Call it England’s “Battle of the Sexes.”
The male English team of Matt Wallace and Eddie Pepperell and the female English team of Charley Hull and Georgia Hall seem intent on having fun with their match-play showdown Saturday in the European Tour’s GolfSixes event at the Centurion Club in St. Albans, England.
In just its second year, GolfSixes is adding yet another innovative wrinkle, bringing two female teams into the mix and one male/female mixed team.
Wallace/Pepperell will meet Hull/Hall in the first session.
“We’ll get some stick on social media if we lose,” Pepperell said.
Good crowds are expected to come out and see the home teams clash in one of the unique format’s six-hole matches.
“I’d rather beat the ladies tomorrow and miss every cut the rest of the year than lose and play well for the rest of the year,” Pepperell cracked. “It is different, and I don’t know how we’ll feel tomorrow.”
Ladbrokes makes the English men a 2/3 betting favorite to beat the women, who will be playing from the forward tees.
“Personally, I think it would be massive if one of the women’s teams won it,” Hall said. “The pressure is on the men, 100 percent, because we’re in England and it’s the men’s European Tour.”
Hull teamed with Hall on last year’s European Solheim Cup team.
“Beating the guys would be a lot of fun, especially back here in England,” Hull said. “It’s just going to be a lot of fun whatever happens.”
Sixteen teams divided into four groups will compete in six-hole round-robin matches, with the top two teams in each group advancing to knockout stages.
A European women’s team featuring England’s Mel Reid and Spain’s Carlota Ciganda is also in the mix. European Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn is paired with European Solheim Cup captain Catriona Matthew.
Source: Internet
