05: Missouri Speedgolf Open Preview w/ Scott Dawley

  📍  📍 Warning. The speed golf baby audio experience contains radical ideas about how fast you can play golf and how good you can feel while you play. If that's not your thing, there are a thousand golf podcasts you can listen to instead. So go find one of those and now speed golf baby, let's go. I'm Adam Lorton, executive producer of speed golf baby, and welcome to the speed golf baby audio experience, where we are all about speed golf, the faster, fitter variant. Of the beautiful game of golf,  whether you wear a hat or a headband on the course, please subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you're listening to. Also rate and review us. It's a par five, five stars for speed golf, baby. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the speed golf baby YouTube channel, that's where the magic happens. And finally, if you're speed golf curious, get the speed golf starter pack for free at speed golf dot baby slash start.  Last time on the speed golf, baby audio experience, you learned the official 2024 rules of speed golf with PGA pro Garrett Holt  on today's episode.

We've got a major championship preview talking about the Missouri speed golf open coming up Memorial day weekend at Horton Smith golf course in Springfield, Missouri, joining me on the hype train. It's Scott Dolly director of speed golf, USA owner of the world record, which he set at this very golf course. So synchronize your watches people, because we're about to step up to the starting line. And now Scott Dolly. Scott, welcome to the show

Adam. Good to be back, man.

major championship preview. And this marks 10 years of speed golf in Springfield, Missouri. A long time speed golf hotspot. So I wanted to open the show by asking you to recount a couple of your favorite early memories from Springfield speed golf. 

Absolutely. I didn't get a chance to go to Springfield. I wanted to, for the longest time. My first chance to go was in 2019. Back then they actually hosted the event at Rivercut. Rivercut had a flat front nine, kind of along the river.

The back nine got up into like these little tiny hills and stuff. Great golf course. I just remember  the community aspect of it. You know, finishing up on the 18th and, and a lot of the people in Springfield I'd never met before now, of course, we're all friends. They come out every year.

I've seen them for five, six years in a row, but back then it was just great to be welcomed into this local speed golf community there in Springfield. That was great. Then of course we hopped over to Horton Smith. In 2020 that was the year when I played some really, really good speed golf. And I, I felt like I lipped out five or six putts. 

And there's a video that Nick Evans did pink streak speed golf. It was the 2020. Front nine and back nine. And actually, I believe that was the first fully recorded speed golf round. Kind of  preemptive of, of speed golf baby. But I think that was the first fully recorded speed golf round.

And I mentioned at the end of that round, I think I shot 72 or something like that. And, and I said, man, I know this sounds crazy, but I could have shot 66 today. There's a world record out there. Well, one year later, I went out the first round shot 66 and 42 minutes and shot the world record. And you know, so I felt like that was just kind of planting the seed from a year before.

It was really cool to see that turnaround. And for that to happen, I've got nothing, but good memories of that golf course. It is out there for the taking, but that doesn't mean that it's easy. Cause you can, you can very, very easily get yourself, you know, behind a tree, you can get yourself out of position and then you're struggling to make par.

So yeah, Garrett's done a great job there. Andy Dalton is another, long time member of that community. And just, just a great experience.  I hope everyone who plays speed golf gets a chance to go to Springfield one year.

I agree. You got to make the pilgrimage to former speed golf USA ambassadors of the year. Garrett Holt and I shared the award in 2022, Tim Shrike last year. Springfield, definitely a hotspot for speed golf. 

Another memory of mine that I'm I'm not going to be quick to forget Rob Hogan closing in the back nine in the 2022 U S open. I mean, it looked like he was just out of the tournament because he had shot one. What? 85 in the first round. And you know, of course he was going fast, but it was like the opposite of what you would expect in a normal speed golf tournament.

Usually as the golfer, you shout out your scores to the scorekeeper. Hogan was going so hard. He was going to 10 intensity. His scorekeepers were yelling the scores to him.

That's crazy. Yes. You know, I was on the receiving end of his great back nine. Actually, I, I had a pretty good start to, to that final round that day. I went Eagle.  And, you know, I had the tournament in my hands. We've talked about this before, so I see it from a little bit of a different angle. But at the same time, you know, it's great to see Rob come over.

