It’s that time of the year again.
This Saturday I will lead my team as a captain of Team Europe. We are aiming for back-to-back win against Team USA. It will be the 7th edition of The Cider Cup, biennial team matchplay tournament between two teams and a dozen good friends.
We will play golf. On the self-made garden course of a summer cottage. With wedges only. Using plastic practice balls that fly 25 yards, if you hit them hard.
Don’t you laugh there. Not too loud, at least.
There’s a former Finnish amateur champion, two pros and a bunch of avid wannabe-rories with handicaps close to scratch in the roster. Some of us are still playing occasional competitive golf, but this garden golf tournament is the tournament everyone desperately wants to win. It’s some serious business. Kind of.
The 5th Cider Cup, played four years ago, was epic. After six rounds of team matchplay it was a tie. The first playoff round didn’t make any heroes. Neither did the second. Finally, in the third round, it all came down to my match and my final putt. I missed it. From ten inches. Team USA had won.
My heart stopped beating, for a minute or two. But I’ve never enjoyed having a “heart attack” that much. It was the best team sport experience ever, even though I was the guy to blame.
Men in red. And blue.
This year, it could get even better. For the first time we can use Golf GameBook app for scoring in this kind of tournament. The newly launched Reds vs Blues game format provides us a real-time live scoring, which guarantees that the thrill of winning – or the fear of failure – will become even stronger towards the end.
There will be no tv-cameras or live worldwide broadcasting, and the grandstand behind the last green is crowded by other players only. We don’t feel the same pressure than Sergio Garcia or Ricky Fowler feels when they tee it up at Gleneagles next month. We don’t have the pressure of a nation or a whole continent on our shoulders, but we too play for the honour of our peers and the colours we wear. Despite playing nothing more than a funny little garden game with plastic balls you can almost catch after hitting your shot, we do consider Cider Cup as our very own Ryder Cup. For us, it almost feels like one.
GameBook wants to escort you to the same feeling and challenge all GameBook users to setup their own Reds vs Blues match of team matchplay. Through the app, we will offer you an excellent game format to be used in your tournament – and we will help you dive even deeper.
If you send us a free-form application and manage to convince us, GameBook will dress your teams. Tell us some details of the Reds vs Blues match you are going to arrange, and explain why you should get red and blue polo shirts and caps for the teams competing in your match. Our jury will pick up the application with the best arguments and GameBook donates the costumes for the teams.
Send your application by email to this address: jere.jaakkola@golfgamebook.com. The application can be written in English, Finnish or Swedish and you can spice it with a photo related to the match, but that’s not necessary. We will read every application that is sent us by Sunday 7th of September 2014.
The rest depends on you. Show us the Shakespeare in you, william.
-Jere
@jerej / @GolfGameBook on Twitter
