Game-show craze

As a television game show, it is intended to be a golfing version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? But somehow, it's difficult to imagine Gay Byrne at the helm as contestants are placed in a simulator where they play shots to imaginary holes which look like they have been taken from a George Lucas movie.

Two pilots are being filmed in Orlando this month for a show provisionally called Killer Golf which the inventors hope to sell to one of the American networks. The idea is that each week, five contestants will battle for a $40,000 first prize. There will also be a closest-to-the-pin contest on the 10th hole between 10 members of the audience.

The winner of each of these weekly competitions will return later in the year for a grand final and the chance of winning $1 million. "The game-show craze has kind of helped us along, but we were way ahead of the curve," said film producer Randall Badat, who claims to have conceived the idea three years ago with his partner, Kenneth Berris.

Concern over here as to whether competitors would be jeopardising their amateur status, seems somewhat far-fetched. Meanwhile, the producers' hope of attracting "a young, hip audience", would suggest the show might be more suited to the golfing Ronan Keating than the venerable GB. Who has the honour?