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? We played sped golf, here's what happened...
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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 Luke has
01:21only got four clubs. He told me not to take a driver because not to waste time pegging it up but
01:27I'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 18
01:45holes. 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.
02:20We'll see you next time.
02:24We'll see you next time.
02:26Bye bye.
02:29Bye bye.
02:37We 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 go on
03:23the 10th hole. This is unbelievable. I am loving it. Par three. How far?
03:29Oh great swing. Yeah lovely shot, 180 I guess.
03:59Hole 15, 55 minutes. I think we might break that 70 minute target that Luke set. Definitely
04:19nudge it down the middle is the play. Every time I'm actually playing all right. I overthink
04:25my golf and in this format you just can't overthink it. Can't be looking at yardages. Can't be
04:30reading putts from both sides. It's brilliant. I am loving this. It's hard work. Hamstrings
04:37feeling really tight. But buzzing. It's great. Final push. Last three and a half holes.
04:44Let's get in.
04:53Yes! Come on, Alex!
05:2370 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.
05:57So 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.
06:08Luke just had a cup of coffee and water. He is an athlete unlike me, but that was a lot
06:14of fun. We'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. Luke shot one under
06:34par. He was five under at the turn, turned in 31, then made a birdie, chipped in for a birdie
06:42at the 10th. But yeah, incredible. I shot 87, but with a quadruple and a treble. So it could
06:51have been all right without that. And Alex, third member of our group, got it in under
06:57100, which was great. Wheels came off a little bit for him, but then it was interesting. Luke,
07:02you helped Alex get the wheels back on really. And that was like you told him to put the driver
07:07away and 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. Yeah. Fingers crossed. Look, you guys are great. You embraced the unknown.
07:23You tried something new. Golf is one of the oldest sports around. That's what's beautiful about it. And
07:29guess what? You can always experience a new version of golf. And that's what you guys did. Golf is for
07:34anyone. Yeah. And these guys rock that today. Yeah, it was really interesting. I think one
07:39of the things that I probably, I love my technology. I've got a laser. I've got a GPS. I'm forever
07:45looking at the yardages. And a couple of times, I think you laughed at me when I go, what's the yardage
07:49here? And it's like, just, just hit it. Just hit it. You know what? How often do you go through the
07:54back of a green? Certainly missing a green, short and at the front, just bump it up, have a putt.
08:01Sam and I wouldn't have been that far off, off my handicap. Take out the quadruple and
08:06the, and the treble and I'd have been, I'd have been okay. What do you think next time, Luke?
08:11Is there anything else? Because I know you said at the start, you wouldn't hit a driver
08:16because you didn't want to peg it up. That would take a bit up. But I was sort of, I felt
08:19I drove it quite well today. I had that little cut going on, just almost like a little chippy
08:23one, 180, 200 yards, found the fairway. Anything that I could do or Alex could do differently next time?
08:29Yeah. Going forwards, speed golf is all about trying the unknown, like we just said there.
08:35And it's about exploring, you know, have a little experiment, try stuff out, never stop trying stuff out.
08:41And that's, that's why, look, today was a great round for me. One under par. I feel great.
08:45It was a good time. That's world record stuff. Where did I get to? How did I get to that?
08:51Well, it was by exploring. Yeah. So all I would actually say is I would just say embrace that, explore.
08:57You know, I will come around with anyone, you know, I'll leave that open to you guys.
09:01You know, pick up the phone, ask me and I'll take you around. But the point is just explore.
09:07Yeah. And you're, it might not always be, I want to have a fast round, but that's kind of cool.
09:13Yeah. It might be, I want to improve my golf. You can do that. You can do whatever you want, but explore and then you'll find stuff out.
09:19I go around this great place here. There's red kites flying around. Your course might be armadillos. Who knows? You know, explore.
09:26It was, it was brilliant. It was a really fantastic experience and really great buzz. I was just chatting to Luke afterwards over breakfast and sort of said, how does that compare to other rounds?
09:37What did I feel like at the end? And I reckon the only time that I felt more of a buzz is I played the old course once in a competition, finished par birdie to break 80.
09:48Um, but today the elation I felt, um, finishing on the 18th hole. And it was interesting chatting to Alex as well. Alex has done a lot of really intense cycling, cycled up a place like Alpe d'Huez.
09:59He was saying similar sort of buzz once you finished that round of golf, the elation you've got, um, really good workout. Um, gonna, it's what, what's the time now?
10:10We've, it's sort of half nine. Uh, I'm going to head home, going to go and do a day's work, but it has been absolutely brilliant. Luke, thank you for having us.
10:17It's been a brilliant, um, morning at the Springs speed golf. Uh, I dunno, give it a go. It's a bit of fun. It's a bit of something different, but, um, a lot of fun.
10:27Um, definitely going to try it again, but from the Springs golf course is goodbye.