POWERPLAY: Richard Gillistalks to Peter McEvoy about a new nine-hole game called PowerPlay which he hopes will make as big an impression as cricket's Twenty20 game

There's a race going to create a new, short version of golf. To the winner will go much gold. Next week will give us an idea whether PowerPlay Golf is the way forward.

Every sports administrator around the world has noted the success of Twenty20 cricket and is under pressure to come up with something similar. In the past few weeks alone, short forms of tennis, squash and even showjumping have come out with the relevant authorities' thoughts on their own versions.

This is the fast food version of sport - get in, make a noise and get out in under two hours.

This week the biggest sporting event in the world is being played in India, the inaugural Twenty20 Indian Premier League. It's an idea thought up by two men in a café last autumn and when presented to Sony's television executives, they liked it so much they paid nearly a billion euro to cover it. Kids like it, women like it and big business likes it. No more six hours over five days ending in a draw. And this is cricket! A game that prides itself on its traditions and etiquette every bit as much as golf does.

The question for the European Tour, Sky and Setanta and golf's other powerbrokers is simple: Are there any other billion euro ideas out there?

Peter McEvoy thinks his PowerPlay Golf may have an answer. McEvoy is England's most capped amateur player, former Walker Cup captain and now chairman of selectors. He is also one of the game's quiet revolutionaries.

Next week, the Sky cameras will screen the first PowerPlay Shootout, a sort of pro-celebrity version of the game, to test the appetite of its viewers for short form golf.

The new format has two flags on each green, one easier (white) and one more difficult (black). Each player must nominate before hitting off the tee, and depending on handicap, each player must go for at least three black flags over the course of the first eight holes. The ninth hole is a chance to bag double points.

We are playing around a nine-hole course in London which in itself is different. This is the 'Majors' course at Northwick Park in north west London, which sits within a drive and a four-iron of Wembley Stadium. Each of the nine holes is a copy of some of the most famous in world golf.

So as we stand on the first tee, I'm faced with the infamous sixth tee at the Riviera Golf and Country Club, the scene of Ben Hogan's 1948 US Open triumph. My hesitation is due to the hole's defining feature, a bloody great bunker in the middle of the green. Lying in wait ahead of us is Royal Troon's Postage Stamp hole, the treacherous ninth at The Belfry and both of the great short holes on Augusta's back nine, the 12th and the 16th.

McEvoy hits off first, his swing simple and smooth, the trajectory of the ball a high gentle draw that sees the ball nestle a few feet away from the white flag. My backswing, inhibited by the growing gallery of onlookers, barely gets about hip height before coming down like an executioner's axe.

The ball chunks toward an overhanging tree. Good job I went for the 'easy' pin.

"Golf has four problems," says McEvoy, as we head off to look for my ball. "It takes too long to play, it costs too much, it's too difficult and it's too elitist."

He paints a worrying picture for those with a vested interest in the game in Ireland and the other mature golf markets. Playing rounds are down year-on-year and golf for many young people is something you watch, not what you play.

Golf no longer just competes with other sports such as rugby and football for kids' attention. "Those days are over," he says, pointing a wedge at my excuse for a tee shot. "It's now competing with Xbox and Playstation, which are fantastic. I used to play in the garden with a stick that I pretended was a gun, now they play these incredible games. Sport has got to become exciting and in a time frame that is relevant to young people."

We walk off the first, him with birdie, me with bogey. Something of a trend is developing.

"Imagine if the world had only ever known the short format, where we play for three hours over nine holes, and then someone comes along and said, no what you want is to play over four days, 72 holes and then maybe at the end in the last few holes it might become interesting. But that's what we do."

My next tee shot is a good one, and lands on the left-hand side of the fairway. The hole is based on the 14th at Ganton Heath, a familiar Walker Cup venue, all heather and gorse. My shot has inadvertently opened up a clear view of the tougher black flag, which is tucked away in the far corner of the green, but because I hadn't nominated a PowerPlay at the tee I'm not allowed to go for it. The format adds a dimension to the round, but I'm so tied up in hitting the ball, the extra pressure of actually thinking about something else has the inevitable effect.

