Paddy Power is setting out to settle ‘sports greatest question’ as the stars of golf, snooker and darts take on the Paddy Power Perfect Challenge.
Each year, usually around the time of the PDC World Darts Championship, people take to social media to debate which is harder out of getting a hole-in-one in golf, making a perfect 147 break in snooker or throwing a nine-dart leg in darts.
Today (4 November) at 12pm GMT, a duo from each of the three sports will be attempting to be the first to achieve perfection.
🚨 Win tickets to the PDC World Darts Championship Final!🚨
‼️ Watch The Paddy Power Perfect Challenge‼️
Guess which happens most out of the 147, hole in one and nine-darter
🎯 Luke Humphries & MvG
🎱 Shaun Murphy & Mark Williams
⛳️ Ross Fisher & Matt Wallace⏰ 12 – 2pm… pic.twitter.com/a89n4aLP63
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) December 3, 2024
Streamed across Paddy Power’s social media channels from its studio in Manchester, darts professionals Luke Humphries and Michael Van Gerwen will try to hit a nine-darter while Shaun Murphy and Mark Williams will attempt a 147 break.
All four players are current or former world champions in their respective sports.
Meanwhile, at Hertsmere Golf Club, DP World Tour pros Matt Wallace and Ross Fisher will attempt a hole-in-one on a 141-yard par three. Alongside the pros, ex-professional footballer Peter Crouch and former WBC Cruiserweight world champion Tony Bellew will also have a go at hitting an ace.
The Bigger 180
The announcement of the challenge, in the run-up to the PDC Darts World Championship, follows the Flutter-owned brand pledging £180,000 for every nine-dart finish at this year’s tournament.
🎯 The BIGGER 180 🎯
We donated £1MILLION to @ProstateUK last year. Now we're going even bigger!
We're putting up £180k for EVERY 9-darter – shared between player, a fan in crowd & @ProstateUK.
And STILL donating £1k for every 180!@OfficialPDC | @SkySports | 18+ GambleAware pic.twitter.com/VRLVL7FPSv
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) November 25, 2024
The money will be split evenly between Prostate Cancer UK, the player who throws the perfect leg and a fan in the Alexandra Palace crowd.
Paddy Power will also donate £1,000 for every 180 thrown in the tournament.
On the challenge, Paddy Power stated: “Our finance department has been getting a bit nervy after hearing of our mad-cap idea to put up £180,000 for every nine-darter at Ally Pally this year, but I myself hope there’s an absolute lorry load!
“A little bit of extra practice for Luke and MVG can’t hurt – and I can’t wait to see us answer sport’s greatest questions in the process.”
What are the odds
At the time of writing, 208 147 breaks have been made in professional snooker while on average professional golfers make a hole-in-one on a par 3 approximately 1 in 2,500 shots. The likelihood of a nine-darter being thrown on tour is 5,000/1, however, given the ability of Humphries and Van Gerwen, Paddy Power estimates it to be closer to 2,500/1.
Ahead of the event Paddy Power tipsters Brian McGuinness and Nicola O’Sullivan considered the odds for which of the feats will be achieved first.
Currently, the nine-darter is the favourite at 8/11 with the 147 break and hole-in-one outsiders at 11/1 and 12/1 respectively. The odds of none of the events happening in the two hours are 2/1.
McGuinness said: “As a decent golfer I’d fancy my chances in this challenge to make the hole-in-one. The real difficulty of golfers normally is that we only play four par 3 holes per round. We battle external elements, different distances and pin position In this challenge, the latter two factors are constant. That greatly increases the chances of making the shot.
“Anyway, enough about golf. Given one event is certain to happen, it’s logical to take the nine-dart finish over both the hole-in-one and 147.”
