A few months ago the Australian Speed Golf Open was held at Yarra Bend Golf Club. I happened to be down there on the day to hit the driving range, but before this I had never heard of speed golf.
Australian Speed Golf Open at Yarra Bend Golf Club
The rules are, play golf in the normal way, just go as fast as you can. The score is calculated by adding the total number of shots, plus the time taken to play. I would expect some very hefty scores based on this.
Speed Golfers warming up
Entrants for the event had come from various parts of Australia, but also internationally. The record before this event was held by Christopher Smith, with a score of 109.6, 65 playing shots and 44.06 running.
Ranked World Number One – Rob Hogan
On the day Rob Hogan from Ireland, who is number one in the World, nearly broke the world record, coming up 1 short. It was left to an Australian from Orange in NSW, Mitch Williamson, to show how things are done, breaking the World record with 77 shots and completing the course in 31 minutes, for a total of 108. Great effort Mitch.
So this leads to the question, how on earth can a person, admittedly doing the round solo, complete the course in 31 minutes, whilst it would normally take a foursome on a weekend 4.5 hours plus? Is the pace of play too slow? Now I don’t expect a foursome to go around anywhere near that time, but it should be 4 hours tops. Hopefully speedier golf can catch on to the rest of the everyday players.
