Dawley’s record had in fact nearly been broken around four minutes earlier by former Men’s World Champion, Robin Smith, in what turned out to be a history-making day for the sport at the inaugural Craigs Investment Partners Wairarapa Speedgolf Open.

In the Women’s division, event organiser and New Zealand champion Amy Linton’s 253.50 score saw her lift the title.

The Summerset Charles Tour regular Bateman has taken to the high-intensity variant of the sport with aplomb since getting involved two years ago, winning the New Zealand title and now posting a world record score; all while still maintaining a Top 10 ranking on New Zealand’s domestic professional golf tour.

Carterton Golf Club was the scene of Bateman’s record-breaking round as it hosted day two of the Open, following the opening day at Masterton Golf Club’s hilly Lansdowne course.

Bateman was second after round one behind former world champion Jamie Reid and would eventually win the overall title with a combined score of 218.34 over the two days of play.

Bateman told Golf New Zealand he and the rest of the field were eyeing record scores at Carterton’s relatively benign speedgolf set-up when compared to the undulation of Masterton.

“They’re probably similar golf courses in terms of difficulty, but Masterton’s got quite a few hills, so it probably plays about four minutes slower on the run.

“It’s also the fact that we played Carterton second, everyone was reasonably fatigued from the first round. I remember feeling like [during] the first round I was flying on the front nine and then at Carterton from the first hole I was feeling my legs.”

The unique combination of running and stroke-making means that going under par or running a fast time on its own is often not enough, both facets need to be in sync for a low score to be posted.

Bateman’s second and eventually record-breaking round began bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie through his first six holes.

“It was kind of all over the show,” he said.

 A string of pars and just one further bogey saw him settle through to the 15th hole, a 120m par three, but with what happened next he said he felt any chance of a record score had vanished.

“It’s quite a cool little 120 metre hole, but you’ve got to hit over these native trees. I was pretty gassed and I thinned it straight into the trees and I felt like it was starting to unravel.

“I didn’t even have a clear shot of the green, chipped it to the fringe and then two-putted for bogey.

“The next hole was a short par four and I drove it on the green and then three-putted for par, so actually after that – I thought it was all over.”

With fatigue well and truly upon him, Bateman said he was sure his running time would suffer as well as his golf score.

“I just made par on the last two holes without thinking about the record or anything and then I was shocked at the end when I was just under it.”

New Zealand is set to host the TORO Speedgolf World Championship and Team World Cup at Whitford Park Golf Club in November and with New Zealand now holding the Men’s, Women’s and Masters’ world records and top-ranked players in each division, Aotearoa’s representatives will be the ones the world is chasing.

With Reid having returned from ACL surgery along with Smith and Bateman and a host of other talented speedgolfers, the Kiwis will push each other to be in world-beating form come November.

“I think everyone around the speedgolf world will be taking notice, and because you’ve got Jamie and Robin who are the best in the world, for me, whenever I’m training or anything, running at five in the morning or doing health or whatever, I often think of Jamie and Robin.

“I’m like ‘If you want to be close to them, you’ve got to be doing all the work’ because they’re just such epic runners those guys.

“I’ve had a couple of wins, but I still feel like those guys are the best and they give me a lot of motivation.”

Bateman will pick up a full bag of clubs as he heads to the Quinovic New Zealand PGA Championship at Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club and then on to the 105th New Zealand Open at Millbrook Resort.