We had international participation. He had already won the French open. He'd already won the British open. He'd already run the one, the Irish open. And it just almost seemed inevitable. And I gave him my best shot. I know the other guys out there, Nick and Jason were working their hardest. And Hogan came through with the win.

But it's been great. Pretty cool to see his name on the US Open trophy. I'll tell you that it's never going away. 

Iconic performance from the big bearded Irishman. And to think that that's not even close to, you know, top five career highlights for him. 

Exactly. I kind of want to have him following me around one day and every time I mess up, he can just go, no, no, no, no, no.  Really put me in my place. 

Yep. I love that. Let's talk about world's qualifying. So the stakes are a little bit higher this year than they would just be at a traditional Missouri speed golf open because people who compete in the open division can earn qualifying points toward world championships.

Now, only if you're qualifying for team USA, the British speed golfers are going to have a different qualifying system, I'm sure.  Let's take a look at that. So we've got our preseason leaderboard your preseason top four qualifiers right now, Jason Hawkins will not be in attendance at Missouri. Scott Dolly will be there. Nick Gooden will be there. Expect Nick Gooden to post a score. He's been so close so many times. 

Listen, I gotta say something about Nick. He has not had, he has not had that round yet for him. And it's like, he's so close. He shot 32 on the front nine one year. And that's his home course. So he hasn't gotten the fullness out of his game. He hasn't had that round where everything comes together.

And I feel like it's just a bullet train coming at us at some point. He's going to let it go. He's going to let it ride. And he could shoot the world record to be honest with you. 

Well, right. And  Nick Gooden. He just did a marathon like three weeks ago or something like that. So he is going to be in probably the best aerobic shape that he's been in a long time. 

The remainder of the world's qualifying leaderboard for now, Jonathan, Jeff, Steve Vansel, Garrett Holt would normally be playing, but we'll be out with injury this year, West cup, Nick Evans, Luther Olson, Luke Granallo, and somebody has got to be the last place on the leaderboard.

It's Adam

Come on, Adam.

Let's go. 

Time to climb, baby. Nice.

It's climbing time. Indeed. I ran Hills this morning as a matter of fact. All right. So that's your world's qualifying picture. The top performers from the open division they will get their two scores on the leaderboard for now, and they'll be able to update as they produce better rounds throughout the year. Your top four scores from any of the seven qualifying major rounds. So there'll be, two rounds in Missouri, two rounds in Kentucky and three rounds at the brutal U S open. We have coming up in New York. 

One more storyline from Missouri. We've got YouTuber Josh Mayer, who's going to be playing in this speed golf tournament, 115, 000 YouTube subscribers.

This guy, makes a full time living, making golf, YouTube videos. And Scott, you're going to meet up with him tomorrow. Is that right? 

Yeah, that's right. We, we talked at the beginning of the year and he said, Hey man, I want to come play. Like, I think a great challenge for me. I, he had some sort of injury leg injury that he was recovering from. And he's like, I've wanted to do this for much longer, but I was injured. I want to train and then I want to come out and play in one of your events.

What do you think would be good? He's up in Dallas. And I said, come up to Missouri, man. It'd be  a great time. So he has been training with, along with his wife over the spring. And he, what he wants to do is come down and just get a quick nine hole training session with me before. Yeah. So he has a better idea of what he's doing when he goes out in the tournament.

So he will be there. He's going to play 18 holes on the Sunday of the event, first round. And I'm really looking forward to it. He obviously is going to have a blast. It's going to be amazing. And I think the way that he films his content, it's going to attract. A lot of his viewers to be more interested in speed golf and possibly even looking for ways for them to be able to play.

Well, you know what I love about this? So much of the speed golf you see on YouTube or in social media is like people want to try it for the first time. And so they appropriately, they try to bite off a manageable chunk. And so usually they play a single hole. Now, I actually think that's a terrible idea.

A single hole. Like, all right, here's a pop quiz for you, Scott. What's harder  running a 400 meter or running four miles? 

yeah. I mean, for me emotionally, I don't mind running 400 meters, but yeah, I think, I think for most people maybe it's the other way around.

