Speedgolf is a modern sport that combines golf and running. A player's score is the sum of the golf strokes and time (in minutes and seconds) taken to play a round of golf. For instance, a player who completes a golf round in 72 strokes and 50 minutes and 20 seconds achieves a speedgolf score of 72 + 50:20 = 122:20.
While the modern age of speedgolf tournament golf began with the 2012 Speedgolf World Championship, records of speedgolf rounds date to at least the 1960s and probably earlier. In the late 1960s, for example, the legendary U.S. mile champion Steve Scott was reputed to have completed an 18 hole round of golf in 29 minutes and 95 strokes.
Modern-day speedgolf is a growing sport with an active international tournament schedule. Tournaments are regularly contested in the U.S., the U.K., France, Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
The Speedgolf Technology and Analytics Lab (STAL) at Oregon State University is the world leader in research to advance understanding of speedgolf performance, and to support speedgolf performance and community-building through innovative technologies. Led by veteran speedgolfer and computer science professor Chris Hundhausen (the "Professor of Speedgolf"), the lab is developing the world's first speedgolf app ecosystem called SpeedScore.
STAL also welcomes partnerships with researchers in physiology, movement science, sports performance, and related fields to collaborate on studies of speedgolf performance. The analytics technologies developed by STAL place us in an excellent position to gain new insights into the sport and how to help speedgolfers reach peak performance.