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 five-team battle to the finish.
The first seven matches have been completed on the 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., the 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. Team London fell to Team New York in Match 3, and Team Houston defeated Team Mexico in Match 4. Match 5 featured another international battle, pitting Team Canada against Team Orlando in the first match of the quarterfinals. Team Orlando won in a sudden-death playoff to launch themselves into the semifinal round. In Match 6, Team Tulsa defeated Team Houston to become the second team to reach the semi-finals.
With the third semi-final spot up for grabs, Team New York took on Team Detroit.
In this simulator golf league, everyday players are competing for $150,000
The Format
Single-elimination bracket play is currently in progress. 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. Female competitors play 85 percent of the yardage of their male counterparts.
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.
GOLFZON Tour Match 7 Recap: Team New York vs. Team Detroit
In this GOLFZON Tour quarterfinal matchup, Team New York and Team Detroit played each other at a bucket-list venue: Spyglass Hill, a longtime host of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and widely reputed as one of the world’s toughest courses. The teams competed against each other in real time from their regional simulator locations.
Team Detroit was one of four teams that earned a bye in the first round of match-play during the qualifying stage, while Team New York already had a head-to-head win on the resume after defeating Team London in Match 3.
Team Detroit got on the board first, with a win on the 2nd hole. New York punched back with a win on the 4th to bring the match back to all square, with Team Detroit claiming the 5th hole to go back to 1 up.
The up-and-down pattern continued, with New York claiming the 6th hole, Detroit winning the 7th and New York winning the 8th. At this point, it appeared the match would be like many others in this GOLFZON Tour series, going down to the wire or perhaps even extra holes.
But then…Team Detroit took control, winning an astonishing six holes in a row to end the match on the 14th hole with a 6-and-4 victory. It is the largest margin of victory thus far, and a performance that makes Team Detroit one to watch as we inch closer to the finale.
