Will your course be hosting Rugby Golf events?

Organisers of a new sport to the UK are hoping golf clubs will be hosting Rugby Golf events in the way they have embraced footgolf in the last few years.

The hybrid of football and golf only came to the UK in 2013 but now there are more than 200 venues that offer the sport, mostly at golf clubs.

Rugby Golf involves players punting rugby balls down fairways. When they get close enough to a hole they throw the ball into a designated net. The game therefore requires the lower body strength of rugby and the precision of golf.

Rugby Golf was partially invented before footgolf. A sport called GolfCross was introduced in New Zealand in 1989. It requires players to use regular golf clubs to hit rugby-shaped balls into goals with suspended nets.

There already is a UK Rugby Golf Association and Killiow Golf Club in Cornwall hosted a tournament this summer.

“You need a good sense of accuracy and have to judge the distance before you kick the ball,” said one player.

“You need patience – it takes a long time til you can get a hole-in-one, but keep cracking at it. It doesn’t matter how over par you get, you will get it in eventually. And you will have fun. Having a good whack down the fairway is the best thing about it.”

“You kick from a tee to start off with and then every other ‘shot’ is a drop kick until you are close enough to pass it in. Each hole is different.”

With footgolf, players kick soccer balls down golf course fairways into a large cup in as few shots as possible. Courses vary from nine to 18 holes and include golf elements such as bunkers, trees, water and hills.