GOLFERS WILL ‘POWERPLAY’ THIS SUMMER, AS CANADIAN GOLF EMBRACES TWO-FLAG REVOLUTION

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

26 May 2009

A new version of golf, which is tipped to boost the game’s popularity worldwide, launches in Canada today

Copetown Woods Golf Club, Ontario, is the country’s first Official Venue for PowerPlay Golf, a shorter form of the game where golfers have two flags to aim for on each green during a high-pressure, nine-hole ‘risk and reward’ competition.

Canada joins nineteen other countries worldwide in the global pilot for the sport, which has received the backing of many of golf’s major governing bodies, tournament organisers, sports agents and TV broadcasters.

The club’s General Manager Barry Forth has created a pilot scheme, in partnership with PowerPlay Golf and the Royal Canadian Golf Association, for clubs in the Greater Toronto Area, which is designed to introduce the sport’s newest format to golfers across the region prior to a nationwide roll-out.

The PowerPlay Golf ‘Golden Horseshoe’ pilot in Southern Ontario runs from June to September 2009 at several golf clubs in the area, including Copetown Woods GC, Braeben GC, Caledon Country Club and Peninsula Lakes GC, with more set to join the pilot during the summer.

Each golf club in the pilot will become a PowerPlay Golf Official Venue, and will host at least two qualifying events. In September, all qualifiers will compete in the “Ontario PowerPlay Golf Championship 2009”, where a shootout format will decide the winner.

There will also be inter-club PowerPlay Golf events, where golf clubs compete to discover whose golfers have nerves of steel, and whose buckle under the extra pressure which PowerPlay Golf brings to the game.

In PowerPlay Golf, which is a nine-hole format using a modified Stableford points scoring system, players must choose between two flags on a green – a Black ‘PowerPlay’ Flag placed in a tough location, and an easier White Flag.

Players who make net birdie or better on a PowerPlay to the Black Flag score double points, but PowerPlays are strictly limited and golfers must choose carefully when to use them during their round.

There is a matchplay variant of the game, and also a special ‘Shootout’ version, which offers a condensed golf tournament (three hours maximum) tipped by many to become a popular TV version of golf for the 21st century.

And golfers can also go online, registering to earn PowerPlay Dollars by playing in both Official Events and in casual play, enabling them to climb World Rankings and also to compete in user-generated PowerPlay Golf Leagues both locally and around the world.

“We hope that hundreds of golfers in Southern Ontario will take their first shots to the PowerPlay Black Flag this summer,” said Barry Forth, who is also PowerPlay Golf’s Official Representative in Canada. “By the end of 2009, over 250,000 golfers will have played PowerPlay Golf worldwide, at over 600 golf clubs in more than 20 countries, so it is important that Canadian golfers have their say on the new format.

“Although individual golf clubs such as Copetown Woods are enjoying strong member and visitor levels, overall golf needs to encourage more participation, and we feel that PowerPlay Golf – which takes less time out of your day, yet which delivers a highly exciting shot of adrenalin – will appeal to both traditional, competition-minded golfers, and also to many who may have drifted away from the game over the last few seasons.

“And for beginners, or youngsters, or families, it is a terrific way to get introduced to golf, as it’s fast, fun, and gives you plenty to talk about afterwards.”

In Canada this week to launch PowerPlay Golf is one of the game’s founders and the most-capped English golfer of all time, Peter McEvoy, whose long and distinguished amateur golf career included the World Amateur Champion title, two-time Leading Amateur status at The Open Championship, and captaining the GB & Ireland Walker Cup team to victory twice against the USA. He remains, through 2009, the only British amateur golfer in history to make the cut at The Masters.

McEvoy, who was awarded the OBE for services to golf by Her Majesty The Queen in 2003, welcomes PowerPlay Golf’s introduction into Canada: “As one of the world’s five leading golf nations, Canada is hugely important to the sport. It is fitting that one of its newest and most progressive golf clubs, Copetown Woods, is the venue for our game’s launch in the country. We believe that PowerPlay Golf will trigger change for the good in the golf industry in many different ways, and we welcome all feedback from Canadian golfers and golf club owners this summer.”

Forth and McEvoy also have plans to introduce PowerPlay Golf at PGA professional level in Canada this year, following the success of 2008 PGA events in Britain, Ireland and South Africa.

Elsewhere in the world, PowerPlay Golf is working with influential global organisation The World Golf Foundation, and will be running new pilot schemes across the USA, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and in Asia in the second half of 2009.

