The chance to win £1million in a golf tournament is usually only reserved for tour professionals but a golf challenge to be played over a Scottish links course gives anyone a chance to scoop a £1m jackpot – for a price.
The Cool Million Challenge will take place between 3rd – 6th August at Archerfield Links Club in East Lothian, Scotland and will see sixty golfers from around the world compete in a mixture of stroke play and matchplay over the duration.
So where does the ‘anyone’ part come in?
The challenge invites anyone with a spare £50,000 to wager on a chosen player from the assembled field and effectively becoming their ‘owner’ for the tournament. The £1m jackpot would then be split between the gambler and the player, the terms of such an agreement being down to the individuals concerned. Backers of a player making the top 16 will get their £50,000 stake back.
The tournament is the brainchild of David Copeland, an entrepreneur in the online gambling industry and himself a keen golfer. The players to be involved in the challenge will come from the lower echelons of the Tour rankings – no player from the world’s top 500 will be in attendance – but can come from any of the official Tours.
On the first day, players will compete over 36 holes strokeplay before the field is whittled down to 16 players; after which a further two rounds of matchplay will determine the final four who will contest the final day of an event that will have a total purse of £2.2m.
Former Ryder Cup captains Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam, as well as Laura Davies, were some of the names being linked to the event, but their management company IMG has denied any involvement.
More details on the Cool Million Challenge is available from the tournament website www.coolmillionchallenge.com
