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From Brussels with Live Scoring

A live leaderboard debuts in Belgium, Emily Mollard gets a new pair of HOKAs, and Sweden rehearses for Worlds.

Adam Lorton

Adam Lorton

Traverse City, MI · Issue №55 · Aug 22, 2026

Howdy speedgolf family! You’re reading This Week in Speedgolf.

Q: What has four legs and an arm?

A: A pitbull coming home from the park.

Here’s what’s happening in speedgolf this week.

Live pretty soon! BeNeLux Speedgolf Open

Filip Beerens poses beside a phone displaying the BeNeLux Speedgolf Open live leaderboard.

I spoke to Filip “SpeedStache” Beerens earlier today. I think he’s the Billy Mays of speedgolf. “BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!”

Some might say it’s enough to be hosting a national open for three countries when you have a three month old baby. SpeedStache says, “hold my NA beer!”

Sure, he’s hosted seven events already this year. But this is the big one! French and US Open champ James Hardy is playing. Scandinavian Open champ Will Robson is playing. 2024 Senior World Champ Marko Kuningas is playing. Irish Open champ Ville Heinonen is playing. Defending Belgian champ Olivier Guisset is playing.

So SpeedStache pulled out all the stops and collaborated with an enterprising young person at his club to develop his own live scoring app.

👉 Schemakkelijk — BeNeLux Speedgolf Open Leaderboard

Saturday tee times begin August 22 at 9:00 a.m. CEST in Brussels / Central Europe, which is 3:00 a.m. EDT in the eastern United States, 4:00 p.m. JST in Japan, and 7:00 p.m. NZST in New Zealand.

My first question was, “Why not just use SpeedScore?” It’s free. It has live scoring. It’s built for speedgolf. Filip’s answer surprised me.

He said he uses SpeedScore all the time. In fact, he’s one of the top course mappers in the world. But he was trying to optimize for a few problems SpeedScore doesn’t solve yet.

I think that last point is a real innovation (that SpeedScore developer Professor Chris Hundhausen could consider jotting down). This solves two problems.

Which golfer is this? Imagine you’re a scorekeeper standing on hole #3. In the memorably-named Schemakkelijk app, once a player finishes hole 2 they turn green on your device. That lets you know who to expect and how soon.

What if the player and the scorekeeper disagree? If you count 5 and the player shouts 4, that’s an issue that needs to be resolved. But in speedgolf, there’s no time for a polite discussion and recounting of strokes. In Filip’s app, you can enter ‘scorekeeper score’ and ‘golfer score’ separately so those are flagged for follow up (instead of — one imagines — scrawling something hastily on your arm with a Sharpie).

Filip and I agreed that in a perfect world, there would be one speedgolf app to rule them all. But until that one app has everything our hearts desire, we can innovate separately and (with any luck) spur the rest of the community to greater heights.

Be sure to check out the leaderboard on Schemakkelijk this weekend!

👉 Schemakkelijk — BeNeLux Speedgolf Open Leaderboard

🎥 WATCH: Kathy Leppard takes us inside a BeNeLux practice round

Emily Mollard: Is it the shoes???

Emily Mollard hits a golf shot beside a close-up of a HOKA shoe.

When Nike signed Michael Jordan, they ended up making a movie about it with Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

I like to imagine the HOKA executives were doing the same thing with Emily Mollard. Watching her win her fifth French Speedgolf Open title. Watching her shoot 69 on day 2 and beat every man in the field.

That’s what I thought when I saw this post, anyway.

But despite my vivid imagination, the true story is quaint and French. More like Ratatouille, I suppose. Emily reports that one of the HOKA founders lives in the same village and she’s known him for years. For now, it’s just a free pair of shoes, but there’s a chance it turns into more.

First, I think HOKA would be crazy not to sign the most talented female speedgolfer in the world.

Second, it’s customary in contracts like these to offer a cash bonus for big wins. So my advice to Emily (worth every penny she’s paying me) is to get the deal done before November.

Sweden’s Worlds dress rehearsal

A speedgolfer follows through on a shot on a sunlit course.

The Swedish Speedgolf Championship lands at Allerum Golfklubb this weekend, with all six players already selected for Sweden’s Worlds team in the field. Johan Larsson says a strong performance may still open another path to Auckland, but I’m mostly watching this as a readiness test for two athletes in particular.

Carl Palmberg is the two-time Swedish champ and Swedish national record holder. He’s coming off podium finishes at the Scandinavian Speedgolf Open and US Speedgolf Open. I’m looking for Carl to three-peat easily and show that he’s in world-class shape with 72 days ‘til Worlds.

Joakim Wikland is the European senior to beat right now. I ranked him #2 in my Six Months til Worlds Power Rankings (behind only New Zealand’s Damian Mills) and have seen no evidence to make me reconsider that. He’s the reigning European Open and Scandinavian Open senior champ. It looks like the Swedes have men’s and women’s national records, but no senior records. If Joakim goes low, maybe that will change this weekend.

WATCH: Joakim Wikland prepping for Swedish Open

Yes he Cann!

Daniel Cann appears on Sunrise, standing on a golf course.

Team Australia member and creator of Rip it and Run Golf Daniel Cann was featured on the local news morning show this week.

WATCH: Rip it and Run on Sunrise

I don’t know how it is down under, but here in America, the type of people who might play speedgolf do NOT watch the morning news. The morning news is something retirees put on in the background while they do the crossword puzzle. (Although as I type this, I recall that one of my best speedgolf friends found me because of a segment I did on the morning news. Might need to rethink that one.)

This is probably not going to cause a stampede of new speedgolfers at Eagle Ridge Golf Club, but this is a testament to what happens when you make something good consistently. People notice. Daniel has been posting 3x / week for the last 18 weeks and counting. The Rip it and Run vibe is all about early morning calm and making the point that there’s a better way out there for busy dads.

What was Scott Dawley thinking???

A speedgolfer walks away from a course carrying a blue golf bag.

Thanks to everyone who is supporting my trip to the Speedgolf World Championships in November. We are 72% of the way to our goal, and I just got some exciting news.

I’ll be teeing it up once again for the Red, White, and Blue! It’s an honor to put my game on the line so everyone can see the difference between a James Hardy and an average Joe.

If you want to put a little wind in my sails, buy me a coffee on Ko-Fi and help me get to New Zealand, where I’ll be publishing daily.

This week in speedgolf media

🏃 Joah Flietstra wins the U.S. Open Junior 8-10 division This kid is cooler than your average “coach’s kid”.

🌏 Jamie Reid previews a home World Championships The 2022 World Champion says New Zealand currently has the best speedgolfers in the world. I agree, but it wouldn’t hurt to do another set of power rankings soon, would it?

Upcoming speedgolf

Find your next tournament or meetup on Speedgolf Directory. Here’s what I’m looking forward to.

Keep it in the short grass »

- Adam

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