Boyle’s TopGolfer at UK’s first range-based pro-am

Literally shooting the lights out with a huge total of 489 points, Stuart Boyle (Wentworth) won the TopGolf Pairs Pro-Am at the company’s state-of-the-art range in Addlestone, Surrey.

TopGolf Watford’s PGA Assistant Professional David Botley with his partner Chris Paul off 19 handicap won the Pairs event, and if the feedback is anything to go by, it will be the first of a whole new and excitingly different format for pro-am golf.

Boyle thought the new event was a great idea, commenting: “It was terrific, really different. Everyone was having a great time, and there was a great atmosphere, music playing, all really chilled. Your mates are sitting in the bay watching you hit your shots while sitting down and chatting away with drinks to hand. It’s a great way to do a very different kind of pro-am!”

Other competitors tweeted comments to TopGolf Addlestone’s PGA Head Professional Jamie Savory such as ‘Hope it goes from strength to strength!’, ‘Thanks for a great event tonight chaps’, and ‘All your staff are a credit to the industry’.

TopGolf and The PGA in England (South) joined forces to develop and run the UK’s first-ever range-based pro-am. Starting at 6pm in the evening, 22 teams paired up to use 11 of Addlestone’s 58 bays. Over the next two hours the professionals and amateurs competed in three different types of shoot-out, aiming at the equivalent of illuminated, electronically managed dartboards to score points with micro-chipped balls.

Each time a ball hit one of the targets, the score was automatically registered on a board in the teams’ bays. With each player hitting 20 balls per format, the premium was on accuracy. The first format, Top Pressure, required the players to pitch at the 50 yard targets and take out the nine different segments including the centre ring. With the remaining balls, the successful players then went for the next level for double the points.

The second format, Top Break, was like snooker with red targets at 25 yards and low point scores, followed by coloured targets with the furthest at 240 yards offering ten points. The third game, TopGolf, was about scoring as many points as possible, with each player aiming their last set of 20 balls at targets set up with six concentric rings, and points varying according to distance.

Savory was bowled over by the feedback from the competitors, saying: “This is the first time a Pro-Am event has been played using the TopGolf format, and it went fantastically well.

“There was a great atmosphere on the night and lots of really positive comments from everyone. It took just two hours from start to finish, it’s weather-proof and it’s after work in the evening. It’ll definitely be an annual event, and as it’s easy to set up and manage, maybe it’ll be more often!"