GOLFZON Tour’s Team Orlando defeats Team Canada in Match 5
GOLFZON Tour's Team Canada battled Team Orlando at the Old Course at St. Andrews.
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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 seven-team battle to the finish.
The first five matches 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. 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.
In this simulator golf league, everyday players are competing for $150,000
The Format
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.
GOLFZON Tour Match 5 Recap: Team Canada (Toronto) vs. Team Orlando
In this GOLFZON Tour international matchup, Team Canada (Toronto) and Team Orlando played each other at an iconic venue: the Old Course at St. Andrews. The teams competed against each other in real time from their regional simulator locations.
Team Canada was one of four teams who earned a bye in the first round of match-play during the qualifying stage, while Team Orlando was already seasoned for high-octane competition, having defeated Team Louisville in Round 1.
It was an up-and-down battle from the start, with Team Orlando winning the first two holes and Team Canada bouncing back with a win on the third. Then Orlando won the fourth hole and Canada won the fifth and seventh holes to tie the match.
Team Orlando won the 8th hole, then Canada answered with a win at the 9th, bringing the match back to all square at the match’s halfway point.
The teams tied the 10th and 11th holes, with Team Orlando finally gaining a 1-up advantage with a win on the 12th. Orlando maintained that lead all the way to the 17th hole — the famous Road Hole — where Team Canada prevailed to tie the match yet again with just one hole remaining.
Another tie on the 18th, the final hole of the match, meant it was time for sudden death. In sudden death, all three team player scores count instead of the best two. Yet another tie on the first sudden-death hole meant the teams would have to keep going — the first time more than one extra hole has been necessary in this edition of GOLFZON Tour. When two of Team Canada’s team members hit it OB on the second sudden-death hole, the door to victory opened for Team Orlando, and they ultimately won the match with a birdie and two tap-in pars.
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