Speed golf

[eaglecc]

Maybe someone can explain the point of this...

So I finally convinced my friend to join me for some golf a few weeks back, and he is hooked. I gave him some old clubs as a starter set and he actually isn't that bad for a newbie but of course he has a ways to go. We've only been out twice thus far, today being his second full round. We get to the course and it is empty, perfect I thought. We play through four holes and on the fifth fairway (long par 5) I notice this single speed up to the tee box. I was thinking "what the hell?" because the 4th holes green is right next to the 5ths tee box and I didn't even see the guy on the green at all. Whatever I thought, I'll let him play through on the next hole. We got to the 6th tee box and I was feeling good, so I hit my drive. Not two seconds later I see this guy speeding up behind us. No way I thought, he was still on the fairway on that long par 5 when we were getting off the green. Well I was kind of dumbfounded and told him to go ahead and play, maybe this guy was a course pro or something and was so good he just played that fast. He hits his drive maybe 100 yards to the right, behind a large tree. Wow. He practically runs over to his cart, speeds up the path to the ball, yanks out a club and whacks it dead straight, but only about 20 yards. Still in the rough. He rushes up to the ball, whacks it again this time about 50 yards back onto the fairway. He now has about 150 yards to the pin. He finally hit a decent shot which landed on the front of the green. A quick pitch and put and he's off to the races (i.e. the next tee box).

It looked like a comic show. This clown was taking zero practice swings, walking very fast to his ball, driving his cart like he stole it, and was absolutely terrible.

Again, can anyone make any sense of this? I've never seen anything like it.

[breakout89]

Sounds like my kinda golfer, I'll take a fast single in front of me over a slow foursome anyday. lol

[Fat Slice]

hehe. I did that once. On our honeymoon my wife liked to sleep in, so I would get up early and wait at a course and try and get on before anyone else. I'd take a cart and rip through the 18 with nobody in front of me. I didn't hack it up as bad as this guy you saw, though. Anyway, I'd finish up, race back to the hotel, order breakfast for us and when it got there she'd say "I'll eat it later...I wanna sleep some more..."

So what was with this guy you saw? Man - who knows!?!?

[Dave H]

I've seen people play golf like that. One time my brother and I were playing and we were on the 7th hole, a par 3 over a ravine. We both hit across and are on the green. I'm lining up my putt when I realize someone is yelling at us. It's a guy yelling to move so he can hit. My bro and I are both like WTF? But he's clearly going to hit whether we like it or not so we move. He hits one on the green, picks up his clubs which literally consist of about 4-5 irons, no bag, and runs over to the green. He grabs his ball without putting (I don't think he even had a putter) and continues running to the next tee box. It was a sight to see. That would take all the enjoyment out of golf for me.

[steelernation]

ive played fast as little as 1:45 a round, if thats al the time you have then you have two choices, play or not. The guy in the OP sounds like he was probably just playing through briskly to get ahead of the 2some.

[rdwoody]

It is a little odd. It certainly doesn't sound like it would be very fun. I'm always sad when the round comes to an end. Clearly, those guys don't feel the same way. Even though I think it is a bit foolish, I don't guess I really have a problem with it as long as they aren't acting a fool like in Dave's case:

  None said:

I'm lining up my putt when I realize someone is yelling at us. It's a guy yelling to move so he can hit. My bro and I are both like WTF? But he's clearly going to hit whether we like it or not so we move.

I probably wouldn't have moved. You're on the green and if he wants to play through, he can wait a few more seconds. But, if you didn't move and he hit it anyway, I would have some harsh words for him and would most likely report him at the club house for being such an idiot.

[sean_miller]

  Dave H said:

I've seen people play golf like that. One time my brother and I were playing and we were on the 7th hole, a par 3 over a ravine. We both hit across and are on the green. I'm lining up my putt when I realize someone is yelling at us. It's a guy yelling to move so he can hit. My bro and I are both like WTF? But he's clearly going to hit whether we like it or not so we move. He hits one on the green, picks up his clubs which literally consist of about 4-5 irons, no bag, and runs over to the green. He grabs his ball without putting (I don't think he even had a putter) and continues running to the next tee box. It was a sight to see. That would take all the enjoyment out of golf for me.

With my brother, that ball woulda got tossed into the ravine.

[DavidFehertysBike]

I know a guy like that, too. The dude doesn't even use a golf bag, he walks and carries his clubs in his hands. Probably plays a round of golf in under 3 hours. He is half way decent though, probably a mid 80s shooter.

[Dave H]

  sean_miller said:

With my brother, that ball woulda got tossed into the ravine.

To be honest I was confused about how should feel: anger or amazement at this spectacle. At the time, I guess I thought it was so strange that I decided not to let it bother me any further. I'm sure if I had any confrontation with the guy it would've negatively affected me the rest of the round. Obviously, we would have had to let him play through somewhere and while I didn't agree with him yelling us off the green in some ways I think we were better just to let him through.

[PooN]

Maybe this guy was practicing for a bet. I've heard of big bets where the object was to shoot under a certain score in an insanely short amount of time... like shoot in the 80's in 1 hour.

[BostonSully]

Heard of a fellow who plays frisbee golf. He throws the frisbee and then takes off running after it he runs the entire course right behind the frisbee. Even though Ive never seen anyone else do this he's like a dog throwing his own ball and then chasing it down lol.

[design]

Sounds like my typical round. I usually begin my 18 at 5PM and I'm completely done by 7:15 or so. (walking)

[hero419]

Sunday

I did my first nine (paired with stranger) in 1.5 hours
second nine by myself in 50 min.
5 strokes less (46 V. 51)
End of day, no one out.

Loved it.

[Mizzoujohn]

Whats the rush? Especially when you're paying good money for the round! Sit back and relax, take a deep breath.
John

[sacm3bill]

I play speed golf a lot. I pay a yearly fee that includes unlimited free golf at the two munis near my office. The great thing about that is I can go out after work even if there's only an hour or so of light left, hop on and play, and not worry about whether I'm getting my money's worth since I don't pay anything to go out. So in order to get as many holes in as possible before dark, if the course is open I will often run to each shot. (It's also a great way to get a little bit more of a workout.)

So there's my rationale - basically I just want to get as much golf in as I can if I'm running out of light or need to be somewhere else at a particular time, for whatever reason. Make sense?

[Floger]

There's a tourney somewhere where runners play golf. They carry like 4 clubs and run from shot to shot, hole to hole. There was some guy that had some unreal overall score which is weighted by time to cover the course and total strokes. He shot like an 85 and completed 18 holes in under 45 minutes as I recall. I think it was on Wacked Out Sports show.

[sacm3bill]

Yeah, would love to play in such a tourney sometime.

[soloredd]

Speed golf has never appealed to me but I guess if you have the chance to get out 3 days a week it doesn't matter. I try to play once a week and I really like enjoying my round but I don't dog it around the course either. I played as a single 2 weeks ago and got done in 3:30 (always with my push cart). I enjoyed the round. Played last week as a twosome and it took 5:30...had (2) foursomes in front of us. It sucked.

If I don't have a whole lot of time I play 9.