Golf's fastest round records: Bit of fun or complete nonsense?

Sebastian Soderberg used to be best known for winning the European Masters, now he’s known as the player who jogged his final round in Dubai in 96 minutes. Which was thought to top the European Tour fastest round records until Peter Baker claimed that he and Paul Way got round in 72 minutes at the Lancome Trophy. Whatever the case we debate both sides of the coin and whether it’s serving any purpose?

Related: Soderberg plays fastest round in European Tour history
Related: Baker scoffs at European Tour’s claims

‘Would he really have been much better off playing at a normal pace?’

If you’re DFL and have very little chance of finishing much higher than that, writes Alex Perry, then why not have a bit of fun? Soderberg said he’d always wanted to try jogging while playing.

Would he really been much better off playing at a normal pace? His final-round 75 was his joint-second best of what was a pretty miserable week for the Swede, so probably not.

Let’s say he had taken a bit more time and shot a level-par 72, it still would have only made him an extra $1,500 or so – pocket change to guys like our Seb.

We’ve spent our whole lives whinging that people play golf too slowly, now we actually have people finding negatives in someone playing too quickly.

The European Tour will have loved it given it was in the second week of their new pace-of-play policy – and if their social media output was anything to go by they absolutely did. And so did I. Chill out, yeah?

97 minutes. 75 shots. 😅

Sebastian Söderberg on the fastest round in European Tour history.#ODDC pic.twitter.com/4J4TxH9wV1

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) January 26, 2020

‘What’s the point in fastest round records?’

There are lots of questions to be asked here, writes Mark Townsend, like why didn’t his caddie take a carry bag out with him? How did the scorers keep up? How did he get to -1 after his first five holes? What were his splits for each nine? What is the hardest part of playing this quick? How is his caddie, who is also his brother?

But the big one is what was the point of all this? There’s enough people talking a load of generic rubbish about slow play and now we get hordes of punters screaming from the rooftops things along the lines of, ‘Ooh look what can be done if you put your mind to it!’

I’ll be accused of being ‘Old Man Media’ for not giving a monkey’s about this type of story but I think it’s making a bit of a mockery of things.

Why not just play quick and then make a song and dance about what can be done?

That would give us a minuscule insight into how fast a tour player could get round. They’re all good enough to score well whichever way they play the game so focusing on his score reflects nothing meaningful.

Back in the day players like John Daly would get a kicking for racing round on the Sunday of the Open. Like Soderberg he had nothing to play for but everyone was out for him for not showing enough respect.

Now we’re all so obsessed by players playing quickly Soderberg is some sort of anti-hero.

What did you think of Soderberg’s antics? Let us know in the comments below or join the conversation on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.