As we move around the course, the more the risk/reward element of PowerPlay format comes in to play. The shortest hole in Open Championship roster, the Postage Stamp at Troon, is our sixth hole with its Coffin bunker recreated perfectly alongside the green. Inevitably, I hit it straight in. the walls of the trap are so deep that it takes three shots to get out.

The final hole at Northwick Park is a copy of the 12th at Augusta. The real one is one of the most famous par threes in golf. And this version gives you an idea why it has played with the heads of many of the best golfers down the years. The green is protected at the front by water, and has bunkers front and back. The flag is perched on the thin strip of green in between and there are few places to look that offer a safe route. Judgement of distance is critical as the landing area between flag and sand is no more than one club.

I hit off first with a six iron, and it's a good one, so I hold my follow through for what seems like 10 minutes, only to see the ball disappear in to the white crystal sand of the front trap - gutted. "Think how hard it is when there is a swirling wind up there, like there is at the real thing," says McEvoy. "You just have to hit it up there and hope."

McEvoy was the first British amateur to make the cut at the Masters (in 1979) and in all he played in the event three times. He remembers arriving at the course 10 days early for his first appearance, following his completion of his law exams.

"There we were, pretending to prepare to win the Masters, and then the pros turned up and spoiled everything," he says, chuckling. At that time the perfectly manicured course was a shock to the young man brought up in grey, wet England.

"There are more courses which are prepared in that way now, but back then it was exceptional, to the extent that I found it difficult to take a divot on the fairway because it felt like a green, instinctively you didn't want to do it. My eyes were watering so much in the bunkers because of the marble white sand in the bright sunshine."

He laughs that his preparation for the 1979 Masters was his local club's February stableford, "which would have been alright but it was on temporary greens".

Because of his early arrival at Augusta, he found he was able to negotiate the speed and the contours of the greens. "The very first putt I had was about 20 feet for a birdie on the first green in a practice round. I was playing with my dad and a mate. I thought, 'this looks fast', and played it as softly as I could, but hit it 20 feet past on a flat putt. By contrast, at the 72nd hole of the tournament I had a six-footer downhill and left it short, I'd got to the point when I was used to the speed.

"I was in sync with the greens, it happens eventually."

His ball has spun back off the front of the green and stopped before going in to the water, a lucky break the pros don't get at Augusta.

"The young players are all more experienced now. I was an 18-year-old, who won the Amateur Championship. Today my equivalents will have played all over the world.

"Not that much in front of crowds or on TV, but they would be more familiar with the conditions than I was."

McEvoy is a throwback to another age. The idea that someone as good as him would not have turned pro is today unthinkable.

"I was never a full-time player, I was studying law and doing articles and had a job. They are all full-time now," he says picking his ball up from the hole and holding out his hand. "My career is not possible now."

We head off to the clubhouse, my scorecard a mass of circles and crosses, highlighting where I've gone for PowerPlays and failed. What Sky TV would make of my round is anyone's guess, and better players will test the format more rigorously.

But it's an enjoyable couple of hours and because of the scoring system, I'm in with a chance for longer than would normally have been the case.

It may be that for all his contributions to golf, Peter McEvoy's legacy will be his vision of the game's future. Twenty20 vision to be precise.

PowerPlay: How it works

PowerPlay Golf is a new nine-hole form of golf, where there are two flags, one white and one black, on every green. Players score extra points when they take a 'PowerPlay' and go for the Black Flag - double stableford points for a net birdie or better.

Each player has a limited number of 'PowerPlays' per round so strategy is paramount.

Each player must nominate a PowerPlay on the tee, before the tee shot. Once the shot is taken, it cannot be withdrawn.

They MUST use a total of three PowerPlays in the first eight holes. On the last ninth hole, a fourth 'bonus PowerPlay' is available.

Players lose two points for a net bogie or worse. This is where games can be won or lost in the swing of a club.

PowerPlay Golf Strokeplay uses the Stableford scoring system, so players have nine holes to score as many points as they can. The high risk, high reward option (black flag) allows players to multiply their scores.

PowerPlay Golf Matchplay is where you go head to head with other golfers. A score on a PowerPlay hole 'trumps' the same score not on a PowerPlay. This can be played as a singles competition or foursomes.