Amateur golfers from more than 100 clubs across England will be given the opportunity to qualify for a once-in-a-lifetime luxury trip to represent their country in the pro-am ahead of this year’s GolfSixes Cascais in Portugal. Club members nationwide will take part in individual qualifying tournaments at their home golf course, hoping to earn the right to compete at England Golf’s GolfSixes National Final at Centurion Club on Thursday May 2.
The competition will be held at the St Albans venue – which hosted the first two hugely successful editions of GolfSixes – and the winning pair will be handed the honour of representing England in the 2019 GolfSixes Cascais in Portugal. At the stunning Oitavos Dunes golf course in the exclusive beachside resort of Cascais, near Lisbon, the qualifiers will play alongside the stars of the European Tour and the women’s game as part of the build-up to the innovative event.
After representing England in the pro-am, the duo will also enjoy a full VIP treatment for the two-day event, which takes place from June 7-8. The qualifiers will also receive return flights to Lisbon, three nights’ accommodation and a GolfSixes gift pack. To give members this dream opportunity, all clubs need to do is stage a GolfSixes event and send the names of their two qualifiers to championships@englandgolf.org by Friday 12 April 2019. Players must be aged 18 and above to qualify for the trip to Portugal.
The six-hole national qualifying event will follow the same ground-breaking format as the 2018 GolfSixes with any ties being decided by the unique play-off hole created for the professional event.
James Crampton, England Golf Championship Director, said: “We’re thrilled to be working with the European Tour to offer this dream opportunity to our members. We’ve had a fantastic response to our first competition and I’d like to wish good luck to all our finalists.”
Mark Casey, Championship Director of GolfSixes Cascais, said: “We are delighted to be working alongside England Golf to launch this initiative once again, which showcases exactly what GolfSixes is all about – getting grassroots golfers involved in this exciting and innovative format.
“We want golfers across the country to get into this fun new format. This provides a great opportunity to play alongside some of the best players in the world game, both male and female, and enjoy the excitement of a tournament which has captured the imagination of the sporting public in the last two years.
“I would like to thank Centurion Club for hosting the national qualifying event to extend their association with the tournament, as well as Cascais Municipality, who will hosting the professional event in the next three years, for their generous hospitality.”
The GolfSixes format has not only proven a huge success on the European Tour – with The 2018 Ryder Cup also featuring the concept as part of its build-up at Le Golf National – but it has also been adopted across the grassroots of golf.
Oitavos Dunes is currently ranked 55th in Golf Magazine’s Top 100 Golf Courses in the World, while it is listed as Portugal’s Number One golf course. It has hosted the Open de Portugal on four occasions, first in 2005 when Paul Broadhurst emerged victorious, and then in three years in succession in 2007, 2008 and 2009, won by Pablo Martin Benavides, Grégory Bourdy and Michael Hoey respectively.
Centurion Club https://www.centurionclub.co.uk/
Oitavos Dunes https://oitavosdunes.com/
England Golf www.englandgolf.org