Sunday, 20 October 2019:
 | | JASON DAY of Australia plays in Jeju, South Korea. | |
|
Organisers of a made-for-television golf exhibition featuring Jason Day and Tiger Woods in Japan have revealed interest in taking a similar spectacle to Australia.
Day and Woods will join Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama in contesting the Japan Skins Challenge at the Accordia Golf Narashino, club outside Tokyo, on Monday.
Skins is a format in which a monetary value, or 'skin', is assigned to each hole. The player with the lowest score on a hole wins the skin but if there is a tie, the skin carries over to the next hole.
The US PGA Tour hosted a skins match from 1983 to 2008 and Woods contested six of those between 1996 and 2005.
Japanese interest in seeing Woods, who won the Masters at Augusta in April, is sky-high and the 43-year-old received a wild welcome at a Nike promotional event in Tokyo on Sunday.
Global interest in Woods is also high given the match will be his' first competitive appearance since undergoing an arthroscopic procedure on his knee in August.
The skins will also be the first televised exhibition match that McIlroy, Day and Matsuyama have participated in.
"It's going to be a lot of fun playing in front of great Japanese fans, especially in a skins format against Tiger, Rory and Hideki," Day told AAP.
"It's a good opportunity to showcase golf in a country that really loves the game."
The skins match is a lead up event to the Zozo Championship, the first US PGA Tour event held in Japan, which starts Thursday.
The skins match will be presented by Golf TV, a video streaming platform owned by media giants Discovery for countries outside the US.
Last year, the US PGA Tour handed over international multi-platform broadcast rights to Discovery in a $2 billion partnership.
Australia was one of the first markets to receive Golf TV and its president of golf, Alex Kaplan, said the company had intentions of hosting an exhibition down under.
"That is something we would be incredibly interested in doing; exactly when and how I can't say just yet," Kaplan told AAP.
"But we absolutely want to look at Australia and partner with different governing bodies to take new and exciting events there; whether that is the skins game, or something similar, or a new idea.
"Fandom for golf in Australia is unmatched anywhere in the world and that's something we'd love to tap in to."
Australians can watch the Japan Skins on Golf TV, which has exclusive rights to the full broadcast, while the Nine Network will show the first two hours.
Players will tee off 3pm AEDT.
JAPAN SKINS CHALLENGE
* Players will be competing for $US350,000 pot to be distributed to for selected charity partners
* Skins on holes 1 to 6 are worth $10,000, then US$15,000 from holes 7 to 12 and $US20,000 from No.13 to No.17, before a $US100,000 super skin is on offer at No.18.
