Mumbai:
After Twenty20 cricket, it's time for PowerPlay golf, a shortened version of the game played over nine holes, with two flags on the green and a duration of two hours, to attract the attention of sports fans.
The eighth edition of the Signature Club Golf Championship, which involves 43 clubs spread over 30 cities in the country from September 26 to December 14, is to be played under the two-year-old PowerPlay format.
The founder of PowerPlay Golf, Peter McEvoy, told reporters on Wednesday that the format has been introduced following a 5 per cent drop in audience for the traditional four-day golf.
"It's a shorter form, like T20 cricket, five-a-side football and seven-a-side rugby. I think Indian fans would like its faster pace. While normal golf is a reward for patience, in this format you have to make things happen," he said.
McEvoy is confident that in ten years this format would be "a significant landscape in the golf circuit" and said "no contamination of (traditional golf) skills is required."
"A nine-hole golf course would also be more environment friendly and is suitable for developing countries like India," he said.
The All India finals are to be held in Phuket, Thailand.
The PowerPlay concept has been devised by McEvoy, a former victorious captain of Britain and Ireland's Walker team, and David Piggins, a sports venue owner and operator.
In this format, the players can opt to play the easier white flag or the more difficult black flag and rewards risk-taking and bold play, McEvoy said.
If the players score a birdie or anything better to the black flag they earn double stableford points and each golfer is compelled to take three PowerPlays in the first eight holes.
They then have the option to go for a fourth PowerPlay on the ninth and last hole, but the rider is if they get a net bogey or perform worse than this, two points would be docked from their total score.
This form of golf was first played by 16 British golf journalists in London in February 2007, and has spread outside of UK to Australia and South Africa.
The inter-club tournament that's to be played in India is the first time this format has been adopted for any golf event in the Asian continent.
The eighth edition of the Signature Club Golf Championship, which involves 43 clubs spread over 30 cities in the country from September 26 to December 14, is to be played under the two-year-old PowerPlay format.
The founder of PowerPlay Golf, Peter McEvoy, told reporters on Wednesday that the format has been introduced following a 5 per cent drop in audience for the traditional four-day golf.
"It's a shorter form, like T20 cricket, five-a-side football and seven-a-side rugby. I think Indian fans would like its faster pace. While normal golf is a reward for patience, in this format you have to make things happen," he said.
McEvoy is confident that in ten years this format would be "a significant landscape in the golf circuit" and said "no contamination of (traditional golf) skills is required."
"A nine-hole golf course would also be more environment friendly and is suitable for developing countries like India," he said.
The All India finals are to be held in Phuket, Thailand.
The PowerPlay concept has been devised by McEvoy, a former victorious captain of Britain and Ireland's Walker team, and David Piggins, a sports venue owner and operator.
In this format, the players can opt to play the easier white flag or the more difficult black flag and rewards risk-taking and bold play, McEvoy said.
If the players score a birdie or anything better to the black flag they earn double stableford points and each golfer is compelled to take three PowerPlays in the first eight holes.
They then have the option to go for a fourth PowerPlay on the ninth and last hole, but the rider is if they get a net bogey or perform worse than this, two points would be docked from their total score.
This form of golf was first played by 16 British golf journalists in London in February 2007, and has spread outside of UK to Australia and South Africa.
The inter-club tournament that's to be played in India is the first time this format has been adopted for any golf event in the Asian continent.
