ShagBag Speedgolf is Growing Fast I


magine playing a round of golf in 40 minutes. Now imagine doing that and breaking 80. That’s what Ireland’s Rob Hogan did on his way to winning the second Speedgolf World Champi- onships at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in October. Hogan had the fastest


rounds both days of the 36-hole championship, and shot very respectable scores of 77 at Old Mac- donald and 79 at Bandon


Dunes. Hogan’s Speedgolf score was 236.55, which is computed by adding strokes and minutes. The decimal represents seconds. So Hogan shot his 77 in 39 minutes and 31 seconds, and then added a 79 in 41:24. And he did it without a


cart. Hogan certainly wasn’t


walking—but he was moving. Speedgolf is a fascinating hybrid of skill and endurance.


How much time should you take per shot? Hogan is spending approximately two minutes and 10 sec-


onds a hole. Defending champion


Christopher Walker actually had the lowest golf scores in the fi eld, shooting a 74 at Old MacDonald and a 73 at Bandon Dunes. But Walker was a relative snail, as it took him 52:26 in the fi rst round and 51:12 in the second to get around. Walker, a recent golf team alum from Notre Dame, fi nished fourth at 253.38. That score was actually an impressive improvement from 2012, when he shot 77-78 and got around in 53:29 and 56:59 on the same courses for a total of 263.28. But Walker’s fi nish shows


Speedgolf is a fascinating hybrid of skill and endurance.


16 / NCGA.ORG / WINTER 2014


just how much Speedgolf is growing. In the 2013 Cham- pionships, there were even


two Olympic track and fi eld athletes competing. For Bernard Lagat,


who won the 2007 World Championship in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters, this was the fi rst time he had played in a golf tournament. Lagat managed to log top-six times both days, proving that you don’t have to be good to play fast. He shot 118-110, but was off the course in less than 50 min- utes both days. New Zealand’s Nick


Willis won the silver medal in the 1,500 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and entered the fi nal round of the 2013 Speedgolf World Championships in sixth place after opening with an 86 in 44:20. Willis eventual- ly slipped to 13th place after closing with a 97 in 43:07. If you are itching to see


what Speedgolf looks like, a tidy YouTube clip (less than four minutes) of Christo- pher Smith captures a 4-un- der 68 at Bandon Dunes in 53:48. Smith holds the world record with a 5-under 65 in 44:06 (a Speedgolf score of 109:06) during the Chicago Speedgolf Classic at Jackson Park GC. Smith fi nished eighth at


the 2013 World Champion- ships, shooting 78-72, but needed 58:29 and 55:29 to do so. Speedgolf is believed to


have begun in the 1970s. It made headlines for a day when Steve Scott (former


So how exactly do you play Speedgolf?


The rules are similar to golf, with a couple of notable exceptions: • There is maximum of


seven clubs. • No carts, caddies or spikes


are allowed. • You do not have to pull the


fl agstick. • The penalty for lost balls,


unplayable lies and out of bounds is just one stroke, and the player has the option of either replaying the shot, drop- ping within two club lengths of where the ball is reasonably assumed to have come to rest, or dropping along the line of fl ight of the previous shot. You can also play through


the course rather simply. Just yell “fore” and swing away. The passing player has the right of way.


American record holder in the mile) sped through a round in 29:30 and shot 95. But now Speedgolf even has the USGA’s attention. “One of the USGA’s top


priorities right now is to help golfers understand that pace of play directly affects their overall enjoyment of the game,” said Mike Davis, executive director of the USGA. “To that end, we think that alternative games like Speedgolf can be a lot of fun and also a way for golfers to realize that you may actually play better if you play faster.”


PHOTO: SPEEDGOLF INTERNATIONAL


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120