Okayama: Japan Golf Course Visitors Get Kick Out of Playing New Sport Called Footgolf

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:33 JST, October 4, 2025

OKAYAMA — A new sport called footgolf, which combines soccer and golf, can be played by visitors to an Okayama City golf course.

The Okayama Kita Golf Club in Kita Ward renovated three holes of the club’s golf course in 2023 to create a nine-hole footgolf course. The lengths of each hole at Momotaro Footgolf Club vary between 64 yards and 201 yards.

Players try and kick a soccer ball that is 22 centimeters in diameter into a hole that is about 50 centimeters in diameter.

Similar to golf, players will start at the tee and try to get the ball into the hole in as few strokes as possible. Soccer cleats are banned from the course as they damage the grass.

According to the Okayama Footgolf Association, the sport is believed to have started around 2005 and is played in more than 40 countries.

Competitions are held about once a month as part of a tour organized by the Japan Footgolf Association, which was established in 2014. Footgolf has other international events as well, such as the Asia Cup and the World Cup.

Unlike regular soccer, in which the ball can be stopped by a receiving teammate, footgolf players need to precisely target where they want the ball to land, so it is vital for them to read the grass, wind and terrain.

“The sport isn’t widely recognized yet, but anybody can play and have fun,” said Kenji Kuramoto, vice president of the Okayama Footgolf Association.