Golfing world watches start of £1m revolution
Golfsixes contest tees off in Hemel Hempstead England open against India as event favourites
By James Corrigan
GOLF CORRESPONDENT
With the European Tour hoping that Golfsixes will herald the start of a golfing revolution, it might be apt that the English pair will stride out on to the first tee at the Centurion club today with the song I Predict A Riot blasting out over the loudspeakers.
Certainly, the sport will have witnessed nothing quite like the scene on the leafy Hemel Hempstead layout as Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan tee off this innovative weekend with their six-hole greensome-foursomes match against India.
This will merely be the start of it, with pyrotechnics, long-driving competitions, 40-second shotclocks warning the players of impending penalties for slow play and presenters such as Vernon Kay and Denise Van Outen interviewing the mic’d up competitors during their rounds.
Yet with a £1 million purse on offer, the 16 two-men national teams will be taking it extremely seriously. As, of course, will the European Tour.
The opening clash, itself, can be deemed as fitting, seeing as the Tour’s chief executive, Keith Pelley, has been unashamed in declaring that he is trying to find golf ’s version of Twenty20 cricket.
Twenty20 vision: European Tour chief Keith Pelley admits the event is an ‘experiment’
Pelley acknowledges that this two-day event – featuring the round-robin group stages today and the knockout stages tomorrow – is “an experiment”. And the Canadian also admits that there will be mistakes.
“To be totally honest we’ve been making it up as we’ve gone along,” Pelley said. “Some things are going to work, some are not. We want feedback and then we will finetune it and determine if and where this fits. Everybody in the golf world is looking at us this week and that’s pretty exciting.”
There is apprehension on Wood’s behalf. The 29-year-old is aghast at his partner’s choice of the Kaiser Chiefs’ raucous track for their walkout music.
“That’s not really me,” Wood said. “I’d prefer just to creep on the tee at the back. But any time the Tour is willing to make changes and try something different, I’m willing to support it.”
England must be the favourites, although matchplay is notoriously volatile, even over 18 holes. Scotland are represented by Richie Ramsay and Marc Warren, while Bradley Dredge and Jamie Donaldson line up for Wales.
Wood realises a home success could help with generating the headlines needed to attract the sponsors.
“In the last year, Andy and I have played in the Ryder Cup together and in the World Cup together and managed to win neither,” Wood said. “Third time lucky would be good.”