OAKVILLE, Ont. – Instead of golf as 18 holes with stroke play, imagine facing off in a six-hole, match-play format while pairing up with a teammate from the same country.
Oh, and each of the holes would have its own theme, from walk-out music to pyrotechnics and a long-drive competition to shot clocks.
Sound nuts?
Well, such an event – branded GolfSixes – took place in May on the European Tour to great fanfare, according to the tour’s CEO. If Ian Poulter had any say, something similar would be worth trying on the PGA Tour, too.
“I definitely think it’s got a place,” said Poulter, an Englishman who plays on both the PGA and European tours. “Any event that we can showcase to broaden the interest in golf is a good thing.”
The first GolfSixes event saw 16 teams compete in a two-day tournament in England.
There was music and pyrotechnics on the first hole and charitable donations for birdies on the second. A long-drive competition followed on No. 3 and a 40-second shot clock was enforced on No. 4. The fifth hole featured a closest to the pin challenge and the sixth saw on-course interviews.
The teams played in Greensomes format, meaning the best tee shot of the pair was chosen and an alternate shot was played from there.
Denmark’s Thorbjorn Olesen and Lucas Bjerregaard won the first event.
That’s the kind of jolt the sport could use, said the European Tour CEO Keith Pelley.
Speaking to Sportsnet’s Starting Lineup on Monday morning, Pelley was emphatic that the 72-hole tournament will “always still be at the core of what the sport is.”
However, Pelley said the sport’s reach must be extended. He said the initial results showed 19 per cent of television viewers in England had never seen a European Tour event before.
“If you’re not prepared to modify sports, if you’re not prepared to make changes, to adapt to a changing society in any business, then you run the risk of falling behind,” Pelley said. “There’s a narrative around golf that there is a need to change, to modernize the game a little bit.”
Other players at the RBC Canadian Open are intrigued by the notion of seeing GolfSixes in North America.
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Canadian David Hearn said anything to increase fan interest is a plus.
“It’s great to see people get creative with new ways to compete in this game,” he said. “The 72-hole format will always be the traditional format. But I wouldn’t be surprised if we start experimenting with ideas like that.
“I think the guys have fun with it over there in Europe.”
Graeme McDowell, the former No. 4 golfer in the world, likened GolfSixes to Twenty20 cricket, a quicker version of the bat-and-ball sport. Rugby sevens, a mini-game format with seven players instead of 15, was also popular at the Rio Olympics last year.
McDowell is from Northern Ireland and, like Poulter, plays on both the PGA and European tours. He believes such events would provide fun break from the norm. A traditional golf tournament must be approached carefully, whereas there’s little room to play it safe in GolfSixes.
“Stroke play is a little more of a marathon, I suppose. You have to pace yourself and jockey for position,” McDowell said. “But six-hole match play, you’ve got to play hard and you’ve got to play early and get your job done.”
McDowell thinks it may be hard for some to break from the tradition of an 18-hole tournament and that it would take time for people to properly embrace it in North America.
“There is room for some fresh ideas,” he added.
Most people just don’t have as many as six hours on a weekend to play a round of golf, McDowell said. Introducing GolfSixes at local golf clubs may retain players or introduce the game to new ones since those matches tend to last no more than an hour.
Poulter, the former world No. 5, agrees with that line of thinking, too. From a PGA Tour perspective, he’s confident such an event could boast TV ratings and bring families and children into the sport.
“It’s great and I encourage more of those events to help boost the game of golf,” Poulter said.
