shot, congrats.
05:3670 minutes, 31 seconds. We just missed our target time of 70 minutes.
05:44I'm going to catch my breath. I'm going to catch up with Luke
05:49and try and work out what we've learned from playing speed golf this morning at the springs.
05:53That was a lot of fun. We have finished our round of speed golf.
06:00We've had a chance to have a bit of a rest, a little bit of a lie down,
06:04had a full English breakfast, which I think I thoroughly deserved.
06:08Luke just had a cup of coffee and water. He is an athlete, unlike me, but that was a lot of fun.
06:14We've had a chance to reflect on it. Didn't quite break that 70-minute target.
06:19We were 70 minutes and 31 seconds, but still that is an awful lot shorter than a regular
06:27three ball to play 18 holes of golf. I'm just looking at the scorecard.
06:32Luke shot one under par. He was five under at the turn.
06:38Turned in 31, then made a birdie, chipped in for a birdie at the 10th.
06:44Incredible. I shot 87, but with a quadruple and a treble, so could have been all right
06:53without that. 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
07:04wheels back on, really. 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? Obviously, for you, we slowed you down a lot. You would
07:15normally get around in, what I said, about 35, 40 minutes? Fingers crossed. Yes, fingers crossed.
07:21You guys were great. You embraced the unknown. You tried something new.
07:26Golf is one of the oldest sports around. That's what's beautiful about it. Guess what? You can
07:31always experience a new version of golf, and that's what you guys did. Golf is for anyone,
07:35and these guys rocked that today. Yes, it was really interesting. I love my technology. I've
07:43got a laser. I've got a GPS. I'm forever looking at the yardages. A couple of times, I think you
07:48laughed at me when I go, what's the yardage here? Just hit it. How often do you go through the back
07:55of a green? Certainly, missing a green, shorten at the front, just bump it up, have a putt.
08:02Sam and I wouldn't have been that far off my handicap. Take out the quadruple and the treble,
08:08and I'd have been okay. What do you think next time, Luke? Is there anything else? I know you
08:13said at the start, you wouldn't hit a driver because you didn't want to peg it up. That would
08:18take a bit. I felt I drove it quite well today. I had that little cut going on, just almost like
08:23a little chippy one, 180, 200 yards, found the fairway. Anything that I could do or Alex could
08:29do differently next time? Yes. Going forward, speed golf is all about trying the unknown,
08:35like we just said there. It's about exploring. Have a little experiment. Try stuff out. Never
08:41stop trying stuff out. That's why, look, today was a great round for me. One under par. I feel
08:46great. It was a good time. That's world record stuff. Where did I get to? How did I get to that?
08:53It was by exploring. All I would actually say is, I would just say embrace that. Explore.
08:58I will come around with anyone. I'll leave that open to you guys. Pick up the phone,
09:04ask me, and I'll take you around. The point is, just explore. It might not always be,
09:11I want to have a fast round, but that's kind of cool. It might be, I want to improve my golf. You
09:16can do that. You can do whatever you want, but explore and then you'll find stuff out.
09:20I go around this great place here. There's red kites flying around. Your course might be armadillos.
09:25Who knows? Explore. It was brilliant. It was a really fantastic experience. A really great buzz.
09:32I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and said, how does that compare to
09:36other rounds? What did I feel like at the end? I reckon the only time that I felt more of a buzz
09:42is I played the old course once in a competition, finished par birdie to break 80. Today, the
09:50elation I felt finishing on the 18th hole. It was interesting chatting to Alex as well. Alex
09:55has done a lot of really intense cycling, cycled up a place like Alpe d'Huez. He was saying
10:01similar buzz once you finish that round of golf. The elation you got. Really good workout.
10:09What's the time now? It's half nine. I'm going to head home. I'm going to go and do a day's work,
10:15but it's been absolutely brilliant. Luke, thank you for having us. It's been a brilliant
10:19morning at the Springs 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 going to try it again, but from the Springs golf
10:32course, it's goodbye.