I don’t play golf – I don’t even have a t-shirt with a collar – so when I was invited to give speed golf a try at Trent Park Golf Course, I did a big laugh.
But then I said yes anyway.
And I’m so glad I did – I didn’t know golf courses could be so fun! It really is what it sounds like – golf, but you run between the shots, rather than walk. Simple really, and great for impatient types who just want to get to have their next go.
The fastest person sets off first (so you don’t keep overtaking each other), with their light bag that has only about four clubs in, and scoring is your normal golf score, plus the amount of minutes you took to complete the course. Easy. Or not, if you’re me. I’m not dreadful at golf (I hit the ball 90% of the time) but I’m not very good at it, and, in the pouring rain that we had on the day, I would have happily thrown my clubs into a passing buggy and hitched a lift to the finish. But the organisers from American Golf suggested I team up with another amateur, which was a complete game changer. Suddenly it didn’t matter that I had no idea what I was doing; we were in it together, supporting (and laughing at) each other the whole way round – somehow I didn’t even notice the rain til the last hole!
I fully recommend this for any beginner – it’s fun, you get lots of goes, you don’t have to be good, and it’s much quicker than a standard game of golf.
Fore! (I don’t know what that means.)