We were at the Centurion Club in Hemel Hempstead last week to do some drone golf course aerial photography and video of the six holes featured in the tournament.

The European Tour productions used our film for their pre-tournament promotional videos, posted on their social media including their Instagram page.

You can view all of videos on our YouTube channel, here is the link.

We filmed the six holes using both our Inspire and Phantom drones on Tuesday before the start of the tournament on Friday. Most of the spectator stands and the giant television screens on every holes were in place and the European Tour outside broadcast television equipment was on site. We counted at least fifteen articulated lorries in the TV compound located by the side of the last hole.

Everything had to be ready for the pro-am on the Friday then the tournament was over two days on Saturday and Sunday the 6th and 7th of May.

We were unable to fly drones at the tournament because of the CAA restrictions on flying drones at or over events with over 1,000 people.

On the two tournament days aerial filming was done using EyeFlyer ACS using a helium filled aerostat balloon blimp. The blimp was tethered at 600 feet giving a clear aerial view of all six holes.

Underneath it was configured to carry a HD gyro stabilised camera mount (HD Cineflex V14) which was controlled from the ground and fitted with a Fibre link down the tether line for video transmission. There were other camaras on rails and in the very high cherry picker.

Here are some images of the blimp, the van television studio at the bottom, and other cameras.

The Golf Sixes tournament made it debut at the Centurion Club, a new golf format likened to the twenty20 cricket. This was broadcast to 450 million viewers worldwide on Sky Sports at primetime on Saturday and Sunday.

European Tour players from 16 different nations competed in two-man teams in a knockout competition with one team winning on the final day.

Playing a six-hole course with themed holes that include shot clocks and a longest drive leaderboard, each team played in greensomes format- where the two players select their best tee shot and then play alternate shot thereafter.

The top two teams from each of the four groups progressed to the knockout stage — the quarter-finals, the semi-finals, a 3rd/4th place play-off match and the final.

The top seeds were the English duo of Chris Wood and Andy Sullivan, but were knocked out in the quarterfinals.

Denmark held off the 15 other teams and took home the trophy after a thrilling 3–1 victory in the final against Australia. The Danish duo of Thorbjorn Olesen and Lucas Bjerregaard celebrate their victory.

Image from Twitter

The European Tour Introduced the use of a shot clock on one of the holes, this is an idea that could swiftly be incorporated in existing long-form tournaments.

This inaugural event proved meaningful golf matches can be played over as few as six holes. They can be done in just over an hour and a great tournament can be completed in a weekend.

For spectators, there was plenty to watch and hear, with a fan zone in the middle of the six-hole course. It was good to see a lot of younger spectators, changing the current perception of golf taking too long to play and watch and only appealing to a mainly male aging audience.

In conclusion, a very successful weekend and tournament, which according to the European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley will be back.

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