The fastest round of golf ever played isn't necessarily a title most golfers want.
While golfers often lament about pace of play, they see the game as leisure, not a sprint. However, there are pockets of golfers who want to play the fastest round of golf possible. In fact, there's a sport dedicated to playing golf as fast as possible called speed golf.
Steve Scott is lauded as the founder of speed golf, creating the concept in 1979. Three years later, on Dec. 2, 1982, Scott set a record for the fastest round of golf played on an 18-hole regulation golf course, completing the round at Miller Golf Course in Anaheim, Calif. in 29 minutes, 33.05 seconds.
The current Guinness world record for the fastest round of golf played, however, is set at 27 minutes, 9 seconds, done in June 1987 by James Carvill at Warrenpoint Golf Course, Co. Down, Northern Ireland on a course that is 6,154 yards in length.
Luke Willett claims the fastest round of Speedgolf at 36 minutes, 4 seconds, in May 2024, at the Horton Smith Golf Course in Missouri. That record is recognized by the International Speed-Golf Association (ISGA). The course was 6,312 yards in length.
The best score for a round of Speedgolf played by a woman has been done by Lauren Cupp, who set the record with a 1-under 72 in 50 minutes, 48 seconds to set the record during the 2021 Thirsty Owl New York Speedgolf Open Championship at Teugega Country Club in Rome, N.Y., on Aug. 8, 2021. In Speedgolf, a player's score is the combination of how many shots they took and how much time it took them to play the course, making Cupp's 122:48 the new record.
There's also a world record for the fastest-ever round with an unlimited number of players. On July 20, 2008, more than forty players lined up at Boyne Mountain Resort in Michigan. A player on the first of a three-hole loop teed off, with a player awaiting the tee shot to continue the green. The player on the green then putted the ball out. Immediately after that, a player on the tee of the next hole started the hole. This continued in the three-hole loop six times until the 6,096-yard course was completed in a staggering 7 minutes, 56 seconds.
A team from Iowa has claimed fastest round of golf for a team, however, in 2024, as the team played 18 holes as a group of 62 players in 10:51.64 at Jesper Park. The Guinness-recognized record, though, belongs to a group from South Africa who completed a round at Zwartkop Country Club in 11 min 55.32 seconds on July 31, 2022.
The fastest single hole of golf by a team was set at a European Tour stunt in 2016, with a French team of Raphael Jacquelin, Alex Levy, Gregory Havret and Romain Wattel, finishing a par 5 (it had to be a minimum of 500 yards for Guinness World Records) in 34.8 seconds, smashing the prior record of 68 seconds.