Yeah. I would say a 400 is way harder because like you, if you're going to do anything, it's gotta be like 10 intensity. Whereas if you're running a A four mile race, even that, like it's going to be a threshold effort, but it's not going to be like the sort of thing where your legs are absolutely like burning on fire afterward.  And so, you know, that's the difference between running 18 or running nine and running a single hole. if you're going to beat a partner running a single hole, you had better be like absolutely balls to the wall as opposed to  an 18 hole or a nine hole effort. It's a jog, you know, it's a more intense jog if you're in competition, but it's still a jog at the end of the day. And so I love this for Josh and for the audience because they're going to get to see, the ups and downs and the joy of a nice, pleasant run in the park, as opposed to an all out sprint for one hole. 

Oh yeah. That's definitely a common misconception for people who have never seen speed golf is they just get a picture of Usain Bolt in their head, Or they, or they've watched, you know, good, good play, play one hole of speed golf, and it's an all out sprint. Makes sense. It's just one hole, but to think that that's what speed golfers are doing for nine holes or 18 holes is just pure wrong. I always tell my son Elliot when, whenever he wants to run a particular distance, let's say he wants to run a half a mile, you know, kids, they just start out going as fast as they can. They don't have a governor, and you have to tell them, Hey, look, you got to go half a mile.

So. Go at a pace where you can go at that pace for half a mile. Same advice we give to first time speed golfers is,  pick a pace that you're going to be able to get around nine holes. If you're playing nine holes or, or 18 holes and maintain that pace. But but yeah, for sure. It's it's a misconception amongst non speed golfers, but it'll be great  for him to be out there and to kind of show his world and his community, what it's like to play in a speed golf tournament. 

Absolutely. And we're going to do an abbreviated golf course preview here. I don't think it's necessary to preview all 18 holes of Horton Smith. Like you said, Scott, the golf course is pretty straightforward. What you see is what you get. Hitting fairways and greens is definitely the way to score, but we picked out a few featured holes where there may be some decisions you need to make off the tee or heading into the green, or just that are pivotal holes in your speed golf performance. I want to start with the very first hole, hole number one, a pretty gettable par five. Although fairway bunker on the left side, right in the landing area. How do you think about playing the first hole at Horton? 

I've been in that bunker too often, I will tell you that. And so I played there six times and I've been in the bunker, I think half, you know, two or three times. So that's going to take away the advantage of being able to make. on that hole. In my opinion, five is a bogey on that hole. It plays as a par five and that's great.

It can give you a really good mental boost on the first hole. If you play a smart drive to the right of the bunker, you've got something like eight or nine iron in, you know, anywhere, depending on how you hit your driver, anywhere between 1 60 and 1 40 in and it's a par five. So you've got to take advantage of the first hole.

And that's, what's so important. They're small, tiny green. It's still the original green from back when they built it. So it's just a tiny little round green. I love it. And it's got some undulation. You remember that chip? And I had that one year from behind the green. I mean, I landed my chip at the back of the green and it rolled 25 feet, you know, nice and slowly took a long time to get there.

So there's quite a bit of undulation from back to front, which is good. But definitely a hole that you want to start out with a three or a four. 

three would be nice. I agree with you. So  you can play the drive to the right. There's room to the right, but you're going to end up potentially in some long rough. And if you're in that long rough, you're not going to be able to hold the green. So you got to be thinking about like, I'm flying this maybe 15 yards short, you know, depending on what club I'm hitting. Something to put in the old mental calculator there the green is fast. Green is extremely small and Putting from the back of the green not your favorite place to put from. 

Yeah. 

All right. Let's skip ahead to hole number seven. Hole number seven is a short uphill par four with a very tight driving area, trees and OB on the left.

And there's a stand of trees on the right side about in the driver landing area. Okay. Okay. So, I mean, this is a place where you could go seven iron, seven iron potentially. How do you think about playing the seventh? Again, another very small green and even more pitched than the first green. 

