The craziest records in golf - The Glenmuir Journal

The world’s largest golf ball pyramid

Those of us who grew up with Roy Castle, Sheryl Baker and the Record Breakers TV show will have fond memories of gigantic men, fast tap dancers and amazing flying feats. Golf didn’t often make it onto the show, which is a shame as the sport has a number of interesting and odd records.

While there are a number of professionally set records like highest career earnings, we’re more interested in the off-centre feats set by everyday people who are as passionate about the game as we are.

Here are 6 of our favourite records…

Biggest golf lesson

Every month, the wonderful El Camaleón Golf Course in Mexico (which was featured in our World’s Strangest Golf Courses article) hosts a free lesson for anyone that wants to attend as part of the Golf PAra Todos (Golf for all) scheme. They usually get a few hundred people turning up.

But in January 2011, an amazing 1,153 appeared. And while a number of them dropped out or failed to take part in the lessons, they still clocked up a record 1,073 participants.

Most golf birdies in 12 hours

How many birdies did you manage on your last round? A couple? Maybe, three or four if you were on top form. Let’s assume you could, in theory, manage three rounds in 12 hours, that’d be – at most – 12 birdies. Call it 15 for good measure. So, what’s the record? 93! That’s nearly 8 birdies an hour.

The UK’s own Alexander Sandeman managed the amazing feat at the Sandy Lane Golf Club in Barbados earlier this year. The record breaking attempt was held to raise money for The Barbados Children’s Trust.

And if you think it was maybe just good luck, you’d be wrong. It’s the second time that Mr Sandeman has broken the record.

Fastest round of golf (team)

Golf is a leisurely game. On a good day, you can stroll round the 18 holes in 4 hours – sometimes you might dwell on a hole longer to enjoy the view or take in the perfect drive you’ve just pulled out of nowhere.

But for the golfers at Farnham Golf Club in Surrey, golf’s not a leisurely walk - it’s a sprint. They set the record for the fastest round, completing 18 holes in just 13 mins and 42 seconds. Less than a minute a hole.

How did they manage this? Well, they did cheat a bit. They placed 80 golfers across the course. One golfer drove onto the fairway and then whoever was nearest the ball when it landed stepped up and took the next shot, and so on until all 18 holes were done.

The event raised over £1,500 for the local air ambulance service.

Largest ball pyramid

Not one for the shaky of hand – or the mischievous mind-set who would be tempted to see what would happen when the ball at the bottom corner was removed.

Ball pyramids have long been used to display golf ball manufacturers’ wares but this one – created by young students in Texas – took it to record-breaking levels.

Golfing’s own man-made wonder included over 16,000 balls. It was created as part of the local elementary school’s First Tee program, which aims to build character among children in the area while learning to play golf or finding themselves in a golf setting.

Cal Shipman, the man behind the pyramid, initially planned one with just 2,000 balls – but decided that wasn’t big enough.

The world’s largest golf ball pyramid

Longest 'usable' golf club

Usable in this sense is used very loosely. While the 20ft long club created by Michael Furrh in Texas (another Texan!) has been used to drive a ball over 55 metres, I’m sure the pros aren’t lining up to include one in their bag.

After all, can you imagine the size of the bag you’d need to store it? See it in action here.

Quite the swing – the world’s longest playable club

Fewest golf strokes to complete a marathon distance

And finally, the answer to the question no golfer has ever pondered - how many strokes would it take to cover a course the length of a marathon.

As is the case with many of these records, the crazy people behind it have done the seemingly impossible in aid of charity.

Jake Sand, who didn’t find any bunkers, took 494 strokes to travel the 26 miles. Meanwhile, fellow record breaker Shawn Gobden did the same course in the fastest time, completing it in 9 hours 57 mins 25.14 seconds, 11 seconds faster than Jake.