Thomas Pieters plays final round of Italian Open in less than 2 HOURS!

Golf may typically be in the headlines for the all the wrong reasons when it comes to pace of play, but Thomas Pieters proved in the final round of the Italian Open that it can be done as quick as Eliud Kipchoge's record-breaking marathon time. 

A day after witnessing Kipchoge, 34, cover 26.2 miles in one hour 59 minutes at the Ineos 1:59 Challenge in Vienna, big-hitting Pieters teed up on his own at Olgiata GC in Rome and shot a round of level-par in the exact same time - some two and half hours quicker than a standard round of golf for a two-ball on the European Tour. 

It matched the same score Pieters had shot in rounds one and two. Pieters finished in 68th place on 8-over par, however, with his third-round 79 sending him well down the pack. 

Another perk to whizzing round in less than two hours was that Pieters burned more than 1,300 calories in the process - and he was not even seen jogging between shots. 

Even according to a fitness app he was using, his heart rate was lower than a normal golf workout. 

Make golf great again pic.twitter.com/44S9YDl9DS

— Thomas Pieters (@Thomas_Pieters) October 13, 2019

Pieters took to social media after his round, writing: "Make golf great again." He also put up a graphic of the calories he burned and his heart rate.

The time clocked by Pieters was exactly the same as Kevin Na in the final round of the 2016 Tour Championship at East Lake. 

But neither player can match the record on Tour for the quickest round of golf set by Wesley Bryan in the final round of the 2017 BMW Championship. Bryan flew round Conway Farms in a mind-blowing one hour and 28 minutes, and shot an incredible 69 in the process! 

What's the quickest round of golf you've ever played? What's been the longest? Share your thoughts on our social media channels.