Yeah, definitely the tightest hole out there. It's like a little runway strip, you know, with two tall stands of trees on either side. So and you're getting into that part of the round where you're starting to breathe heavy. You know you're settling into the round, your heart rates up at max. So you've really got to hone in there.

I've tried several different ways. Of course, I've tried driver and I've hit it left a couple of times. I've hit hybrid right down the middle of the fairway. And I've also hit hybrid a little bit, right. And the worst score I've ever made is when I hit it. Right. Because there's trees right in front of you.

And then I, I hit the tree and then I hit the tree again. You just have to make sure that you're in the fairway. Like you said, it might be this year. I may actually take something like a six iron and just make sure that I'm in the middle of the fairway, even if I'm hitting. A punch eight iron in or even if I'm hitting a really hard wedge and something like that, you've got to find the fairway.

That's the biggest thing. Now the green up on seven is very similar to the green on one. It's I believe it's the original green. It's very small round, perfectly round. It doesn't have as much undulation. So depending on where they put the flag, You know, if you aim for the middle of that green, if you aim for the middle of one green, you're not going to have more than 15 feet for birdie.

So that's a great strategy for you. Hit the middle of the green, hit the middle of the fairway, hit the middle of the green, try to make your birdie putt. 

Yeah. I think in my practice around, I'm going to attempt the low screaming cut off the T and see see where that gets me.

It's a good safe play. Yeah. Yeah, 

we're going to fast forward. Now you didn't mention this in the preview, but I want to talk about hole number eight. Eight. Cause whole number eight gives a lot of golfers fits.

It's a wide green, but not at all deep. So the, like the carry distance must be precise, especially cause there are two front bunkers that you have to carry. And maybe what a 25 yard window between them. So not a lot of opportunity for error. 

that's right. And again, it's, it's going to be a little bit different for everybody because of which iron. Which mid iron people take, you know, I've taken a seven iron out there before I've taken an eight iron. I've taken a nine iron. I've played with all three different clubs at this golf course. So it presents a little bit of a different challenge.

There may be people that don't bring enough club on that hole. So they really are looking to land it short of the hole in between those two bunkers. And then you've got a nice little chip up there. But you've got to avoid the bunkers, in my opinion. And I know this just sounds boring, but honestly, you know, right in between the bunkers, middle of the green, you will not have more than 15 feet.

It's a, it is a wider green, but all of the years I've seen it, they put the flag in like one of the, two positions or two or three positions that are somewhat close to the middle of the grain.

That's hole eight. Hole number nine is a downhill par five. Again, in the, maybe the four 60 range and before there was a, a gigantic tree on the right side.  Right where you want your approach shot to go through. If you miss the fairway a little bit to the right, that tree is now gone and so, I mean, it is bombs away on whole nine, correct. 

Yeah, nine runs opposite hole one. There's maybe 60 or 70 yards between them of just tall grass. And there used to be this massive tree, almost like the Eisenhower tree on 17 at, at Augusta, you know, which is now gone. And it's just, it's kind of a mirror image of that. So this big tree is gone now and that's, that's where the tee boxes would line you up every year. 

And you've got the road coming down the left hand side. So you don't want to be left. That's out of bounds been there, done that. But yeah, this is going to be great because you can essentially tee your ball up, you know, you're aiming right down the tee line and you can give it a big rip and you've got, you know, 40 yards on either side. So this is one you've got to take advantage on. 

While we're on whole nine, I want to talk about the approach shot. If you hit a great drive, the approach shot is straightforward, but if you're out of position a little bit there's some interesting stuff at play there, because if you play your approach to miss on the left side, then you've got a more level chip, but there's more trouble on the left because you bring the road, the out of bounds and there's like a ditch over there by the road that all comes into play.

If you're missing left, if you miss right at the green, then you might have to like go up to a tabletop green where you can't see the surface  on your third shot there. So how do you think about that approach? 

Yeah. I still feel I I'd always rather be hitting up to a green than to try and be chipping, you know, where it's running away from you. So I always favor the right side. I'm okay. Being in the rough there. My goal is to hit the green. If I don't, then my goal is to miss the green just off to the right. And then I've got a nice little chip up that Hill, the difficulty.

