04: Learn the rules of Speedgolf with PGA Professional Garrett Holt

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speed golf, baby, let's go. I'm Adam Lorton, executive producer of speed golf, baby.

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Last time on the speed golf baby audio experience, you heard the audio feed from the 2023 Missouri speed golf open round one on today's episode. We're talking to Garrett Holt, PGA professional and the new speed golf USA official rules official to review the 2024 rules of speed golf.

So put on your reading glasses because we're about to read the fine print. And now, Garrett Holt.

 What's up speed golf family. We're live with Garrett Holt official speed golf, USA rules official for 2024. Garrett

I'm happy to help. You know, everyone's kind of doing their own thing to get this thing off the ground and running and building. And I'm excited to help provide some expertise or consistency with the rules, which is pretty big in our sport.

Fantastic. The purpose of this conversation is to clarify what are the new and updated rules for speed golf, USA tournaments, 2024, I'm going to be the host Garrett. You're going to be like the expert witness and we're going to jump right into section one, which says USGA rules apply.

Do you have anything to add? 

No, no, we want this to be very similar to regular golf. Obviously there's a couple of things that we do slightly differently but , if it's not written on there, you guys should know the USGA rules. If not, take a little refresher course, visit the website. 

Fantastic. So the remainder of this video will be the exceptions to USGA rules, exceptions or modifications to USGA rules that we make for the purpose of making speed golf more like speed golf. So pacers and caddies. Players are not permitted to have caddies or pacers during a round.  Garrett, what does that mean? 

Well, you know, it's pretty common for for most of us, whenever we go out to follow along other people we don't want people to be at an advantage or disadvantage because they do or do not have a little group that's helping them pace or giving them advice. Advice is a really big thing. That's pretty standard in the USGA. You can't get advice on how far you are, what club you should hit. They can help spot balls. Spectators can do all that stuff. Just imagine that you're at a regular golf tournament. You can spectate and spot balls, but you can't pace. You can't. Help. You can't provide advice or anything like that.

Yeah. So what I'm hearing is the only way a spectator is allowed to help is to help you find your ball. 

All right. Equipment. So there are really three rules of equipment, no equipment assistance.

Players have to carry all their equipment without assistance. However, in most speed golf USA tournaments, there's a provision that allows your scorekeeper riding the cart to carry water and golf balls if you want them to, which is nice because I like to carry about nine golf balls just, you know, on the off chance it's a really rough day and nine golf balls would really weigh me down if I had to carry them on my person.

Yeah. It would weigh you down. I mean, you need zippered pockets. I've tried all that. They, they hop out of your pockets. Having a couple of extra golf balls. I think that's still within the spirit of it. They're not carrying half the clubs or the bag or anything like that. 

Okay. So you must carry all your equipment generally with the exception that you can put your water and golf balls on the cart with your scorekeeper. 

No equipment on the greens. This is unfortunately now called the Nick Gooden rule. So let's say you have a wedge and a putter for green side play.

You're not allowed to rest the wedge on the green while you putt, for example, and you sure as heck are not allowed to place your bag on the green. However If you drop it by accident and pick it right back up, that is not a penalty. That was established in the gin OTA case in the 2023 us open for one. 

That actually happened to me at Worlds in Florida.

Was the accident on maybe the 17th hole. I wasn't aware of this. I docked myself a stroke. I told the scorekeeper, add a stroke to it. This has been a longstanding thing where you can't put clubs on the green.

It doesn't matter whether you lay down gently or you drop it. Or you put the bag on it. Doesn't matter whether the bag is soft or hard. If you're, You have a slip of mind or you do it on purpose to gain an advantage. The penalty is still the same.

Yep. Speed golfers take care of the golf course. And this is part of that effort to always take good care of the golf course, no matter how careful you feel like you're being the safest thing to do is just not place any equipment on the green. And so, and that's why there's a penalty stroke applied.

Third rule in the equipment section, you must finish with all equipment  all speed golf USA tournaments this year are going to have a finish line. And so you must pick up your ball out of the cup and cross the finish line with the ball you tapped in on the last hole.

Yeah. Finishing with all the equipment. I mean, in theory you could, if you were creative, if we didn't have this rule, you could hit your driver on the last hole, drop the driver. You could hit an iron from the fairway, drop the iron. You hit the green, you drop all your clothes, but your putter and you run up. I don't know how much that's going to save you. I don't know why you would want to have to walk back, you know, after the round, after your gas to get it, but this prevents that it's been a common practice, at least in my event to have a line painted in front of the green. To where you have to finish with all of your clubs and then you drop it.

The one thing we're adding in this year is after you hole out the ball in the hole, you have to grab the ball, the rest of your clubs, and then run past that finish line we're going to make this uniform this year.

Yep, definitely. So that all makes sense. This is a slight update from prior years. It looks like in prior years you would be charged one penalty stroke per incident, and now the penalty has been changed to a blanket two stroke penalty for any equipment left on the golf course. 

Yes.

In 2025, there will be an additional entry in the equipment section of the rules, and that is about adjustable golf clubs.

