The rules of speedgolf

Speedgolf is golf played while running. These are the rules in plain English. The International Speedgolf Alliance publishes the official rules, and national bodies such as Speedgolf USA, British Speedgolf and Speedgolf Belgium run tournaments. For the official text see playspeedgolf.com and britishspeedgolf.co.uk/the-rules.

Scoring

One stroke equals one minute. Your score is strokes plus elapsed time, written as mm:ss. The lowest score wins. Example: 84 strokes in 52:34 is 136:34.

The clock

In a normal round the clock starts at your first stroke and stops when you hole out on your last hole. In tournaments the clock starts at your set start time and stops when you cross the finish line. The clock is never paused.

Equipment

• Carry at most 7 clubs, by hand or in a light bag.
• No caddies and no carts.
• Wear running shoes, not spikes.
• In tournaments, keep your equipment off the green. Equipment on the green costs 1 stroke.

Play

• The flagstick may stay in the hole.
• Lost ball or out of bounds: play on from the spot with a lateral penalty of one stroke. Never run back.
• No provisional ball.
• Rake bunkers and repair pitch marks.
• Let faster players through. In tournaments, not yielding costs 2 strokes.

Records

9 hole and 18 hole rounds are separate records. They are never converted into each other.

How the app scores

You can score live tap by tap, or per hole. Penalties add strokes: lost ball or out of bounds +1, equipment on the green +1, not yielding to a faster player +2.

Time par

The app can show a time par for a course: 7 minutes per mile of running route, plus 15 seconds per stroke of par, plus 2 seconds per metre climbed. The "SG par" is the par plus the time par.