With both Football and Golf great British sports, it was only a matter of time before someone combined the two and created what is known as Footgolf! Who started Footgolf is unclear but the first organised tournament began in the Netherlands in 2008 and was played by Dutch and Belgian footballers. Later in 2010 it was introduced to Argentina on a national level and soon various countries began collaborating on developing the game. Currently Footgolf is offered on over 240 golf courses in the US and recognised by the PGA.
Footgolf's popularity emerges with the decline among younger generations with Golf and the formula of Golf and Football is even saving some golf courses.
In Japan though it has been a little slower to catch on, but recently the Japan Footgolf Association (JFGA) joined the Federation for International Footgolf (FIFG) with courses slowly running Footgolf events.

BEFC discovered Footgolf recently and there was some talk of creating an event, once we discovered what it was actually all about! Well after contacting the JFGA, BEFC TML Captain Ben headed off with business partners and chumrades from Rain Interactive to find out on the only course that does regular FootGolf - Kentos Golf in Utsunomiya.

The course itself is a little way from Utsunomiya station and so the team decided to rent a car and it was an easy 1hr 40(ish) drive up to the course. The earlier reservation was done by phone and the golf course staff were ready for their guests. After studying some Footgolf dress codes we decided on appropriate chappish apparell, but to be honest it was much more relaxed than anticipated with the other groups on the course. Young lads in something close to sporting tracksuits and/or smart training tops. However no boots are allowed so you're playing in court football boots or trainers.

Footgolf is a lot of fun although it is nothing like playing football, so expecting your skills to translate over isn't a given. Often in football you are striking the ball on the move and not from deadball, purposefully putting pace on it for people to run onto; not to roll it to a stop on a hole. The other interesting factor is adjustments you need to make to kick when on an incline, whether up or down. You also have to plan your use of terrain. Golfers understand this, but it becomes something you have to learn if you're going to kick the shot you want. Other things are how the position of the hole can favour right or left footers, and the effect the grass will have on how the ball rolls or stops - things you aren't having to consider playing in a teammate on 3G astro turf.

Verdict on Footgolf was everyone had a quality fun time, with the best part being a hole where we got to punt the ball off a hill straight down about 30 meters. It's something every footballer should try, if only to see how their football skills translate to something quite different. I think it has a marmite factor of loving or hating it, because at least for the BEFC Captain he had to hold down the urge to run up and down the fairway, slide tackle another player and then call for a cross onto the green.