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Iain Carter Column

Othertype
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You know times are changing when cricket is finished with its traditional cable pattern woolly jumper, not to mention proving through the IPL capable of making its players as rich as top professional footballers.

When the cricketing buzzwords are all about Twenty/Twenty rather than tests and tea you know things have moved on apace. It’s called progress, apparently.

Standing still is not an option and that even applies to golf. Yes, arguably the one major sport that has a greater reputation for relying on tradition than cricket does, is looking to move with the times.

This week at Frilford Heath Golf Club near Oxford a potentially groundbreaking tournament was staged and if the organisers are to be believed it could provide golf with its answer to Twenty/Twenty.

The event is based on “PowerPlay Golf”, a nine hole risk and reward format with two holes on every green, that was introduced to thousands of club golfers last year.

One pin is cut in an easy position and one in a tough location. Players have to opt for the difficult target and if they come up with a birdie or better they double their stableford points tally on that hole.

Former Amateur Champion, Walker Cup captain and R and A selector Peter McEvoy is the man behind the idea and now he has come up with what he believes is a television friendly version that can complement the traditional forms of golf.

“We don’t want to hurt anything that’s already there in the game,” he says. “We want to be complementary by blending in and not going at it like a bull at a gate.”

More tellingly he observes: “Because people continue to make good money out of golf there is something seductive to keep doing more of the same. But if you do, you ultimately slow down and start to dip.”

This is why he is introducing the “PowerPlay Shoot Out”. It allows for a tournament to be staged in three hours flat. It builds to a dramatic climax and has enough subtleties to keep interest alive throughout.

Up to 32 players can compete at any one time using a shotgun start over the first eight holes. When they have been played the top nine points scorers convene at the ninth tee.

This is the shoot out where the final “PowerPlay” can be employed and in theory all nine players are capable of winning. The golfer in ninth place goes first, the leader is last to go and the decisions he or she has to take (opt for a PowerPlay? Go for the short par four green in one?) will be influenced by what has gone before.

The inaugural Frilford Heath tournament, played by 24 amateurs and professionals, delighted organisers. “I’m now so confident in this format,” McEvoy said. “The subtleties definitely work.”

Plans are afoot to set up club professional tournaments with decent prize funds in the UK, Australia, US, South Africa and Europe.

“Ultimately I’d be keen to use this event to bring together golfers from all sorts of backgrounds,” McEvoy said.

“You could have the national long driving champion, national trick shot champion, the top women players and top juniors from the amateur ranks. We might need a handicapping system, but that would be no bad thing.”

It would also need to be adopted by leading professionals and in that regard it was probably no bad thing that the inaugural Shoot Out champion proved to be the European Tour’s Director of International Policy Keith Waters.

That will take a while and would probably require the format to be incorporated into the week of events at a Tour event. The successful courting of television is also crucial to the project.

If it were to take off it could provide a much needed platform to show off the game and its leading personalities. “We can see a slowdown in established markets,” McEvoy warns. “Looking at the mature golfing markets like the UK and the US people are playing less golf.”

There is a need for invention, to make the game more accessible and dynamic and this might prove an answer.

It’s interesting that celebrity golfer Sir Ian Botham has been recruited as an ambassador for this format. Now what game did he used to play? And what sort of sweater did he wear?

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comment by antisceptic (U11755612)

posted Apr 25, 2008

Well all the sceptics are out in force!

God forbid anyone should actually try something new before dismissing it.

Don't we tell our children every day to try things before deciding they dont like them. Or as Dr Seuss said about 'Green Eggs and Ham' - "You do not like them so you say, but Try them, Try them and you may! Try them and you may I say!

Get out and give PowerPlay a go and come back when you are qualified to critique the validity of the game.

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comment by puddlestinker (U8435583)

posted Apr 25, 2008

why are the ladies caddies allowed to stand behind them checking there stance and line , up to 1 mS before they start their swing
this is CHEATING
it should not be allowed and the player should be the person to get lined up and get theor stance correct

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comment by Golfbug (U1702519)

posted Apr 25, 2008

Good point puddlestinker, when you see the caddie lining the player up on the fairway etc, it not only looks bad, it just shouldn't happen.

