Zurich Classic Moves Out Of Spotlight To Player Raves, GolfSixes Steps In With Potential For Drama?

GolfChannel.com's Ryan Lavner talked to Zurich Classic tournament director Steve Worthy about the unanimous praise received from players. It was the first official PGA Tour team event since 1981 and the only question is when does another tournament add a special format.

Lavner writes:

Of course, having too many outside-the-box tournaments appears gimmicky and could damage the Tour’s brand. After all, a player’s livelihood is at stake, and it shouldn’t necessarily be determined by whether he can hit a 6-iron through a hula hoop while blindfolded.

“Just once or twice a year, because it adds something different,” Fowler said. “You don’t want to have too many – then it doesn’t have a unique-kind-of-week feel to it.”

Striking that balance is the upcoming challenge for Monahan and Co. But if Worthy’s informal survey was any indication, the commissioner should have the full support of an enthusiastic member base.

“‘Fun’ is probably the word that I heard the most this week,” Worthy said.

Heaven forbid we wouldn't want too much of that fun stuff!

On the heels of Zurich week, the European Tour offers its vision for the team play tournament future. GolfSixes debuts this weekend (with its own website) and while appearing to be trying a few too many things at once, figures to be compelling.

The field isn't particularly strong, with the USA team represented by Paul Peterson and David Lipsky. Tuesday's draw set the four pools up this way.

Group A - England, Denmark, The Netherlands, India
Group B - Thailand, Spain, Belgium, Scotland
Group C - Australia, Wales, USA, Portugal
Group D - South Africa, France, Sweden, Italy

I nominated the Greensomes format today on Golf Central as the most intriguing element, while Feinstein picked the equally fun shot clock component. (One stroke penalties for shot clock violations!)

Greensomes could be fascinating on a course with some good risk-reward opportunities because it lets teams select their best tee shot and then play alternate shot from there.

The top two teams from Saturday's pool group play--six hole matches--progress to the knockout stages Sunday with the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, a 3rd/4th place play-off match and the final all played in one day.

Oh, and there will be walkout songs for GolfSixes. Feinstein and I picked our walkout songs in case you have several minutes to kill.

Here is a Sky Sports page devoted to the new event, with key questions answered.