YouTube video courtesy American Footgolf League
Oregon loves soccer. Oregon loves beer.
Up to now, the two didn't really cross paths very often, at least in the participatory sense. A couple of pints of brew aren't really the preferred way to prepare for 90 minutes of running around chasing a ball.
But thanks to a little creativity, and the intervention of a third party – golf – there's now a practical way to simultaneously enjoy a cold one and The Beautiful Game.
Starting May 6, they'll all come together at Metro's Glendoveer Golf Course, with the official launch of footgolf in Portland.
Yes. Footgolf.
Now, let's wipe clean some mental images right from the get-go. First, nobody will be going onto the greens at Glendoveer with a shovel to quadruple the size of the cup. The 21-inch footgolf cups are off in the rough, safely tucked away from where any golfer hopes to be.
Second, there will be no hooliganism – footgolfers are encouraged to wear golf attire, are prohibited from wearing cleats and generally are expected to follow the decorum of the golf course.
Except they won't be hitting their balls with a club – instead kicking away, one stroke at a time.
So how did this cutting-edge fusion of two of Europe's most popular, and historic, sports make its way to East Portland?
Argentine dreams
To hear Roberto Balestrini tell it, footgolf is the stuff of dreams.
A few years ago, Balestrini was waiting to watch a soccer game on TV from his native Argentina. The game was set to start in about a half hour.
"There were two professional soccer players kicking a soccer ball on a golf course. They weren't using cleets, they weren't running," Balestrini said. "I said this is fantastic. What a nice way to use the same landscape, and I'm sure this requires no extra maintenance because the holes were 21 inches in the rough."
Balestrini, who lives in the golf-mad city of Palm Springs, Calif., soon found himself dreaming about it at night. His wife, Laura, thought Roberto was on to something.
"She said 'You have the No. 1 elite sport in the world, golf, with the No. 1 popular sport in the world, which is soccer,'" Balestrini recounted. Soon, she registered the American Footgolf League as a company.
The first American course, Balestrini said, opened in July 2012 in Wisconsin.
Many footgolf advocates, including Balestrini, say it's a great way to expose new audiences to the links and fairways.
"You see kids that are 5 years old, 10 years old, they say 'Dad, take me to a soccer game. Take me to a baseball game,'" Balestrini said. "They don't say 'Dad, take me to a golf tournament.'"
That's not lost on Kevin Niessner, the general manager at Glendoveer.
"It's a way for us to open up to the community that doesn't play golf or tennis," he said.
Niessner has been working for months on the logistics of footgolf. Now, there's even an Oregon Footgolf Association.
Coming to Oregon
Oregon Footgolf Association operations manager Natalya Agarycheva is a project coordinator at Glendoveer. She first played footgolf a few months ago.
"We have two 18-hole golf courses," she said. "Because we're Soccer City USA, we're a good soccer demo here. It's something that made sense – it's why we brought it to Glendoveer."
When footgolf kicks off at Glendoveer on May 6, it'll be the first footgolf course in the Pacific Northwest. Niessner said he's taking a cautious approach at integrating golf and footgolf, ensuring there's a safe distance between the participants of either sport at first.
"Maybe I just have that old skiing-snowboarding fear," he said. "I want to see how it works in reality before we make any chances."
Footgolf will be available on Tuesday and Saturday afternoons; 27 other holes of golf will remain open on Glendoveer for those who prefer a 9-iron to right foot.
The May 6 debut will be free; after that, rounds will cost $23 including cart usage; ball rental will cost $5.