Fans of other sports often have the same complaint of golf and baseball: they’re too slow. But don’t tell that to Eric Byrnes. The former Oakland Athletics outfielder sped around a golf course nearly fourteen times (on foot!) during a record-setting day at last week’s Napa Valley Speed Golf Challenge.
Byrnes, 42, used only one club during his day at Napa Golf Course at Kennedy Park: an 8-iron. He played polo-style, hitting many of his shots one-handed and hardly slowing down except to tee off or hole his putts. In all, the 12-hour effort took him 13 rounds and 11 holes and covered an estimated 65.5 miles, according to Strava, which tracks exercise.
The Guinness Book of World Records currently credits New Zealander Brad Luiten for “most holes played in 12 hours without a cart” at 237 holes; that mark will now belong to Byrnes, pending review.
Guesstimating avg score per hole = 7
Average score per round = 126
13.5 rounds x 126 shots = 1701
Plus 2 extra holes = 1715 total shots https://t.co/MulSu3utM5— Eric Byrnes (@byrnes22) April 27, 2018
Byrnes, now an analyst for the MLB Network (and competitive ultra-runner on the side), underwent the effort in order to raise more than $5,000 for non-toxic lymphoma research.