For all details visit www.powerplay-golf.com

CONTACTS 

Barry Forth, PowerPlay Golf Canada
Copetown Woods Golf Club, Copetown, Ontario
Tel: +1 289 238 8710, Email: barry@powerplay-golf.com
   
Andy Hiseman, PowerPlay Golf
01780 757461 / andy@powerplay-golf.com

Most renovations bring about a new look, but Middlesbrough Golf Club will still have a familiar feel to it once its renovation programme is completed.

The 18-hole layout was originally designed by celebrated golf course architect James Braid and now the club is looking to bring some of the Scot’s iconic design traits and styling back to the fore.

Work began at the club – which recently celebrated its centenary – this year and will continue into successive stages of renovation as part of a long-term development strategy.

The project will continue for several years – while the course is open – and is being carried out by Swan Golf Designs, a company with a reputation for adapting Braid courses to the modern world while remaining true to the original designer’s intents and plans.

And the practice is familiar with the course having carried out the course design audit for the current work as well as renovations to most of its bunkers and greens several years ago.

John Talbot, Middlesbrough Golf Club’s golf course manager, said: “We feel this is one of the north east’s premier courses and taking such a big commitment is just what we need to elevate its design quality and set the standard for all those around us.

“We’re sure the club will reap the rewards in the long run and investing in our future is vitally important, even in these difficult times.

“James Braid was a great golf course architect and it can only benefit the club to restore the course to what he envisaged it to be when he laid it out all those years ago.

“Working with such a professional outfit as Swan Golf Designs will ensure any disruption will be as minimal as possible with the course still open for play, and the work they’ve previous done at the club and their track record speaks for itself.”

Howard Swan, Swan Golf Designs’ principal architect, said: “It’s always an honour to work with a course designed by somebody with Braid’s pedigree.

“As a practice we’re passionate about making golf courses fit as naturally as possible within their surroundings so restoring the features on this great course is something we’re well equipped to do.”

Swan Golf Designs has worked on more than 300 golf projects over the last three decades, including assignments on five different continents.
The practice aims to provide a superior level of golf course through the personal service of its dedicated team of architects and is devoted to the principle of making courses fit seamlessly within their landscape while still being a masterpiece in their own right.

For more information visit www.swangolfdesigns.com.

ENDS

Written and issued by The Azalea Group on behalf of Swan Golf Designs.
For more information contact Lee Todd on 08700 330 550 or lee@theazaleagroup.com.

GCA member and leading golf course architect Howard Swan has been elected to the board of the Asian Golf Industry Federation after being voted in as treasurer. He will be the sole European representative.

The Federation aims to represent and co-ordinate efforts on behalf of all those working in golf and golf development in Asia and the appointment recognises Swan Golf Designs’ principal architect’s efforts at developing the game in the region.

The federation’s secretary, Mike Sebastian, said: “It is fantastic for us to have someone with Howard’s passion and energy for golf taking such a major role in the organisation.

“The effort he puts in to promoting the game around the world is phenomenal and being the only European voted on to the board just goes to show his standing and respect within the industry.”

Among the projects Swan Golf Designs has worked on in Asia during the last 10 years are the St Andrews International Golf Club, Zhengzhou. China, and the Karnataka Golf Association, Bangalore, India, which was named in the top five renovations at the Asia-Pacific Golf Development Summit 2008 following the practice’s work.

Swan also introduced to Asia the FIRSTGOLF initiative, which he co-founded, to Asia which aims to make golf readily available, sustainable and affordable for the next generation of players.

Swan said: “I am happy to be able to help Mike Sebastian and his team in Singapore and to have the chance to contribute to the development of the game at all levels, both as a professional architect, and, with Gill Wilson, in our FIRSTGOLF initiative.

“Asia remains a growing region in both economic and golfing spheres and the coordination of real professional effort among us all must augur well for its future.”

Swan Golf Designs has worked on more than 300 golf projects over the last three decades, including assignments on five different continents.

The practice aims to provide a superior level of golf course through the personal service of its dedicated team of architects and is devoted to the principle of making courses fit seamlessly within their landscape while still being a masterpiece in their own right.

For more information visit www.swangolfdesigns.com.

ENDS

Written and issued by The Azalea Group on behalf of Swan Golf Designs.

For more information contact Lee Todd on 08700 330 550 or lee@theazaleagroup.com.