SPRINT6GOLF launches

Could Gareth Bale's sporting influence go beyond football to have a potentially significant impact on golf?

The Real Madrid and Wales winger has joined a movement promoting formats that make the game shorter and faster to play. The thinking is that golf would benefit from creating its own equivalent of Twenty20 cricket. 

A new format played over six holes, where golfers are allowed only 30 seconds to execute shots, has been launched and Gareth Bale has alerted his 17.3 million Instagram followers to SPRINT6GOLF.

The European Tour has also endorsed SPRINT6 golf.

Players can download a smartphone app, which explains the rules and provides a stopwatch. If you take too long you receive a yellow card and a second bad time leads to a one-shot penalty.

"The idea is to speed up golf and give people a viable alternative to the long form of the game," SPRINT6GOLF founder Tom Critchley told BBC Sport.

"Can you play golf in an hour? Yes, you can. Very simply, it is six holes on a 30-second shot-clock. The moment you put your bag down the clock starts and people get on with it."

The clock really only comes into play for tee shots and on the green. Strokes in between are self-policed but by then the quicker tone has been set.

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Click here or on the image below to read another form of the game - Night Golf with the stars