Speedgolf Baby Awards, Optum Channel Golf Games

Watch now! The Speedgolf Baby Awards

The Speedgolf Baby Awards are live on YouTube and your favorite podcast app. Garrett Holt and I spent an hour celebrating the athletes, organizers, and creators who defined our year: breakout performances, clutch moments, brilliant innovations, and the people who quietly (or loudly) made speedgolf better.

Is it perfect? Never. I know I’ll hear from astute readers with corrections, omissions, and “how could you forget…” messages. There’s a tension between perfection and publishing, and we chose publishing.

This is inside baseball — we don’t explain who Carl Palmberg is or how he left his putter behind. But if you’re reading this newsletter, you’re already inside. These are your people. These are our stories.

Watch it. Share it. Argue with us about it. Roast us for our flubs and snubs.

But most of all, thank you for sending in your nominations. This only works because you care.

Team Rory Wins Speedgolf Relay — Optum Golf Channel Games

Wednesday night Team Rory beat Team Scottie 7-3 in a four-hole speedgolf relay at the Optum Golf Channel Games. My expectations were modest from the start, but wow! Top professionals playing relay speedgolf was sweet!

The format was dead simple. One point per hole for fastest time. Another point for lowest golf score. As expected, this was NOT continuous play — the teams reset after each hole. But one hole at a time is exciting because you know what time/score you have to beat.

Team Rory won the first two holes on time. Team Scottie clawed back on hole three with a fast par against Team Rory’s slow bogey, tightening things up. But the final hole carried double points, and that’s where Rory McIlroy decided to remind everyone why he’s Rory McIlroy.

An early highlight: on the opening hole, Rory was standing on the green waiting for his teammate’s approach. The ball landed in a greenside bunker. Without hesitating, Rory leapt into the trap and hit an absurdly fast bunker shot to four feet. Unreal.

But the clincher came on the final hole. Luke Donald found the fairway. Rory stepped up with the approach — a peninsula green, bunkers everywhere, pressure mounting — and executed the shot in 3.5 seconds. Dropped it to six feet. Shane Lowry converted the left-to-right downhill birdie, while Haotong Li stood by to clean up the par look if needed. Double points for the international team. Game over.

As speedgolf evangelists, what can we learn from this exhibition? Here are my tentative lessons learned:

Star power sells. “Duh”, I hear you saying. But seriously — imagine this was Team Patrick Cantlay vs Team Robert Macintyre. Actually, on second thought, I would watch that too. Maybe I just like professionally-produced speedgolf broadcasts.

Simple scoring. Standard speedgolf scoring would have made this event significantly worse in my opinion. Imagine the commentators saying “oooh, they made up 7 seconds there… Now Team Scottie either needs a birdie or a par in 42 seconds or less”.

Resetting between holes is more fun. If you’re doing continuous play, it’s way less meaningful to strike back with a birdie. Having the teams stop and reset after each hole allowed for reaction shots and trash talk. I continue to think that hole-by-hole match play is the most broadcast-friendly format.

We need a speedgolf event under the lights. Playing night golf made it feel more like a showdown and less like filler while we wait for the Tour season to start. Speedgolf under the lights would be electric. Literally.

If the normal golf audience saw what we saw, there’s more speedgolf on the horizon. I saw eight big-time pros — household names — making clutch shots under a different kind of pressure than they’re accustomed to: time pressure. Time pressure is a key ingredient of all great competitions. If the traditional golf audience saw what I saw, they’re going to want more.

A guy can hope, anyway.

PlaySpeedgolf Nonprofit Launches

PlaySpeedgolf, Inc. just became official. The newly formed nonprofit is led by Scott Dawley (Executive Director), Garlin Smith (Director of Partnerships), and Jason Hawkins (Director of Finance) — three names you already know if you’ve been paying attention.

Their 2026 focus? Outreach to multisport and running communities. Which makes sense — triathletes, ultrarunners, and endurance junkies are already wired for speedgolf. They just don’t know it yet. As a matter of fact, my primary athletic identity was bored triathlete before I found speedgolf.

The first move happens January 9-11 at the Endurance Exchange conference in Orlando, where 1,500 race directors, club leaders, and coaches will gather. PlaySpeedgolf will be there, making the pitch.

“We’re excited to introduce speedgolf to the broader endurance community,” said Garlin Smith. “We’re looking forward to connecting with race directors and multisport leaders to explore how speedgolf can complement existing race schedules.”

Translation: speedgolf as a triathlon off-season event? Speedgolf as a standalone race series? We’ll see what sticks.

playspeedgolf.com

What I’m watching/reading

• 🏃 DO IT ANYWAY by Casey Neistat — a tear-jerker that will obliterate your excuses.
• ⛳ Country Club Confidential — a free weekly newsletter serving up the stories that make private club life fascinating, funny, and occasionally scandalous.
• 🎯 The Harada Method — the 64-cell goal-setting framework that helped Shohei Ohtani become baseball’s #1 draft pick.
• ⛳️ Temecula looks nice this time of year — nice sizzle reel from Kyle Peyton.
• 🏌️‍♂️ Speedgolf Rob One Shot Challenge @ SoFi — sticks it inside 10 feet!

Upcoming Events

• Jan 8-9, 2026: Tee30 Morning Speedgolf at Oakleigh Golf Course (Melbourne, AUS) — pre-work laps built for negative splits. tickets
• Feb 7-8, 2026: Wairarapa Speedgolf Open (Masterton GC & Carterton GC, NZ) — two-day, two-course test of pace and precision. event update
• Feb 26, 2026: Tee30 Morning Speedgolf at Albert Park Golf Course (Melbourne, AUS) — flat, fast circuit ideal for first-timers. tickets
• Mar 21-22, 2026: North Island Speedgolf Open at Waipu Golf Club (NZ) — linksy dunes and coastal wind shape the race. event page
• Mar 26, 2026: Tee30 Morning Speedgolf at Oakleigh Golf Course (Melbourne, AUS) — dawn dash with optional 9 or 18. tickets
• April 2026: Wellington Speedgolf Open at The Morgans, Pauatahanui (NZ) — rolling hills and quick greens reward rhythm. event info
• Apr 18-19, 2026: New Zealand Speedgolf Open at Taupo GC — Centennial (NZ) — national title weekend on runnable parkland. tournament page
• Nov 3-6, 2026: Speedgolf World Championships at Whitford Park GC (Auckland, NZ) — the sport’s biggest stage returns to Aotearoa. announcement