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.
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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.
