While golf normality takes place in America this week we have a quirky event in Europe which is the second staging of the Golf Sixes. A truncated course and funky skill sets for each hole make up a fast and furious event.
Denmark won the inaugural tournament last year and they will return to defend their title against 15 other pairings which include an England Women’s pair, a European Women’s pair and the two European Cup captains in a unique mix of males and females in the same tournament.
Recent Winners
2017 – Denmark
The Format
It takes some getting used to but the format is pretty simple. The 16 teams have been split into groups of four where each team plays the others in the group. Every match is played over six holes with a point being won for each hole that is won. A team earned three points in their group table for each match they win, a point for a draw and nothing for losing.
The top two teams go through to the knockout stages where the quarter finals, semi-finals and the final are all played out on a busy Sunday. The entire tournament is played under the greensomes format.
The Holes
The Centurion Club just outside of St Albans hosts the event once again this week and the same six holes are in operation as last year. There are two par 3s, two par 4s and two par 5s.
Hole 1 – 175 yard par 3 where players arrive onto the tee with walk out songs, pyrotechnics and everything like that going off.
Hole 2 – 476 yard par 4 where donations to charity and giveaways for the crowds will take play each time a pair make a birdie there.
Hole 3 – 526 yard par 5 which coincides with a long drive competition which takes place throughout the weekend.
Hole 4 – Monster 486 yard par 4 where there is a 30 second time limit for each shot with a shot clock in operation.
Hole 5 – 136 yard par 5 which also turns into a nearest the pin competition between the pairs and selected amateurs
Hole 6 – Par 5 which measures 536 yards. This is where the live post-match interviews take place and if there are any play-offs needed they also take place here.
Market Leaders
Defending champions Denmark are the 6/1 favourites to retain their title. Thorbjorn Olesen and Lucas Bjerregaard are the two men teeing it up for them again and they set a fair standard. The Spain pairing of Pablo Larrazabal and Adrian Otaegui should like up nicely and could go well at 7/1 while England duo Eddie Pepperell and Matt Wallace are both in good nick at 8/1.
South Africa are another side who are 8/1. George Coetzee and Haydn Porteous are the two representing them. There may not be a team in better form than the Sweden pair of Alexander Bjork and Joakim Lagergren and they will be popular at 10/1. Thailand are a point bigger again at 11/1 and it is 14/1 bar those named.
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Betting
With the four wildcard teams and the quirky nature of the event this isn’t much of a market to get stuck into and in truth it isn’t really an event to bet too heavily on but I’ll probably have it on at some point over the weekend so I need to go into it with an interest.
The team that is going to carry my money this weekend are Sweden. It looks on paper as though it is between England, South Africa and Sweden for the two qualifying spots from Group D and with Alexander Bjork coming off winning in China last week and Joakim Lagergren in good form in Morocco recently assuming these two gel nicely I expect them to be tough nuts to crack. Both are putting nicely and both are renowned to be good iron players. That generally gets it down in these showpiece events so at 10/1 I’m with the Swedes this week.
Tips
Back Sweden to win Golf Sixes (e/w) for a 1.5/10 stake at 11.00 with William Hill (1/2 1-2)
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