ADT Skills Challenge Intros 'Reverse Scramble' to TV Golf With 8 PGA Tour Pros Competing on NBC

ADT Skills Challenge Intros 'Reverse Scramble' to TV Golf With 8 PGA Tour Pros Competing on NBC

PALM BEACH, Fla., Dec. 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new competitive format, the "Reverse Scramble," will make its national television debut when the 2009 ADT Skills Challenge airs on NBC Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 26 and 27, 4-6 p.m. (check local listings). It is the only golf on network television that final weekend of the year.

Four teams -- Fred Couples/Hunter Mahan, Kenny Perry/J.B. Holmes, Brandt Snedeker/Boo Weekley and Nick Price/Fred Funk -- will square off in the situational shot-making competition with $800,000 at stake. For the first time, the 18th annual event will include a culminating, single-hole competition played as a "Reverse Scramble."

Contrary to the traditional "Scramble" format, the rules of the "Reverse Scramble" call for the opposing team to select which shot its rival twosome must play, adding a new dimension to the competition. The format is especially conducive to the ADT Skills Challenge TV production approach, which showcases the personalities of the players, all of whom wear microphones. It was taped in October at The Breakers in Palm Beach.

The six mainstay skills -- Long Drive, Mid-Iron, Bunker Shot, Chip Shot, Trouble Shot and Short Iron -- will be followed by the "Reverse Scramble," representing the seventh and eighth skills. The four teams will be seeded according to prize money won in those first six skills and the weighted sum of $200,000 will be at stake.

"'The Reverse Scramble' is a terrific format," said Snedeker. "If you don't hit a good shot, you let yourself down and you really let your partner down, because then he has to deal with it. It's funny because, this way, playing the worse shot, it's like we're handicap golfers again."

"The structure of our event allows for an innovative addition like the 'Reverse Scramble,'" said Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC Sports, which owns the event. "The home TV audience will be in on the golfers' strategy banter and then be able to see the results."

"Every year the ADT Skills Challenge is full of surprises and this year is no different," noted John Koch, president of ADT, North America. "The ingredients are all there combining an interesting format with a roster of talented players for an entertaining and exciting event."

Source: ADT Skills Challenge

CONTACT: Steve Griffith of Vizion Group, +1-484-433-7757,
sgriffith@viziongroup.net; or Ann Lindstrom of ADT Security Services,
+1-561-988-3258 alindstrom@adt.com

-------
Profile: intent