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This Week in Speedgolf | Hot Takes Edition
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Howdy speedgolf family! You're reading This Week in Speedgolf. It's a slow news week, but since when has that ever stopped a speedgolfer? Here's what's happening in speedgolf this week. 🔥 Adam's Speedgolf Hot TakesWhile I'm eagerly awaiting the first European Speedgolf Open (new teaser) and the Rob Hogan TGL Indoor Speedgolf Spectacular, here are a couple of hot takes to spice up your Thursday. Or Friday -- I see you there across the International Dateline! 🌶️ HOT TAKE: 36 Hole Stroke Play will NOT be the format for Olympic speedgolf (if/when we get there)Why is 36 hole strokes + time the default format for championship events? Tradition! It makes sense. We want to reward great golf, played as fast as possible. How do you measure great golf? You count the strokes. Simple as that. It jives with golf tradition, too. How do the pros play slow golf? They play for multiple days and count up the strokes. There's initial chaos, but a champion emerges. Simple as that. But there’s a problem. If we think about global appeal, we’re talking about the viewing audience. The hundreds of thousands of fans we keep predicting will suddenly tune in and watch speedgolf. When you think about the mythical “speedgolf-curious viewer”, think carefully. Picture the guy who watches every PGA Tour stop. He’s watching the Rocket Mortgage Classic. He’s watching the FedEx St. Jude. He grudgingly tunes in to the WM Open (though he finds the excessive partying disrespectful to the game). You think THAT GUY is going to watch speedgolf? Get real. The mythical masses we picture someday watching speedgolf on the NBC livestream are NOT traditional golf fans. The Olympics are about spectacle! What grabs attention every four years? It falls into two buckets:
Go ask a TV producer what they want to put on the air. They don’t want a leaderboard that shifts by 3 seconds per hole, where the competitors have no idea where they are in the standings, not to mention too focused to say anything interesting on camera. That’s the opposite of real-time tension. You might as well watch the Microsoft Excel World Championships. What format will actually work? It needs to be fast, with easy-to-follow scoring. To me, there are precisely two formats that will work. Match Play. Seed the players into a bracket and play 1v1 (teams or individuals). Everybody knows how a bracket works. Scoring is simple: I win the hole, I’m up one. Every hole has a winner. Plenty of room for personality and trash talk in between holes. Knockout. Simple premise. We saw its precursor at the Irish Open. Four golfers take the tee and play one hole simultaneously. Slowest player is eliminated. Repeat until you have one winner. I love 36 hole stroke play. It’s intense, but also peaceful. It’s probably the most accurate test of a speedgolfer’s skill. And when I think about the media side of speedgolf, I can’t help but think its days are numbered. 🌶️ HOT TAKE: Speedgolf tournament purses are too BIGThe Western States 100 mile endurance race is 100x bigger than the Speedgolf World Championships. It attracts millions in sponsor dollars. You can’t just sign up for this race – you have to have your name picked from a lottery or win a big time qualifier. In many ways, it’s what the US Speedgolf Open can aspire to be when it grows up. Do you know what you get for winning Western States -- the biggest, most prestigious trail race in America? You get a statue of a cougar (estimated value $200). Niche sports like ours are about stories and bragging rights. The PGA Tour has giant cash prizes because they have giant TV deals. If you’re traveling to a speedgolf tournament to win money, I say you’re in it for the wrong reason. If our goal is to grow the sport (and that’s all I hear from the biggest names in the game), then let’s think about how we can put that money to better use. Giving $400 to the top 2 finishers (the same players who have been around since the beginning of time) is not going to move the needle. Here's what I'd do if they gave me the purse strings... Travel stipends. Get 3 talented juniors to the event. Bring in D1 college players. Fly in an international player with clout (this one’s already happening 😁). More interesting players means you might be able to… Get actual fans to attend. Sell tickets for $10 (better than free, because people will actually value the ticket). Run Facebook ads to get locals interested. Rent a grandstand and have a crowd around the 18th green. The players will play harder. The fans will love them for it. And those fans on the 18th green will look great in your… Media Blitz. Hire a Gen-Z kid with an iPhone to make 100 Instagram posts of the event. Make sure every competitor has high quality photos of themselves they can post to social media. Don’t just make a hype video – make a trailer, a music video, a broadcast, stats for the nerds. Every tournament has hundreds of stories, but right now the only place they’re shared is over an electrolyte beverage after the round. Every one of us invests some of our hard-earned money into this game. I want to see us put our money where our mouth is – by using it to grow the game. $2,000 can pay one person, one time — or it can bring in ten new players, a hundred new fans, and ten thousand views. The choice is ours. Amy Linton takes top Wairarapa sports honor
Amy Linton added another trophy to her growing collection, claiming the Supreme Award at the 2024–25 Wairarapa Times-Age Sports Awards on Tuesday night. The Speedgolf World Cup Champion was recognized in front of a packed house at the Wairarapa Events Centre, where she also took home Senior Sportswoman of the Year for her team victory alongside Liz McKinnon at Worlds in Japan. Read more: Linton's hit and run wins Supreme Award -- thepost.co.nz Linton called the moment “really exciting” and said it felt amazing to see her sport recognized on such a big stage. The Kiwi star’s rise has mirrored the sport’s growth in New Zealand — and she’s now firmly leading the charge. In April, she ended McKinnon’s 10-year unbeaten streak at the NZ Speedgolf Open, though that win fell just outside the awards' date range. She’s staying focused: with the 2026 Worlds headed to Auckland, Linton says defending her title on home turf is “goal number one.” Her 2025 season kicks off this November with the Taranaki Open, Carterton Open, and NZ Open all on the calendar. And while she still plays traditional golf off a one handicap, her heart belongs to the faster game: “It’s the way of the future,” she said. Upcoming Events
It's getting hot in hereWhat are YOUR speedgolf hot takes? Shoot me an email and let me know. Maybe I'll feature yours in an upcoming edition of This Week in Speedgolf. Adam -- 👕 Buy Merch → https://speedgolf.baby/store |
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Speedgolf baby, let's go! Follow speedgolf news and improve your own game by learning from the best speedgolfers in the world.
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