And I've had this before is when you've got maybe between 50 and 80 yards. And, and then you've got to, then you've got to try to stop that shot when you can't put much spin on it. So that becomes difficult, but I would just say on nine, yeah, you need to avoid the left side altogether. There's, there's too much room on the right.

Everything slopes from left to right, so play down the right side, hit a good chip up there, and you're gonna have, again, it's a small green, you're gonna have a chance for birdie.

All right. Yeah. So your landing spot is really kind of the front right corner of that green. If you land it there, then you, then you have a chance to an Eagle putt. But if you

landed in the middle of that green, you're probably off the back unless you are hit a real crispy one from the fairway. 

absolutely, yeah, you don't wanna be, yeah, you're not trying to fly the ball all the way to that green, it's gonna, if it lands short, It's going to get a nice hard bounce and roll up there.

All right. Now you're climbing the hill up to hole number 10. I, so I have a pet theory and Nick Gooden has never agreed to this, but my pet theory is so Nick couldn't shot that 32 in the 2022 us open on the front nine. My opinion is that he overcooked it on the transition from nine to 10 because it's a long uphill run to the 10th tee. And that is the easiest place to spike your heart rate on the whole golf course. 

Yeah. It's the longest transition you got to get from one corner of the golf course. And you, and you got to get past the clubhouse. You got to go through the parking lot. And so, yeah, you're definitely gassed. Again, we just talked about this by the time you get to seven, eight, nine.

You're fully in the round, aerobically speaking and you're getting close to starting to peak where then it just becomes, you know, trying to hang on. So, yeah, you do want to give it your best there because you can make up ground, honestly. A lot of people might take that a little bit easier, but if you can make up 10 or 15 or 20 seconds on everyone else by pushing it a little hard then you've got that par three on 10 facing you, so it's not like you've got to face a really tough drive. And it's a nice wide green on 10. So I tend to push it there a little bit. 

Yeah, my advice is the exact opposite. I say energy management all day, especially cause you're going to be running by people. Whenever I'm running by people, I always want to go fast and, you know, like show them I'm trying hard. That's the exact wrong mentality is like, it's like be in touch with your body, manage the energy and make sure you arrive at that 10th T ready to hit a great shot.

All right. We're skipping whole 10 straight ahead. Par three, we're going to hole number 11. Now

hole number 11, a what? A  As the crow flies, it's what, two 90 par four 

Yeah, it's a 290, 295, something like that. Under 300 yards for sure. A hole that requires the most strategy. I mean, there's the most strategic options on hole 11 more than any other hole out there. 

Garrett actually shared that there used to be kind of a marshy area at the front left of the green that's now going to be filled with rocks. So potential for more trouble going at that green and one  and a greater penalty, no matter what, if you miss the green short, 

Somebody who's had a lot of success with 11 is Nick Gooden. He's able to just launch driver over those trees. He's been over the green before chipping back.  He's one of the few people that I've seen that's had success with that. The two times I've taken driver, I've swiped it right. I've lost the ball.

I've made double bogey and it hasn't worked out. I've also hit driver left into the net and, you know, so I've had trouble there. So last year I hit six iron off of the tee and it worked out great. I had a little punch eight iron and to me, that's a safe play. You just want to hit it up to the top of the hill, leave yourself 150 or less.

And then you're coming down the hill with a big, nice green out there in front of you, usually a center pin, maybe a little bit back. So plenty of room. And again, definitely want to avoid the rocks now because you can't play out of those. So you're going to have to take a drop 

can't play out of the rocks going to have to take a drop. If you miss the green long, there's a, there's. There's kind of a backstop, but it's going to be full of that fuzzy rough. So your ball will get stuck in there and you'll be chipping downhill with the potential to just blast it past the flag. And you know, we hate that in speed golf, we hate that over and back, over and back.

That's a huge time waster. 

Yeah. I can see how people would want to, you know, maybe drive the green but hole 11 really just about making par both days. And if you make birdie, that's a bonus, but get out there, play smart, make par on 11. You got enough trouble going to 12 anyways. 

