ING Par 3 Shootout…
Tonight (June 26) and Tomorrow (June 27), ESPN2 will be airing the ING Par 3 Shootout at Treetops. This is one of my favorite “prime time” events of the year (even though it is tape delayed from earlier during the day). In the 2005 version, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, and rookies Andy North and Gary McCord will battle for the $540,000 purse. Also, if someone makes a hole-in-one, he will receive $10,000. Roger Twibell, Charlie Rymer, and Bill Kratzert will comprise the ESPN broadcast team, which will be a nice change from listening to Johnny Miller all weekend. For those of you who have never watched the Shootout, here is a description of the format:
Each hole is worth $20,000 and there is a $10,000 bonus for the player hitting his shot closest to the pin. If a hole is tied (2 tie, all tie), the money carries over to the next hole. If a hole is won, the player with the lowest score must “validate” his win on the next hole. In order to “validate”, the winning player must either win or tie the lowest score on the next hole, or the money carries over as if the hole were tied. And there is no required validation, if the tournament goes into a playoff.
This is a great event, because the players will be wearing microphones and will be interviewed after winning a hole. McCord and Phil are always interesting to listen to, and Freddy is a pretty funny guy as well. North does on course analysis for ESPN and ABC, so it will be interesting to actually watch him play golf. Anyways tune in and watch ESPN2 tonight and then check back to The Golf Blog after the first round for my post round coverage.
Tweet