Zurich banking on clubbing together
I’M interested to see how this week’s Zurich Classic plays out. If you didn’t already know, the 69th edition of the event is a two-man team format. In a bid to generate interest, tournament organisers and the PGA Tour have departed from the norm in a rather big way. The likes of Justin Rose and Henrik Stenson – tournament favourites at 11/2 – will pair up to lock horns with a host of other partnerships. The other duos to look out for in the stroke-play shootout include Jason Day and Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Ryan Palmer, and Branden Grace and Louis Oosthuizen. How will it work? Well, the first and third rounds are foursomes, while the second and final rounds are four balls. I admire how the European Tour and now the PGA Tour are experimenting and attempting to reach outside the golfing bubble. Many believe the game needs a bit of a shake-up, much in the same way cricket has embraced the faster, bitesize T20. I’m all for the game modernising and it’s true certain weeks on tour can be a slow watch for the non purists, But I’m also a firm believer that it’s the quality of players and depth of field that puts bums on seats. If you had all of Europe’s top stars staying on the European Tour, even for just one season, the landscape would change. Excitement and interest levels would spike. The tour tried something different at the World Super 6 Perth back in February, but in reality, no high-profile names turned up. The mixed format tournament struck lucky that hometown favourite Brett Rumford was victorious. The Golf Sixes are scheduled for England next week, again with the aim of adding more colour and it’ll be interesting to see how they go. The revolutionary new short form of the game, featuring two-man national teams and six rounds of six hole matches will be a fun spectacle. But yet again, it will come down to who is playing. The international aspect will be interesting, but the players attending hardly represent the top two golfers from every nation. That’s why this week’s Zurich Classic should be a decent watch. Plenty of the world’s top players are teeing it up so the event really sells itself. Will the foursomes and fourball format sustain itself over four days? Time will tell, but it’ll be a fascinating watch. More than anything, I’m looking forward to seeing how the partnerships work and how the players’ different course management styles gel. Playing with – and for – your buddy can be a powerful driver in sport. It gets the game back to being fun and that’s what we want to see, whatever the format.