This article was produced in partnership with GOLFZON.
What began as a 12-team simulator-golf match-play competition for a $150,000 grand prize is now a nine-team battle to the finish.
Matches 1, 2 and 3 have been completed on GOLFZON Tour — a new league in which regional teams of five players each from 12 selected GOLFZON host facilities (nine are in the U.S., three others are from London, Toronto and Mexico) compete against each other in a series of matches, with one team earning the grand prize payout.
Team Orlando defeated Team Louisville in Match 1, while Team Minneapolis defeated Team Chicago in Match 2. (You can read the full match recaps here.)
In this simulator golf league, everyday players are competing for $150,000
Single-elimination bracket play is now in progress. Female competitors play 85 percent of the yardage of their male counterparts. Teams of three compete head-to-head by linking their simulators together over the Internet in a match-play format, with two of the best three player scores for each team counting on each hole.
If, after 18 holes, there’s a tie, the match goes into a sudden-death playoff where all three players’ scores count. The first team to score lower than the other on a hole wins.
In this GOLFZON Tour international matchup, Team New York and Team London battled on El Camaleon, a longtime PGA Tour host course which has most recently served as a host venue for LIV. The teams competed against each other in real time from their regional simulator locations.
Team New York started strong, winning the first two holes to take an early 2 up lead. But then a back-and-forth battle began, with Team London winning the 4th hole, Team New York winning the 5th, and Team London getting on a roll, winning the 6th, 7th and 8th holes to take the lead in the match for the first time, going 1 up through 8. A Team New York victory on the 9th hole, however, brought the match back to all square at the turn.
On the back nine, it was Team New York’s turn to make a run. With wins on Nos. 10, 11 and 12, Team New York regained control of the match, going 3 up with six holes remaining.
Team London fought back with a win on the 13th hole to cut the deficit to 2, but Team New York’s lead proved to be too much to overcome. A win on No. 15 brought New York back to 3 up, and when Team London failed to win the 16th hole to extend the match, it was over, with Team New York winning the match 3 and 2.
That means Team New York is one of nine teams still in the running for the grand prize of $150,000, and will face Team Detroit next in GOLFZON Tour’s quarterfinal round.
The 12 teams competing in this edition of GOLFZON Tour are:
East Division
Detroit – Tee Times
London – The Golf Rooms – ELIMINATED (Match 3)
Louisville – Tee It Up Golf USA – ELIMINATED (Match 1)
New York City – Golfzon Social
Orlando – Golfzon Leadbetter
Toronto – Golfplay
West Division
Chicago – The Green – ELIMINATED (Match 2)
Houston – The Daly Round
Los Angeles – Golf Envy
Mexico – Mulligan’s Monterrey
Minneapolis – Element Indoor Golf
Tulsa – BirdieBay
You can watch the matches in their entirety on GOLFZON’s YouTube page, where new episodes and match recaps will be released weekly. The tour is in the midst of single-elimination rounds, so you can follow along each week to see which team ends up making it to the finale in January.
To learn more about GOLFZON Tour — and follow the match-play bracket progress — click here.
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