Needless to say there was a trick involved in this, and the clue is that he was on the way to the Ryder Cup. The putt was along the 150–foot cabin of Concorde. The ball was in motion for 26.17 seconds.
In a response to a question about Olazabal's putt, Captain W. D. (Jock) Lowe (former Concorde Chief Pilot) wrote on clubconcorde.com (the Concorde pilots' website): "The tradition of making record breaking putts aboard Concorde, I believe, was initiated in the 1980's by the then Captain of the Ryder Cup team, Tony Jacklin.
"In 1997, as Concorde Captain, I flew the American Ryder Cup Team from
New York to Malaga, en route to Valderrama, Spain.
"Tom Kite, the US Captain, chose Brad Faxton, the team's best putter, to
make an attempt on the existing record.
"The 150ft putt took 23 seconds to travel the distance, in which time
Concorde had travelled 8.5 miles at 1270 mph - a new record!"
© Haydn Thompson 2018