And now we're on to hold 12, hold 12. It, Appears to be a straightforward par three, but there is some subtlety to this green West cup in the last U S open there, five putted that green with a, there's an absolutely diabolical pin. We got Jason Hawkins on camera. He taps in for his bogey. He goes, I don't like that pin. 

There are, there's more than one pin on, in fact, almost, you know, no matter where you put that pin if you don't hit it real close to the pen, you're going to have some sort of wild, crazy shot. But yeah, you're right. Standing on the tee box, you're looking at it. It's 135 yards and there, there's a bunker in the back and there's a bunker on the right 135 yards.

You know, you're thinking little pitching wedge, but I'll tell you what, I've seen higher numbers on 12. Than any other hole out there. It's, it's absolutely crazy. You know, the year Rob won he's putting with his wedge, but he hit his first putt up to the hole and it  looks great. It's great. He's going to have, he's going to have two feet up the hill for par and the thing starts rolling backwards.

And about 20 seconds later, the ball has stopped rolling. He's got 15 feet for par. Rob knocks it up the hill, puts it in the hole and moves on. 

That moment actually was what solidified for me, how locked in Rob Hogan was in that 2022 U S open, because you know, what would I do if the ball were rolling back that slowly? I'd be looking at the camera. I'd be like, here you are. You seeing this? Like, can you believe this nonsense? His eyes are locked on the ball. He's not mad. He's not upset. He's just taking deep breaths and waiting for it to stop so he can hit his next shot. 

Well, I'm assuming this is a family friendly podcast, so I won't tell you what I would be saying if I had to go through what he went through. But yeah, just to see the composure, the patience, the determination, you almost knew he was going to make that putt as soon as the ball stopped rolling. And so it was cool to see him pull that off.

Now the ending of this, this version of amen corner is the par five 13th that follows up a gentle hill longer than the other two par fives, but still, you know, in the four, what? Four 84, 90 range. 

Yeah, you can, if you hit a good drive, you're again, you're, you're somewhere around 170 to 150 yards, something like that. 

Yeah. Now this one's interesting because there's plenty of room to the right, although it doesn't necessarily feel that way off the tee off the tee. You, you feel like you want to be cutting the corner. And I think that is a mental mistake. I think, I think you take advantage of the room to the right because there is a fairway bunker to the left. There's that stand of trees, there's the road. So there's plenty of trouble left. Do you want to avoid? And then there are kind of those mounds around the green. So yeah.  Unlike the other par fives really penalizes a, an approach shot that comes up short. 

Yeah. You can play 13 like you play one. In my opinion, that's the way that works. You want to make sure that you have the ability to run the ball up to the green. There's no reason why, you know, you don't want to be in that bunker because if you're in the fairway bunker, it's the same thing as one.

You've kind of ended your chances of, you know, Getting up on the green and two and having an easy birdie putt. So I've been in the bunker. I've been in the green side bunker plenty of times. It's an easy bunker shot. You can get up and down from there. Pretty easy. I've made birdie from there. And even if you go long, so let's say, let's say you try to run something up there and you, and you run it a little bit long, it's a flat green.

It's there's just really no trouble around the green. And so that's the number one thing is avoid the bunker on the left. And just give yourself something up around the green. Give yourself a chip for Eagle. Try to get up and down. If you hit the green, obviously great. But this is really your last chance at making an easy birdie on a par five.

The rest of the round is just, is just marching back and forth as you had head back to the clubhouse. A bunch of par fours in a row.

Yeah. Five par fours in a row to close it out. And the only subtlety I would note here is that on each of those par fours, the landing area is outside of your view from the T. And so one thing I've gotten caught on is I hit a drive and I'm like, Hey, that's good enough, definitely findable.  They were not always findable because I wasn't watching carefully to see the exact line my ball came down. So if I'm giving you one piece of advice on the final five holes of Horton Smith,  Keep a close eye on the line, your ball takes on the drive so you can find it. 

Yeah. And when you're in the practice round, also make sure you get a, get a good idea of how far out your ball is going to be because you can find the line. But like on, you know, 16 before I've, I've bomb drives out there just a little bit down the right side of the fairway and it's got a little bit of the canter to the right, and it'll go out into the rough.

