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Watch foursomes of European Tour stars try to break a world record for fastest hole
How do you speed up the pace of play in pro golf? Simple. Just change the object of the game.
This entertaining new video from the European Tour shows just how fast these guys can play when they're motivated to do so. In the clip, three foursomes attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the fastest hole in golf. The attempts took place on Valderrama Golf Club's par-5 fourth hole (It had to be a 500-yard or longer hole to count) ahead of this week's Spanish Open there. Here's how it played out:
As you can see, Team France (Raphael Jacquelin, Alex Levy, Romain Wattel, and Gregory Havret) shattered the mark, halving the previous record of 68 seconds with their birdie that took just 34.8 seconds to complete. The key was Levy's brilliant long-iron approach shot that set up an easy two-putt birdie.
Of course, it would have been tougher if all the players had to start from the tee instead of waiting in the fairway or on the green to hit their next shot. Or, if they didn't get to use a cart, although in the case of Team France, that didn't matter since they only needed four shots -- one from each player on the team -- to get it done.
Team Denmark finished second with a time of 49 seconds. And Team Spain, despite getting a pep talk from Sergio Garcia before starting, finished a distant third at 1:18, and made the contest's lone bogey. That blemish came thanks to a frantic Garcia finding the water hazard guarding the front of the green with his approach shot. At least, this time, he has a great excuse.