Teeing off and Shuffling Up - Fairways and Felts Challenge | 2010 PokerStars EPT Vilamoura

Thanks to Mad Harper of PokerStars for filling us in on the early morning action at the golf course today, as poker players headed into the warm sunshine to test themselves in a different arena...

A host of stars took some time away from Solverde Casino today to head
for beautiful Pinhal Golf Course - and the first stage of the Fairways
and Felts golf-and-poker contest. The €1,100 buy-in event even
attracted England football legend Teddy Sheringham, although he had to
cut his game short after just six holes to get back in time for the
Main Event where he’s still got 301,000 in chips .

The 14 golfers were split into four teams and played the match as a
Texas scramble – each player on the team hits their ball, the team
chooses the best shot and then everyone takes their next shot
(including putts) from that spot.

The teams were as follows (nationality and handicap in brackets):

A) Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu (Canada, 11.5) and Marcin
Horecki (Poland, 20.8)., Friend of PokerStars Sheringham (UK, 16) and
golf pro Tom Larsen (Norway, 0.5)
B) Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie (UK, 24), Joachim Selzer (Germany,
24), former Dutch national team golfer Willem Vork (Netherlands, 2)
C) Team PokerStars Pro Pieter de Korver (Netherlands, 17), James
Dempsey (UK, 18), Roderick van Welsun (Netherlands, 2), Eddie Tasbas
(Sweden, scratch).
D) Team PokerStars Pro and Challenge host JP Kelly (UK, 24), Jeff
Sarwer (Canada, 20), Gary Bain (Canada, 20)

Part 2 of the Challenge takes place with a NLHE poker tournament
tomorrow back at Solverde Casino in Vilamoura. Non-golfers can still
compete in the poker part of the tournament if they wish (for €840),
but lose the chance to win bonus chips by performing well on the golf
course. Extra chips up for grabs include 500 chips for every stroke
under par and 500 chips for the longest drive or putt. A hole-in-one
on the 8th hole wins a WCOOP Main Event entry.