I have been out with the U3A Adventure Group again for an activity that I had never heard of until a few months ago – footgolf.
My research tells me that footgolf is a proper sport, created in the Netherlands in 2008. It has an Internation Federation and individual and team world cup competitions. It is played on golf courses or on specially constructed footgolf courses and footballs are kicked into much larger than normal holes, with the player who completes the course with the fewest kicks being the winner. The footgolf that we went to play was more like crazy golf than the proper version.
Nine of us were booked for the afternoon’s entertainment. We had been watching the weather forecasts and keeping our fingers crossed and were rewarded with what must surely have been the most glorious day of the year so far. The course was on a hill above the Exe estuary, with glorious views towards the sea. How lucky were we?
To make it easier to keep track, we divided ourselves into two groups and set off, each with a different coloured football. There were eighteen holes to negotiate and each had different obstacles to kick our way round, over or through, including tunnels, window frames and a water jump. Here is an example of the sort of signage we were given. This was a particularly difficult hole as you had to kick the ball in the air rather than along the ground. I wasn’t very good at that. In fact the maximum score you could get at any hole was par times three plus one (sixteen in this case) and that is the score that I recorded here. However I did redeem myself later when I managed to surprise everyone by kicking and bouncing my ball into a large drum and achieving a par score on that hole. Overall it was hard work as it was quite a long way to kick the ball each time, even without the obstacles to make it more difficult. However we all had fun and thoroughly enjoyed an afternoon outside in the sunshine.
At the end of the afternoon the scores were all added up and I think I was second from last, but of course it is the taking part that counts. The winner achieved a splendid total of only ninety seven but I think he had played football before!
I definitely recommend this activity to you, if you can find a course near you.
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