ENGLISH STARS SKIRT DISASTER
England star is stoked as dad he hasn’t seen for surprises him with IPL visit
CHRIS WOOD insisted GolfSixes gets serious today after avoiding a shock early exit to a Dutch team with “caddies in skirts”.
Golf’s answer to T20 cricket is full of fun and games with dry ice and music on the first tee.
But, after drawing their first two group matches, top seeds England needed to beat the Netherlands in the final group game to reach today’s knockout stages at the Centurion Club near St Albans.
The Dutch pair of Joost Luiten and world No.794 Reinier Saxton (both below) had their partners – Melanie Saxton and Melanie Lancaster – as their caddies in the six-hole matchplay event.
And Wood and his partner Andy Sullivan raised their game in front of a boisterous home crowd to win 4-0 in the greensomes format to stay favourites for the £170,000 first prize.
“We didn’t want to lose to a team with the caddies wearing skirts – I don’t think we could have lived that down,” said the BMW PGA champion. “This matters now.” His Ryder Cup teammate Sullivan added: “I know we are having a good time out there, but you are playing for your country and you still want to represent it well.
“We are both pretty patriotic people. We left ourselves with a little bit of work to do today, but we both went out there with our heads on and got the job done.”
Sullivan chestbumped a mascot on the first tee and Wood said he was getting used to the walk-on music.
“I am not sure about waving a flag - I nearly fell down the stairs!” he laughed.
The pair are a Little and Large comedy act, with Wood the straight man and Sullivan playing to the galleries.
“It is perfect me-to-me interaction with the crowd to get them going,” said the world No.62. “I enjoy that type of stuff and I think golf can benefit from that to bring the fans closer and show that we are not all robots and we do have personalities. I would love to see more of it.”
Despite the grey skies and 25mph winds, the event has worked.
Scotland’s team of Richie Ramsay and Marc Warren reached the last eight by winning their first two matches, but Wales are out.
Bradley Dredge and Jamie Donaldson only got a draw against the USA after Paul Peterson got a one-shot penalty on the fourth hole for exceeding a 40-second time penalty.
“It was just stupidity,” said the American.