And I've, I've spent again, you know, 20, 30 seconds looking for a smash drive and I've never found it. So I think it's because I wasn't looking far enough out, but yeah, those, those last five, it's a March, you got to try to hit the fairway. Definitely keep your eyes open for it. If you're, if you're in the rough, cause that rough can be thick. And. Hopefully you've got a good scorekeeper with you. 

Absolutely. All right. That concludes the golf course preview. Now, Scott, before we go, I'm going to say baba booey.  Got a couple of unsolicited comments from the gallery. Had a comment from a guy named Lee Stoneman. Lee says the final whole rule that is the, the, our addition of finish lines is ridiculous. Why in a game where every second counts, would you not make the finish just when the ball hits the cup? Mine 

Mm-Hmm. . Hey, that's a great question and we've actually done both ways. We normally, in Missouri we have finished when the ball is, is hold. However, because of this format, we really want to emphasize. The running side of the sport as well. And so it also makes for when we can have the finish line closer to the official scorekeepers where they're standing on that line, we can make sure that we are right, not just down to the second.

But I mean the instant they crossed the finish line, you know, we've got good numbers. So we're trying to, we're trying to get around that a little bit more. I understand every second counts, but everyone's playing the same golf course and everyone has to finish out and run through the finish line. It's a short enough course where adding an extra 20 yards or 30 yards of running. There's still a world record out there on that golf course, in my opinion. 

too.  Publishing a lot of videos this year, I've gotten a hundred variations of this comment, but every time someone sees a speed golf video, they always say, this is how my wife wants me to play. What do you say to that, Scott? 

Yeah, that is how your wife wants you to play and it's how your kids want you to play. And it's how you should want to play. And I don't mean that every single time there is a time to go out and, you know, be in a cart with your buddies. Or like I go out and play with my dad, who's almost 80 years old, and I'm not trying to rush through that round.

I want to spend as much time with my dad as I can. And so I do that. But most of us are leading busy lives. Most of us love our families and we're not trying to escape them. We're trying to spend as much time with them as we can. And so to be able to combine things like you know, fitness and golf, and then not only that, but the social aspect, you know, to give, to get all three of those things in at one time early in the morning, before you start your day.

Man, it's really hard to argue with that. So  if you're somebody who doesn't want to be around your wife and kids, then I can understand maybe speed golf isn't for you, but for everybody else what a great alternative where you can keep your golf game alive. You can work on your health and fitness. You can do it with friends and then you can get back to your family. 

Amen. And by the way, if someone's gotten this far in the episode, odds are they're probably drinking the Kool Aid already. So I'm sure we're preaching to the choir, but you know, what choir you're welcome. 

Yeah. Yeah.

bait. We posted a video saying speed golf is the hardest sport in the world. What's actually the hardest sport. Now, while you're thinking about that, I'm going to remind our listeners to follow Scott at Scott, Dolly golf, also follow speed golf USA, both on Instagram. You can follow speed golf baby on Instagram at speed golf dot baby, or on YouTube at speed golf, baby. Get the speed golf starter pack. If you're speed golf curious, that's over at speed golf dot baby slash start. Oh, and buy a Q golf club using our referral link. And. Put a little wind in the sails of this independent speed golf pirate ship right here.  Now, Scott,  what is actually the hardest sport in the world? 

It's going to have to be some sort of like really super long ultra races. To me, that's just the toughest thing. You're going to be out there for eight or 10 hours. Or sometimes they're even out there for full days. So to me, that just requires the most willpower,  everything from your body aerobically and physically. 

Interesting. You could convince me to run an ultra marathon. You could not convince me to be in an MMA fight, not for any amount of money. 

Yeah, that would go quickly though. That would go pretty quickly. So I don't think it'd be too bad. I think you'd get knocked out right away and then it'd be over. 

those knockouts aren't great for the old cognitive

That's true.

or, or longevity. All right. Speed golf family. We 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 that you're fired up about speed golf too. And that you're going to join us next time for the Missouri speed golf open audio experience. Don't forget to subscribe to speed golf baby on YouTube and until next time, keep it in the short grass. Bye.​