It has to be looked at and changed, if anything it will improve on the speed of play, which is dreadfully slow at the best of times.

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comment by puddlestinker (U8435583)

posted Apr 25, 2008

the sport is so professional in the US now, there is no common sense or sportsmanship like their other sports NBA NFL
they read and inpterpret the rules, then find a way to gain an advantage which the actual rule was never written for or intended to be used for.
ie els in the woods looking foe a word in a rule book to gwt him out of justified trouble after a bad shot.
looking for a cable or scaffold post within 2 miles of the ball trajectory
etc etc

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comment by willy86 (U1292790)

posted Apr 25, 2008

I think if there were looking for a shortened-fun type competition it would be a nine-hole Par 3 contest, hopefully with holes-in-ones going in all over the place.

This idea, IMO, is rubbish however.

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comment by Maybeheisntquiteperfect (U2496949)

posted Apr 25, 2008

I think they should show speed golf on tv, devised by a Sale Sharks fitness coach, for their fitness, they get one club and then sprint between shots its not so much about how many but how quick, play 27 holes (not 18). I think it would make better viewing than this rubbish anyway.

I think the 9 hole par three contest is a good idea, lots of water stupid slopes on greens etc, etc.

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comment by elefsis (U9326906)

posted Apr 26, 2008

We held this at our club late last summer and although I felt it was fairly interesting, I don't hink it will ever take on to that extent. I will most certainly not be taking part again.

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comment by golfhypnotist (U11526982)

posted Apr 28, 2008

Being an angler as well as a golfer, I always smile when the people who play the sport think it's in better shape than it actually is.

Fact 1: Fishing is not the UK's most popular pastime. It was in the 1970s, but it isn't now.

Fact 2: Golf is in decline. I work in the industry. Club memberships are down. Equipment sales are down, generally. Just because 60 people turn up to your monthly medal, it doesn't mean everything is OK.

Golf has to find new ways to appeal to new audiences, otherwise it WILL die.

The Masters was awful and tedious to watch - shoot 75 and win. Hardly exciting sport, that, if you're a 21st century 15-year-old!!

Let's give PowerPlay Golf some credit for trying to breathe some life into the sport. It won't be for everyone - but then neither is tweed and gin and tonic.





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comment by twoeightnine (U2129133)

posted Apr 28, 2008

I think that it is a good idea. I don't see it taking over from traditional golf but I for one always like trying different games.

More importantly, as mentioned, golf is a professional sport and therefore standing still is not an option. So something that can be made for TV and get younger non-golfers watching it, is good.

I remember watching Round with Allis when I was a kid and I am sure that it contributed to my desire to play the game. From what I remember it fitted into an hour and was basically entertainment with some golf thrown in.

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comment by cradshaw (U11793712)

posted Apr 28, 2008

There's an appetite for change in golf - I'm sure the game's organisers are looking jealously at the amount of column inches given over currently to cricket (Twenty20 / IPL / Allen Stanford etc), to football (which had its rebirth with the Premiership and - more importantly - the Champions League), to rugby union (which has soared since it became professional), and even rugby league (SuperLeague has raised the game enormously).

So, golf (and for that matter, tennis) needs to do something to compete.

I've tried PowerPlay, I got it instantly and so did my mates. It's a pure, extra-cometitive version of the sport that is a great deal of fun. It appealed to all three of us for its 'banter', its risk and reward factor, and for the amount of extra fun it added to each hole. We were never short of conversation when we played it (at one of the Crown courses recenrly), the game adds as lot as regards extra tactical subtlety.

No surprise that the Luddites are out in force on this Blog - but 'lurkers' be aware - there are tens of thousands of golfers out there in the world playing this now, I think it might just be breaking through. Be prepared for it - and welcome it!

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