Soderberg smashes European Tour’s fastest round record
For most players, a solo tee time on the final day of a tournament offers some time for reflection and often to try and find something in their game to avoid sitting bottom of the pile the next week. But for Sebastian Soderberg things were a little different at the Dubai Desert Classic. The Swede decided to jog between shots and now holds the record for the fastest European Tour round.
Soderberg and his caddie also spent little time deliberating over shots and he bettered the previous best time – 1 hour 59 minutes set by Thomas Pieters last year – by a whopping 23 minutes.
Soderberg’s round took 1 hour 36 minutes and included one birdie and four bogeys for a 3-over 75 – his joint second best round of the week.
- Is it actually the fastest? Peter Baker’s not happy…
Time to break records … Sebastian Soderberg crushes the record for fastest round on the @EuropeanTour during his final round at @EmiratesGC #MadeForGreatness #ODDC pic.twitter.com/kN7JwzSO4U
— OMEGA Golf Dubai (@OMEGAGolfDubai) January 26, 2020
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“I always wanted to jog and play as fast as I could,” Soderberg said. “I’ve struggled the last two days so I figured it wouldn’t necessarily hurt my game to jog in between and not think about it too much. I think 3-over is quite good with zero fairways hit.”
Jasper Soderberg, Sebastian’s younger brother and caddie, had his work cut out on Sunday and missed many putts due to him going ahead and getting ready for the next hole.
He said: “Coming up the last was kind of hard, I had to give it my all but I’ve got my cardio in for the morning so that’s good.”
It will be music to the ears of the European Tour officials, who began their new pace of play policy in the early events of 2020.
The fastest round of golf recorded on the PGA Tour is held by Wesley Bryan who completed his final round at the 2017 BMW Championship in just 1 hour 28 minutes while shooting 69.
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Joe Hughes
Tour editor covering men's golf, women's golf and anything else that involves the word golf, really. The talk is far better than the game, but the work has begun to change that.
