European Tour Announces "Revolutionary" Tournament Format
The European Tour recently unveiled a new tournament format, designed to make golf appealing to a wider audience.
As one would expect, most press releases feature no shortage of hyperbolic language, but one word in particular still sticks out in the opening line of today’s statement from the European Tour.
The word? Revolutionary.
Some were taken aback at last week’s inaugural Beat the Pro competition at the KLM Open, but the announcement of the World Super 6 Perth, to be held in mid-February, takes the tour’s penchant for honing in on the entertainment aspect of golf to a new level. Revolutionary might be a bit strong, but it could foreshadow a major change in the sport of golf — in order to remain popular, it will need to appeal to younger generations.
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The first three days of this event, to be held at Lake Karrinyup, will get off to an innocuous start with 54 holes of stroke play and a 36-hole cut. For those in contention, gone is the Sunday pressure of trying to make it to the finish line with the lead. That’s because you might not even make it there at all.
The top 24 players (ties will be decided via sudden death) after three rounds will advance to the knockout match play stage on Sunday. Sounds somewhat like the U.S. Amateur, one of golf’s most tradition-steeped tournaments, doesn’t it? Well, it gets a little wacky from this point on.
The top 24 will repeatedly play six-hole match play matches until a winner is decided. Some of the details, such as which parts of the course will be used and when, remain foggy, though the Tour has come up with a unique tiebreaker for matches still tied after six.
“Any matches tied after the six holes will be decided by playing the new Knockout Hole — a purpose-built 90-metre (98-yard) hole which will be constructed at Lake Karrinyup, with a new tee placed adjacent to the 18th fairway and utilising the 18th green,” read Wednesday’s statement from the European Tour. “The Knockout Hole will be played once and if a winner is still not decided, the competitors will return to the new tee and take on a nail-biting decider, with the victor decided on a nearest-the-pin contest where only the first shot counts.”
PERTH, AUSTRALIA – FEBRUARY 25: A kangaroo jumps accross the 10th fairway in front of Mardan Mamat of Singapore and Magnus A. Carlsson of Sweden during day one of the 2016 Perth International at Lake Karrinyup GC on February 25, 2016 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
We all know tour players will throw money out there on closest-to-the-pin contests and other side games of that nature during their practice rounds. The World Super 6 Perth is an opportunity to see these types of moments played out in real competition, with a real tournament on the line.
Will the tournament’s first iteration be the same product we see 10 or 20 years down the line? Probably not. I’m sure details with the format, field size and so on will be ironed out as time goes on. With that said, let’s not sweat the small stuff and give this a shot.
Angry traditionalists, screeching at the European Tour to get off their lawns, can take solace in at least a couple of aspects of the event. For one, the tournament comes at a time in February when the golf world is just beginning to shake off the cobwebs from a relatively dry three-month period. The first major will be two months away, and what better way to begin the unofficial start of the golf season than with something different and captivating, albeit manufactured?
Secondly, the 72-hole stroke play event isn’t going anywhere. Down the road, stroke play may not take center stage in the way that it dominates almost every weekend of the calendar now, but it will still be the predominant format, similar to a nine-inning baseball game or a three-period hockey match. A sport can have nuance without sacrificing its core product, and I think when it comes down to it, that’s a value the European Tour adheres to.
This could go down as simply a blip on the radar. Brian Thornburn, CEO of the PGA of Australia, which is co-sanctioning the event, is thinking much higher.
“Cricket has Twenty20, Netball has Fast5, Rugby Union has Rugby7’s and now golf has the World Super 6 Perth,” Thornburn boldly declared.
Whatever fate lies ahead for this groundbreaking tournament remains to be seen, but the bandwagon is growing for alternative formats in golf. This is just the latest example of innovation and forward-thinking in the sport.
What do you think of the new format? What about other alternatives to the tried and true stroke play and match play formats? Let us know in the comments, and stay with Pro Golf Now for more updates on what the European Tour has up its sleeve next.
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