Brandon Stone and George Coetzee will team up for the GolfSixes looking to progress past the group stage for the first time.
Stone featured in the first edition of the event in 2017, with Coetzee appearing at last year’s tournament.
The new combination will be hoping to improve on fortunes at the event, as a South African team have never made it out of the group stages in their first two attempts.
The innovative six-hole knockout format is heading to Portugal this week for GolfSixes Cascais, with more new twists to entertain the crowds. The sixth and final hole of GolfSixes Cascais will no doubt be filled with fun and excitement with closely contested matches, but it will also feature a unique atmosphere perhaps unlike any other in world golf.
That is because in another European Tour first, the tee box will sit directly over a swimming pool and surrounded by an open lounging area for VIPs and fans. A DJ will also be blasting out music throughout.
Also, for the first time, European Tour players will be permitted to wear shorts in competitive rounds, and make use of distance measuring devices in competition for the first time in European Tour history.
How it works:
The format
The fast and fun modified Greensomes match play format will see both team members getting the opportunity to tee off on every hole, before each team selects which ball they wish to use to finish out the hole.
From there, the player whose tee shot was not selected will take on the second shot before the two teammates take alternate shots.
The team with the lowest score wins that hole. For winning a hole, the team receives a point. For example, if Team Portugal win the first hole against Team England, the score will be 1-0. If Team England win the next hole the score will be 1-1.
The matches will be scored in a standard match play format, so if a team is leading by three or four holes with two to play, or leading by three or two holes with one to play, victory will be theirs. With only six holes, no match will finish on the third hole.
The teams
A total of 16 teams, divided into four groups of four — A, B, C and D — will compete over six holes, and all four teams in each group will face each other on Day One. Three points will be awarded to a winning team, with one point awarded to each team for a tie and no points for the defeated team.
In the event of a tie, matches will go to a play-off and both teams will battle it out on the sixth and final hole once again. If the match is still tied after the first extra hole, it will be settled the second time out through a closest-to-the-pin challenge involving both players on the two teams. The team closest with the four shots will win the match.
At the conclusion of round-robin play, the top two teams in each group will advance to the final day of GolfSixes Cascais as the tournament shifts to the knockout phase.
Photo: Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
