Soderberg brothers race to record breaking round

Sebastian Soderberg made European Tour history in the final round of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic as he played his final round at Emirates Golf Club in just 97 minutes.

With younger brother Jasper on the bag, the Swede sprinted - often literally - to a 75 as he tackled the layout on his own as first man out at 7.10am.

He averaged just five minutes and 23 seconds a hole and was in the recording hut done and dusted before 9.00am - holing his final putt just two minutes after the 11th group of the day had teed off.

The European Tour has recently introduced new initiatives to tackle slow play but Soderberg did not have to worry about those as he played the fastest round in Tour history.

"I just tried to play as fast as possible,” he said. "I felt like it would be a fun thing to do and I didn't necessarily think it would hurt my game too much at some points.

"I said we'll try and go as fast as possible first five or six holes but I took a little time on putts and all the shots and just ran in between. I played quite well in the beginning so we just kept going.

"I struggled the last two days so I figured it wouldn’t really hurt my game just to jog in between and not think too much. I think three over is not bad, with zero fairways hit."

Soderberg was happy to admit it was a team effort and was quick to credit brother Jasper for his athletic endeavours.

"The important thing was my brother on the bag," he said. "He had the big job because he ran non stop pretty much.

"He said that he was excited about it this morning and that helped. He said, 'let’s do it'.

"We talked before. Whenever it was a par three he would go up there and wait there. On par fours and fives he would just leave the appropriate clubs."

Jasper added: "There were some tough spots out there and running for a while. I had to catch my breath a little bit but now I'm feeling pretty good about it."

And Soderberg's fellow professionals were quick to react to his amazing effort.