French footballers have fun on the footgolf fairway

Launched in 2009 in The Netherlands, FootGolf has now come to France. The French FootGolf Association (AFFG) recently launched its first official competition north of Paris, backed by a host of former professional football players.

French celebrities played in France's first footgolf tournament Alison Hird

You could hear a pin drop out on the fairways at the Bellefontaine golf course north of Paris as former French international Jean-Pierre Papin placed his football on a tee, took aim and sent it soaring through the air.

Papin, who played for Olympique de Marseille and AC Milan and is still considered one of the best attacking players in the world, didn’t get a hole in one. 

But he was clearly having great fun.

He was one of several celebrity football players who came to give a leg up to the official launch of footgolf in France.

He’s adapted well to this new discipline where clubs are replaced by feet, fairways take the place of pitches and of course goals by holes - 55cm wide to be precise.

Footgolf uses the rules of golf and players simply have to get the football into the 9 or 18 holes using the fewest kicks possible.

“It’s a really nice sport,” Papin says. “Everyone can play whether you’re a footballer or not. There are a lot of positive things about it … you need patience and calm - things we don’t have that much of in football.”

He also appreciates having a good time out on the fairway with old friends and admits that when a footballer’s career – which rarely goes beyond his 40th birthday – is over, footgolf allows you to keep in contact with the leather.

“With footgolf you can go on much longer. And with no risk of injury,” he adds with his characteristic chortle.

A safer sport for sure. While the ball whizzes through the air, the pace is decidedly steady leaving plenty of time for a chat between holes.

At the same time there’s a good deal of skill involved, especially as you approach the putting green.

Sylvain Wiltord, formerly with Chelsea and who scored 25 goals for France, is having fun trying it out for the first time but admits it’s not as easy as it looks.

“You think you’ve got the timing right but the ball sticks a bit on the uneven turf. You have to adapt,” he complains.

Footgolf isn’t just aimed at football fanatics. Anyone can play – men or women - and they can be of all ages.

“That’s the beauty of the sport,” says Maurits van Tubergen Lotgering, president of the Federation for International FootGolf (FIFG).

Lotgering helped develop the sport in 2009 in The Netherlands where “there are now 10,000 members and it’s growing every year”.

The FIFG, created in 2012, now has 17 federations or affiliated associations around the world including Brazil, Chile, Argentina, South Africa and the US.

In the US it has positively exploded and has even been called “the best game ever invented”.

So far France has been slow to embrace the game.

“I don’t know why exactly but France is often a bit behind,” says Romuald Pretot, a former amateur football player and now president of the recently-launched French FootGolf Association.

He says there’s great potential to develop the sport here: football and golf are two of France’s most popular sports and the French Golfing Federation has more than 800 golf courses. But he’s encountering plenty of resistance.

“That’s been the hardest thing,” he says. “They’re concerned we’ll be like footballers coming onto the green and damaging the fairways.”

The reality couldn’t be more different, he says.

“In fact, unless you’re really bad when you kick the ball, you don’t usually damage the turf.”

What’s more, there isn’t a sweaty PSG shirt in sight. Footgolfers observe a strict dress code – driver's cap, collared shirt, bermuda shorts, argyle sweater and knee-length socks and trainers.

“We put a lot of emphasis on the dress code and, of course, there are no football boots,” says Romuald. “We have to give a good image”

For the moment around 10 French golf courses have shown an interest, says Pretot. But, while they’re agreeing to host tournaments particularly for corporate events, very few are welcoming games on a regular basis.

Perhaps, as in America, they’ll be won round by economic arguments.

With golf on the decline in the US and the financial crisis hitting subscriptions hard, golf course managers had to find ways of putting the country’s 35,000 fairways to better use. Footgolf has brought in a new public.... and revenue.

Pretot is aiming for 3-4,000 members in the next three years and hopes footgolf will be recognised as a full sport and obtain federation status.

The pressure is on if France wants to compete in the 2nd World FootGolf Championships in 2015. Argentina won the first world cup in 2012.