Now Scott has made it very clear that he doesn't want to mess with the 14 club rule. And so it will be stipulated that adjustable clubs have to have distinct club settings. And so for example, you know, a Q golf club has 11 settings, so that would count for 11 golf clubs. So you could carry a Q plus three clubs potentially, but not plus four clubs. 

So your 11 settings would count as 11 golf clubs in the bag in 2025 and 2024 adjustable clubs are not allowed in speed golf USA events.

Yeah. I think if you speed golf for the last six months or a year, you're aware of Q golf and what they've done with the golf club,  they've been one of the most recent manufacturers to get after this. It's really cool. I've got one myself.

Everyone knows how fun it is to run around with only one or two clubs instead of six or seven. I think this adds to the fun. I think it makes it more accessible. I don't yet know whether it would have an effect on performance. Time will tell on that

All right. Section four lost ball or out of bounds. It's very simple here. In regular golf, You lose your ball or you hit it out of bounds. You must go back to the spot you hit it from. For speed golf, there's a much more pleasant remedy, which is you play it as though it's a hazard.

So you drop on the line on which you hit it and play from there with a one stroke penalty. Garrett, please explain.

Yeah. Very close to the hazard scenario and this is where at the beginning we follow all USGA rules. The USGA rules for a lost ball are out of bounds. If you're a recreational player you may not really know the real rule on that. You may with your buddies just drop it and then maybe add a stroke, maybe not. So, the USGA introduced this rule and I think the purpose was for pace of play. So you hit the ball down there, you lose it, you can't find it. USGA dropped that down to three minutes for looking for a lost ball. Well then you would technically have to go back to the tee and you'd be hitting your third.

First one goes out. You drop two, you hit your third from the tee, that third ball is going to end up pretty close to where the first one was, maybe equidistant to it, maybe toward the fairway, and then you're hitting four from there. So technically the USGA model local rule  would be that you hit the first one that you can't find.

So it's lost or it's out of bounds. And they added an extra option. Instead of going back and routine and hitting three or having a one shot penalty stroke and distance, you could do a two shot penalty and drop  I would charge everyone to find the picture, that diagram is excellent because they actually allow you to go toward the fairway and then almost two clubs into the fairway 

basically you draw a triangle between the spot where your ball went out of bounds the fairway at the same distance away from the T and then the T would be the third point of the triangle. And then anywhere in that triangle is a legal drop with two stroke penalty. And so then the speed golf rule would be the same thing except with a one shot penalty.

yeah, two strokes becomes one So you'd be hitting three from either in the rough if you choose or the edge of the fairway or slightly in the fairway On that little triangle. 

I intend to take full advantage of this rule if I, if I somehow lose a ball this 

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you know the rules and you know how to use it, if you don't know this rule,  you could very well assume while my ball was headed this way, I have to drop over here. Well, now you're stuck behind the trees. You could have a clear shot toward the fairway. Use the rules to your advantage. The guys and gals on TV, PJL, PGA, they use the rules to their advantage. 

Excellent. Let's keep it moving. Official timing, your start time is your tee time. So if you're late to your tee time by one minute, then  you don't, you don't get to start at the time you start your round. You start at the time of your tee time, that would be your start time. And then your finish time would be whatever time you cross the finish line.

So then the, the, your time for the round would be the elapsed time between your tee time and the moment you cross the finish line.

Yeah. No, no changes here except for that finish line that we mentioned. 

Distance measuring devices. Distance measuring devices are permitted, but just like in USGA sanctioned tournaments, they're not allowed to give you a slope reading.

Yeah. And maybe we'll add this on the sheet slope, wind, whatever it can't calculate the effective playing distance. It can calculate the factual point a to point B is 140 yards. Not what it's effectively playing at. 

Absolutely. Section seven is called background music. The short story here, you are allowed to listen to music if you think it's going to help you run better or play better. But you have to be able to hear somebody calling four from behind you, a horn to suspend play. So if your volume is excessive and you can't hear what's going on around you, then that is too loud.

Yeah, so it kind of goes along with training aids. You mentioned that you can listen to it if he'll make you run better or golf better.

But the, the thing, the thing with, yeah, music is that part of it has been illegal and golf, if it will allow you to have a better swing tempo or to eliminate distractions that's in the USGA rules. However, just background music or whatever, but it's not like, you know, at a perfect beat that's going to slow you down or match up your tempo of your swing,  

I mean, I'll, I'll make it easy. Like there's is completely unenforceable. If you say, Hey, Adam, that background music is suspiciously similar to your swing tempo. I'll tell you, it's just a coincidence. So that's completely unenforceable. You're allowed to listen to music, but if it's too loud that is not okay because it's unsafe for the other competitors.

Yes. 

for the other competitors. I mean, you've got golf balls flying. You got people trying to shout for and there's someone running up on your tail

Yep. Oh yeah. And if you are intent on listening to music during your round, I recommend bone conduction headphones because they leave your ears open. 

