Six And The City
as the world super 6 perth prepares for its auspicious bow, will golf’s answer to t20 cricket invigorate the game’s tried and true tournament scene?
This month’s World Super 6 tournament in Perth is the start of a pro tournament revolution. by steve keipert
WE ARE THRILLED TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS BECAUSE, AT THE EUROPEAN TOUR, WE BELIEVE THAT GOLF NEEDS TO LOOK AT NEW AND INNOVATIVE FORMATS. —KEITH PELLEY
The defining moment of the new ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth tournament at Lake Karrinyup Country Club may not occur on Sunday. Curiously in golf, where we are fed a steady diet of last-day crescendos, any departure from the norm is often greeted with mixed reactions. There’s an indefatigable familiarity to 72-hole strokeplay tournaments, the count-’em-all approach permitting the kind of dependability fans like from a game with few certainties. But not this time.
After three rounds, the World Super 6 Perth from February 16-19 will revert to matchplay by pruning the field to the top 24 on the leaderboard and settling any ties for 24th spot via a potentially large playoff. Sunday will see a series of six-hole matches with deadlocks resolved on the purpose-built ‘knockout hole’ – a 90-metre journey played from the last fairway at Lake Karrinyup to its 18th green. The knockout hole will only be played once in full, as lingering ties will be broken by a nearest-the-pin contest on the second playing. The winner will move on or, in the final match, become the inaugural champion of the tournament co-sanctioned with the European Tour.
Once the 24 players have been decided, the leading eight will be seeded directly into the second round of elimination matchplay. The other 16 players will be split into eight matches for the first round, with the eight winners paired against the eight seeded players for the second round. From there, the match results will progressively prune the field in half until the last two players contest the final.
Billed as golf’s answer to Twenty20 cricket, rugby sevens or Fast4 tennis, the innovative format represents change but not all changes bring progress. The idea does add drama and unpredictability, but the knocks on it include that this will look just like any other tournament all week until late on Saturday and that a 10-stroke leader on Saturday night could be the first golfer sent packing on Sunday.
The only other time the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia ventured down this path was six years ago at the one-off Surf Coast Knockout held near Geelong in January 2011. Winner Scott Laycock was the last of the 32 players to make the matchplay rounds yet left the Bellarine Peninsula cradling the trophy.
Change, however, is in vogue in tournament golf and any thoughtful attempt to alter the norm is to be applauded. This April, the US PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans will switch for the first time to a two-man pairs event in order for that middling tournament to stand out from the pack. Officials cannot predict the outcomes of the events they administer, but they can plan and innovate, feeding the golf-viewing public something more than a never-ending smorgasbord of 72-hole strokeplay.
And there’s definitely curiosity among the players.
“The format sounds very interesting,” says Perth’s Nick O’Hern, who beat Tiger Woods twice at the WGC–Accenture Match Play Championship. “If I come back home to play in it hopefully I can make it to the final day. I’ve always loved matchplay.”
Jin Jeong, the Melbourne-raised Korean who captured the ISPS Handa Perth International at Lake Karrinyup in 2013, says his fellow players will embrace the event – especially those for whom the cutthroat nature of matchplay appeals.
“I’ve spoken to a few European Tour players and they’re intrigued by the concept,” Jeong said. “It’s important to try something
different. I love matchplay and it’s going to be good for the crowds.”
Nine-time PGA Tour of Australasia winner Peter Lonard took a self-deprecating view on the new format, joking that it may actually be the boost his evergreen career needs. “After 30 years I still haven’t learnt to master traditional four-round tournaments, so if I can work this Super 6 format out I’ll be happy,” he said. “If it gets the crowds involved in the game and encourages them to get out and watch other tournaments then I’m all for it.”
Aussie European Tour star Wade Ormsby likened the World Super 6 Perth to qualifying school. “Having to make that top-24 cut-off will feel like a tour school – there will certainly be some added pressure,” he said. “Everyone loves coming down to Australia to play our courses, so having a tournament with a point of difference will only enhance that interest. I’m sure the European Tour will get right behind it. The game does take a lot of time and it’s hard for people to sacrifice that time to come out and watch us play so this should lend itself to a better spectacle.”
A huge proponent for golf’s need to adapt and find a shortened format is Keith Pelley, the chief executive of the European Tour. “This initiative was something that we spoke about at great length to our tournament committee, led by chairman Thomas Bjorn,” Pelley said. “We are thrilled to participate in this because, at the European Tour, we believe that golf needs to look at new and innovative formats.”
While the World Super 6 Perth’s format can be potentially brutal for the 54-hole leader, matchplay specialist O’Hern has some simple words of advice. “It’s a bit like a tennis match – it’s you versus one other guy. In the WGC– Matchplay, 64 plays 1 and 1 might get beat … that’s what’s it’s all about. It may be a bitter pill to swallow but in the World Super 6 Perth you’ve got to suck it up and play your best.”
SIX OF THE BEST
In four editions of the Perth International, Lake Karrinyup Country Club has proven itself a premier tournament venue. The course tests tour professionals while permitting good scores for those players at the peak of their powers. And the conditioning of the layout redesigned by Mike Clayton’s course architecture firm nearly a decade ago is routinely stellar. It’s also a place for multiple strategies. “You can take it on and really bomb it off the tee – they’re wide fairways,” says Louis Oosthuizen, the most recent golfer to triumph around the undulating layout. But the former British Open champion issues a caveat: you need to have the driver in check in order to take full advantage. A player low in confidence with the big stick is advised to be more conservative and pick apart the course in other ways.
Gorgeous swing aside, it is hardly surprising Oosthuizen won in Perth last year with a mindset like that. He captured the essence of the Lake Karrinyup course, as position and angles highlight the subtleties of a layout where so many spot only the prevalence of right-to-left tee shots and the site’s undulating topography.
The six holes used for the matchplay phase will highlight the cream of the course, including some of Karrinyup’s best holes. The driveable par-4 first and long par-4 second will kick-off each match before players tackle the lengthy, uphill par-3 eighth. The closing three take in the reachable par-5 11th, downhill and tricky par-3 12th and the bruising par-4 18th. The sequence works well from a logistical perspective but it also takes in a variety of length and strategic nous.
Players defending or compiling a score at strokeplay have traditionally played the 294-metre first conservatively with an iron then a pitch, however Lake Karrinyup’s opener is the perfect place to make an early statement in such a short match, which might entice more drivers out of bags. Pars are unlikely to do any damage at the 428-metre second and 201-metre eighth, suggesting any players in red figures after three holes aren’t likely to be trailing their opponent. That is likely to change in a hurry, though, as the 506-metre 11th and 135-metre 12th will attract birdies and the odd eagle. But birdies will be tough to cage at the 406-metre 18th with a match result on the line. The undulating fairway leaves few level lies for approach shots to a green with multiple segments that create numerous long, curving putts.
Three easier holes coupled with three tough ones. Sounds like a perfect recipe for quick-fire matchplay.