FootGolf in Howth; a size five soccer ball on an 18-hole course with sand bunkers and 21-inch cups. A pair of football boots.It's a place-kicker's heaven and Deer Park by Dublin's Howth Castle have built it and hope they will come.
The Grace O’Malley course, which comprises the original nine holes located to the right of the drive way looking from the clubhouse, has been converted and nine holes of golf have been reconfigured for 18 holes of FootGolf .
“The ball tends to run,” says Julian St Lawrence encouragingly. The St Lawrence family, who own and live at Howth Castle, built the FootGolf course adjacent to their 27-hole golf course.
Kicking a ball straight is as difficult as hitting the fairway with a driver and indeed, the soccer ball runs half way to the bunkers on the left. A second shot lands in the sand. A scuff, a toe poke and it’s out. Strictly no throw outs.
"You play in soccer boots so set-ups on golf courses are the main source of friction," adds the owner. "Putting the two (FootGolf and golf) on the same course is looking for trouble."
Act of vandalism
His point is well made; after torrential rain studs across a golf green would, in the conditions, be an act of vandalism.
Set up on the basis that people kick the ball about 50 yards, the par 5s are a conservative 150 yards in length, with a FootGolf round taking a modest one and a half to two hours to complete.
“We’ll need to move the tees when it gets warm but the yardage is till an ongoing project,” says St Lawrence. “Overall, I’d say the course is about 1,800 metres.”
A response to the economic downturn and an alternative to the fuss and outlay of golf as well as tapping into soccer’s popularity, FootGolf has a governing body based in the UK, to which Deerpark is affiliated.
It’s structured too, at least well enough to have held a World Championship in 2012 at the Magyar Golf Club in Hungary, where eight countries including the USA competed.
"Most people's stamina wouldn't last four hours of taking goals kicks," says St Lawrence. "The golfers are a bit intrigued by it. There are some who say they can't play the Grace O'Malley course anymore. But they don't use it that much anyway so it hasn't impinged on them in any great way.
Gimmick
"They probably think there's an element of gimmick but aren't, quite frankly, worried about it. They are certainly not going to play it but it's their children and grandchildren who will."
Tricksters will be drawn in as well as dads wanting to impress their kids. Curl it around trees. Stop it on the green. Drill in long low daisy-cutters or high fades. Bend it like Bubba.
“There’s a large book of rules,” he says. “But I condensed it to one paragraph on the back of the scorecard and it seems to work very well.”
A meeting of cultures to some and perhaps an experiment on whether the mores of both sports can neatly blend. The course opened yesterday with an errant, curled shot towards the road. Would that be ‘Fore’ or ‘Mind Your House’?
(Cost: Weekdays €10. Weekends €13)
