The European Tour struck gold with their inaugural Hero Challenge on Tuesday night in Hertfordshire, England. A stadium-surrounded, one-hole knockout bracket resulted in Frenchman Alexander Levy topping Swede Alex Noren for the £10,000 first prize for charity. The event was held two days before the start of the Euro Tour’s British Masters.
The 156-yard hole saw players, as well as celebrities, take part in really cool environment, play some good golf and have fun all at the same time. What a novel concept. Among the other players involved were Luke Donald, Shane Lowry, Andrew “Beef” Johnston, Andy Sullivan, Bernd Wiesberger and Jeev Milka Singh.
Oh my that was wicked. I had so much fun. Defo gotta do it again
— Andrew’BEEF’Johnston (@BeefGolf) October 11, 2016
Here’s a bit of the dispatch from EuropeanTour.com.
“That was a lot of fun,” said Levy. “I said to Alex Noren, I felt more pressure there than in the play-off in Germany, which is ridiculous.
“It was amazing to see the crowds and everyone enjoying it. Golf needs something like this and it is a great idea. We did the Fastest Par Five earlier this year which was great fun and this was amazing too. I really enjoyed it, and of course it is always nice to win.”
Levy was firing his tee shots to the green throughout the knockout contest and it was his shot to 15ft in the final which ultimately helped him win the inaugural contest, with the Frenchman two-putting for par. Like Levy, runner-up Noren was also a big fan of the innovative new format.
“This was similar to a tournament in that you want to hit a good shot, but there was a bit more pressure in some ways because of the crowd,” he said. “It was fantastic to see so many come out and support it, and it was great. I would love to do more of this.”
You can watch the entire event in its entirety below.
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