With the European Tour recently debuting new pace-of-play protocols, there’s been a lot of talk about speeding up – talk that Sebastian Söderberg clearly has taken to heart.
Teeing off first in the final round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and playing solo, the 29-year-old Swedish pro completed 18 holes in 97 minutes. The tour called it the fastest round in its history.
Sprinting between shots along with his brother and caddie, Jasper, Söderberg shot 75 at Emirates Golf Club and finished 70th out of the 71 players who made the cut. He averaged 5 minutes, 23 seconds a hole and completed his round before 9 a.m. after teeing off at 7:10 a.m. local time.
“I just tried to play as fast as possible,†Söderberg said. “I felt like it would be a fun thing to do and I didn't necessarily think it would hurt my game too much at some points. I said we’ll try and go as fast as possible the first five or six holes but I took a little time on putts and all the shots and just ran in between. I played quite well in the beginning so we just kept going.
“I struggled the last two days so I figured it wouldn’t really hurt my game just to jog in between and not think too much. I think 3 over (par) is not bad, with zero fairways hit.â€
Söderberg credited his brother for performing the heavy lifting.
“The important thing was my brother on the bag,†he said. “He had the big job because he ran non-stop pretty much. He said that he was excited about it this morning and that helped. He said, ‘Let’s do it.’
“We talked before. Whenever it was a par-3 he would go up there and wait there. On par-4s and -5s he would just leave the appropriate clubs.â€
Jasper added: “There were some tough spots out there and running for a while. I had to catch my breath a little bit but now I’m feeling pretty good about it.â€
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