Feb8 PowerPlayGolf
Published: Last updated:
The new way to play golf
No time to play 18 holes? No worries – just use the Power Play method…
Four hours on the course, a pint at the bar with your mates – it’s becoming harder and harder to fit in our time-starved lives. It’s no wonder the number of new golfers is dwindling.
Step in a quicker way to play. It’s called Power Play Golf and is the brainchild of Peter McEvoy, R and A Chairman of Selectors, the most successful Walker Cup captain of all time and one of the greatest amateur golfers our country has ever produced.
Power Play Golf is played over six or nine holes and takes as little as an hour. It can be played at any course, from your local pitch and putt to the prestigious fairways of our ancient courses. All you need is an extra flag, and an accommodating greenkeeper willing to cut two holes on each green!
It’s a basic Stableford points scoring game, designed to test a player’s course management skills. Each green has two pin positions, one easy, and one very demanding.
At the start of the game each player is allocated three ‘power plays’ – this is when you can choose to go for the difficult pin. You must nominate your Power Play hole on the tee. If you score a gross or net birdie (equivalent to three points) on that hole or better you can double your points.
The game gets even more exciting at the last, when there is the option to take a fourth bonus Power Play. Bold players can double their points and leap up the leaderboard.
“The modern psyche is that we want instant gratification, the shorter the time span, the better,” said McEvoy. “It’s the way the world is now, other sports have successfully adopted it but golf is still guilty of being over-conservative. I started looking for an alternative that would attract a greater number of people to the game. That’s when I came up with the Power Play Golf concept.”
Power Play Golf will be tested by members of clubs in the Middlesex area later this year, and there’s even talk of a Power Play pro circuit headed by the global sports management group IMG. So watch this space…