Caroline Hedwall wins the PowerPlay Golf tournament amidst strong contenders
Swedish Caroline Hedwall, after her maiden victory at last week’s Allianz Ladies Slovak Open at the Gray Bear Golf Club in Tale’, Slovakia, went ahead to claim the inaugural PowerPlay Golf, at the Celtic Manor Resort on Monday, May 30th.
The new hybrid form of sport boasted of some of the biggest names in the sporting arena including Graeme McDowell, Ian Woosnam, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey, Gary Player as well as the leading LPGA and LET players like Paula Creamer and Helen Alfredsson. The
tournament was scheduled just ahead of the Wales Open on the European Tour which will be played at the same venue this weekend.
PowerPlay Golf is the newly designed form of the sport where the players, both male and female, are pitched in a nine-hole battle to clinch the title. The greens are provided with options of two holes where the players going for the difficult black-flagged
hole will earn more points. The two-flagged greens are also termed as the “risk and reward” format and specifically designed nine holes were selected on the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor. PowerPlay Golf introduces a brand new and more exciting form of
the sport on the likes of Twenty20 in Cricket.
“That was a lot of fun. I was in the middle of the pack with three to play but knew I still had a chance with PowerPlays in reserve. I was very nervous on the first tee but playing with Ian Poulter and Helen Alfredsson was a great experience,” said Hedwall.
The event was led by veteran players Paula Creamer and Victor Dubuisson, when they were leading the opening holes but Hedwall, owning mostly to her newly gained confidence from the LET Victory, sheared through the ranks to summit the leaderboard in the evening.
She carded three birdies, each having six points, to finish on top. She collected £100,000 as the winner’s share and revealed that she would be donating half of it to Swedish Golf Federation.
Hedwall scored 32 points followed by Alfredsson 29, Creamer and Poulter 27, Dubuisson 26, Maximilian Kieffer 22, Casey 20, Player 18, Thongchai Jaidee 16, McDowell and John Daly 15.
Sports fans from across the world, watched the nine-hole event live on the European Tour television platform and many of the local spectators thronged the course to watch their sports idols tee-off. The event was inaugurated earlier in the year when many
of the celebrated players of the sport unfurled the newest form of sport. Automaker Saab turned up to officially extend a sponsorship deal to the event, giving it another necessary boost.
McDowell will be heading straight into the Wales Open, scheduled this week at Celtic Manor, to defend his title. Wales Open will mark the warming up session just ahead of the second major of the season, The US Open at Congressional.
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