 All right. Section eight weather delays in the event of inclement or severe weather conditions, the host venue will determine if the competition shall be suspended for safety. If it's suspended, just like in real golf, a long horn blast will sound. You have to stop playing right away. Mark your spot  or sorry.

Mark where your ball is and then go to a safe place right away. They'll also play us a horn to resume play when it's deemed safe. 

Yeah. Luckily I can't recall a time this happened. But yeah, if something rolls in during the round that is a tough scenario to handle for the golf tournament host. But yeah, safety is paramount. We use lots of volunteers. Lots of participants. Safety is very, very important. The horn will blast. You have to stop immediately. We would take note of when the horn blast and you can do the calculations. You would also 1 thing that I haven't seen play out.

I don't know if Adam, you've ever witnessed this.

But yeah, you would have to mark where the ball is, that's standard in golf. Would you also want to mark where your body is? Like if I just tee off and my ball is 280 yards down the

Hmm.

I'm really back here 260 yards away. If I just mark where the ball is and I start out there, I'm gaining 260 yards.

Yeah.

could be more complex, although more fair if you mark where the ball is and where you are.

Oh, actually, sorry. I'm rereading the rules and it actually says, mark your spot, mark the spot of your ball if different. So actually exactly as you described Garrett, that has been accounted for in the rules. Yes. You're supposed to mark where you are and where your ball is so that you don't get the free boy, 280 yards.

Garrett, you've been a pump and iron this, this winter. 

Yeah. 

I would get 215 yards. 

Let's talk about passing competitors. Sometimes you know, we do our best when we organize these events to make sure that the fastest players are going out first so that there's no passing necessary. However, passing happens. Sometimes, you have a bad round and the person behind you is having a career day, and then that can result in passing.

So, there there's a four step process. If you intend to pass somebody, you first signal by yelling four, as loudly as you can, to the player you intend to pass. When that player hears the signal, they move to the side, to a safe spot.  And then when the passing player is in motion, here's what I'm reading, the player being passed may also proceed. So that is basically you're, you're running in parallel for about one hole, but then the passing player has to be allowed to take the lead

Yeah, most of us are fairly chill about this but we need to have rules to make sure that this is enforced. But generally most of us are chill about this. But we do need it to take place within the one whole time span. Cause the doing it for two or three holes is pretty complex. It gets awkward. It does delay someone inevitably, if not both people. And

and it introduces safety concerns.

Exactly. Yeah. Someone's, you know, 50 yards ahead every single time. That's not safe. The volunteer or the player. So yeah, we need this to take place within a one hole time span.

So by the next hole, it needs to be clearly separated.

Section 10 is labeled uncertainty and what all it means is if you are uncertain of the rules or procedures Basically, act as though you have a lost ball or an out of bounds situation, take a drop, and continue playing. Would you add anything to that?

No, I wouldn't.  I mean, it could be maybe ball stuck in the tree or yeah, just if you're not what to do on that.  Communicate with your scorekeeper that, Hey, a whole number four, I think it was a six, but, we'll check it out later to get that corrected before you post that score. 

All right. Now we get to the fun part tie breakers. So this would have come into play, for example, in the 2018 world championships, which were won by one second. 

So the story here is it's been told to me, and I agree with this is that there can be issues with clocks and timers.

And if there's only a five second difference between two competitors, we would not call that a conclusive win. So for that reason, we've introducing official tiebreaker language. Now. The leader on paper will be allowed to decide the tiebreaker format, and they're allowed to choose from what's called hole by hole or continuous play, or as I would call them, sprint golf versus endurance golf.

So in the sprint golf format, hole by hole, you start a stopwatch, play hole one, stop the stopwatch. Garrett, you would start hole one, finish hole one, and then we would reset for hole two. So there would be a break in between holes. Now we call that the sprint golf format. We we play that for three holes.

Whoever has the lowest speed golf score over those three holes, that person's the winner. Alternatively, in the continuous play format, we start the stopwatch. You play a hole one, hole two, hole three, stop the stopwatch. I do the same. And then we compare scores. Garrett is, even if he's only one second faster, Garrett is the winner.

Yep. The people who qualify for the playoff and then the winner after that is the winner no extra playoff on top of that, who knows how long that could go in that scenario. 

All right. You've come to the end of the 2024 rules of speed golf. Thank you so much Garrett Holt for helping us walk through this all. I if anybody has any follow up questions on these rules wherever you're watching or listening to this, please leave a comment or reply or send an email to Adam at speed golf dot baby, send it to scott Dolly golf at gmail.

com. And we will get your questions answered to the best of our abilities.

Yeah. Thanks for having me on Adam. I'm very excited for the  2024 U S tour with the majors coming up. Put in a little plug for the Missouri open  memorial day weekend, got a fun summer of speed golf in the U S and a really fun way to cap off the season with world 

  All right, speed golf family, we've got to hit the road. Thanks as always to producer Nico, who puts the finishing touches on these episodes. We hope you're feeling tired, but satisfied after today's effort. You're fired up about speed golf too, and that you'll join us next time 

don't forget to subscribe to speed golf baby on YouTube and until next time, keep it in the short grass. Bye.