THE FIRST TEE INITIATIVE GIVES POWERPLAY GOLF A FOOTHOLD IN THE STATES

PowerPlay Golf will be played across the USA for the first time this Summer in a groundbreaking initiative with The First Tee.

Eight chapters from The First Tee - launched to develop the lives of young people from all backgrounds through the game of golf – will be running a series of PowerPlay Golf events at golf clubs across America.

The organisation will use PowerPlay Golf’s centralised leaguing system and player profiling to set up a series of participant events and fund raising events for The First Tee, which has over 2 million participants in some 204 chapters nationwide.

Ryan Graff, manager of operations and programs for The First Tee, said: “Everyone here is greatly excited by what PowerPlay Golf could offer us. We believe our participants are going to take to the new exciting format of the game, and really enjoy the online aspect afterwards.

“We have 8 Chapters trailing the format over the next month, and if successful, we aim to roll out PowerPlay Golf at more of our sites in the future.”

PowerPlay Golf’s iconic black skull and crossbones flags are currently on their way to golf centres in Illinois, Tennessee, Arkansas, New York, Ohio, California and Pennsylvania, who will all become Official Venues for the Summer.

To find out more about The First Tee visit www.thefirsttee.org

To view venue details and event dates click here

From http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/12052008/58/powerplay.html

By Will Tidey, Eurosport, 12 May 2008

POWERPLAY ME UP!

Eurosport.yahoo.com’s crack golf team travelled to the West Country to try out the latest craze to hit sticks and balls.

“Peter McEvoy is one of life’s high achievers. After a prolific amateur career, in which he represented Great Britain five times in the Walker Cup and won back-to-back Amateur Championships in 1977 and 1978, he was elected chairman of the R&A selection committee in 2002.

An OBE for services to golf followed, and a well-received autobiography, but this was not a man to slip quietly into the background and bathe in former glories.

In February 2007 McEvoy launched PowerPlay golf, a nine-hole version of the game complete with two flags on every hole - one in a straightforward location, the other placed as you might expect on the final day at a Major.

The concept was brilliantly simple. Using the familiar Stableford system, a player must pick three “PowerPlay” holes in the first eight and go for the harder pin. The potential reward is double points for net birdie or better.

On the ninth a further PowerPlay is available, at the risk of losing two points for a net bogey or worse. A matchplay version was also designed, where players “trump” opponents if they call a PowerPlay and match their score at a hole.

McEvoy described it as “Twenty20 cricket for golf”, a faster, more exciting alternative for a time-starved generation. The buzz quickly grew, and in November last year David Kemp was crowned PowerPlay’s first National Champion with a score of 34 points at Hampton Court Palace Golf Club in Surrey.

Ian Botham has been signed up for promotional duties, and a made-for-TV version, called PowerPlay Shootout, debuted last month in Oxfordshire and attracted a field including former Ryder Cup player Steven Richardson and French Open winner Malcolm Mackenzie.

All of which made a trip to visit The Kendleshire GC in Bristol for a first-hand experience of PowerPlay golf nigh-on essential. And so, under glorious sunshine, came the litmus test.

The first thing you notice is a heightened awareness of your limitations. To call a PowerPlay is the equivalent of raising the stakes in poker, but the bluffing option is not in your armoury. You have to make the decision before you tee off, and if your bold bid is followed by a woeful shank you don’t look very clever.

Then again, for the first eight holes you’ve nothing to lose, which brings out the fearless birdie-stalking golfer within. As a streaky driver, but a decent iron player, I called my powerplays on two par-threes and the shortest par-four. Each time the pin was placed in the most inaccessible location imaginable. But then that’s the idea.

To add to the drama, players going for the PowerPlay flag are always last to putt out. When that player is you, a sense of cavalier bravado is inescapable. While your peers have taken life’s easy street, you’re about to conquer the road less travelled. Even the most conservative weekend sluggers will experience three holes as a maverick.

At the ninth a difficult decision awaits. Take the PowerPlay and you risk losing points if it all goes horribly wrong. Play safe and you risk looking like a scared part-timer. Either way, the tactically astute will be rewarded.

With our nine complete, there was time to reflect on an intriguing experience. An otherwise casual nine holes had been transformed into a tactical battle which ebbed and flowed all the way to the last. I might have lost, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

From http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12177_3478907,00.html

26th April 2008

Got the power

“For many people, an afternoon on the golf course is the perfect antidote to the stresses of everyday life.

It’s a fine excuse to relax, enjoy some scenery and get away from the high-tempo pace of the modern world.

But that’s not for everybody - and that’s why Powerplay golf is here.

If you are one of those people that can’t fit a five-hour round into yourbusy schedule, then Powerplay golf might be for you.

Taking inspiration from Twenty20 cricket and five-a-side football, Powerplay is a shortened version of the game with two flags on each green - one easy and one hard.

Played over nine holes, you can pick up double points by going for the more difficult Black Flag - and you must take three Powerplays in the first eight holes.

Golf Night went along to the inaugural World ‘Powerplay’ Shootout to find out more about the new game.

We spoke to some of the people behind the concept and some professionals who are impressed by the idea.”

You can see Sky Sports report by clicking here.

POWERPLAY SHOOTOUT IS GOLF’S NEW MADE-FOR-TV FORMAT

PowerPlay Golf, golf’s new 9 hole, two flag format, this week launched its made-for-TV version, the PowerPlay Shootout, at Frilford Heath Golf Club in Oxfordshire, UK.

The event attracted wide acclaim from a specially invited audience of golf’s governing bodies, media, TV companies and commercial sponsors and, following this successful debut, discussions are now underway with various television companies to bring the format to a worldwide TV audience.

The PowerPlay Shootout features a shotgun start over the first 8 holes after which a cut is made. Those who have qualified then “Shootout” down the final hole. The event lasts three hours and the format, together with PowerPlay Golf’s risk and reward scoring system, guarantees a gripping finale with lots of spectacular attacking golf along the way.

Among those participating in the pilot were ex-Ryder Cup player Steven Richardson, French Open winner Malcolm Mackenzie and World Cup player Mark Mouland. They were also joined by new lady tour pro Danielle Montgomery, and the 2006 US Kids World 8 Year Old Champion golfer, Billy Spooner from Boston in Lincolnshire.

Chief Executive of PowerPlay Golf, David Hardy, said: “This was a magnificent launch for the new Shootout format, attracting a good mix of participants from top amateurs to seasoned tour players, as well as all the major broadcasters. Because it’s a shorter game and the finale is so exciting, PowerPlay Shootout will appeal to golfers and sports fans all over the world”.

The launch game culminated in Keith Waters (European Tour), bursting through the field to win the Shootout with an immaculate last-hole ’six pointer’, having made the cut with nine other players, including Mouland and Mackenzie.

Speaking after the final hole, Mouland, said: “PowerPlay is totally different. I can see it catching on at once. When you have a shotgun start like we saw today, a whole tournament can be done and dusted in three hours, which is brilliant.”

Co-founders of PowerPlay Golf, Peter McEvoy and David Piggins, who are already rolling out PowerPlay Golf to golf courses around the world, are now planning a 12 event PowerPlay Shootout World Series, which will bring the same fast, dynamic excitement to golf viewers which the IPL is currently doing for cricket lovers.

And Sir Ian Botham is behind the recent launch of the PowerPlay Golf British Championship 2008.

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A35088762 

By Iain Carter, Five Live Golf Correspondent, 24 Apr 2008 

Blog: Iain Carter Column

“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?”