- Details
-
Published on Thursday, 13 September 2012 22:46
For the second year in a row, WGN Radio's midday host John Williams and a large group of his listeners will gather at a suburban golf course and attempt to break the world record for the fastest round of golf. The Williams' led golfing event, entitled "King John & His Royal Court's Speed Golf World Record Challenge," will take place this weekend.
The Guinness World Record for the fastest round of golf (by more than one person*) is currently 7 minutes, 56 seconds. The record was set in July 2008 by another radio station and a group of its listeners, WJR-AM in Detroit, MI. After playing 50 rounds, WGN-AM's attempt at beating that Detroit radio station's record last October 1st fell short by a whopping 18 minutes and 17 seconds.
The second annual "King John & His Royal Court's Speed Golf World Record Challenge" will attempt to avenge last year's bitter loss and beat the over four year-old record.
The event will take place this Sunday morning, from 8:00am-10:00am at the same location as last year, the Carriage Greens Country Club in Darien (8700 Carriage Green Drive).
This year, John Williams has assembled a team of 200 listeners -- twice as big as last year. The group will play in a speed golf relay format. Golfers will be waiting at strategically assigned locations on the entire course -- at the tee boxes, along the fairways, and on the greens -- based upon their best club. The team will progressively hit the ball to each other as fast as possible. The timing starts once the opening tee ball is sent into the air. Golfers in the fairway then hustle to where the ball stops and advance it forward toward the green. Once the golfers on the green sink the putt, the player on the next hole immediately hits their tee shot and the process begins again.
No more participants are needed, but spectators are welcome to watch the event unfold. Both participants and spectators will also be able to register to win prizes given by some of the event's sponsors.
Said John Williams jokingly in a statement today: "Last year we narrowly missed the record by a mere 19 minutes, and the injury count was surprisingly low. So..."
For those who cannot make it to the speed golf event on Sunday, photos and videos of the fun will be posted on WGN-AM's website,
WGNRadio.com, early next week.
(*Note: The above Guinness World Record for fastest golf round is for a group of golfers, playing in a relay. The fastest round of golf by just one person is 27 minutes, 9 seconds.)
