Ciara Parizek/MDN Don Aasen demonstrates kickoff for footgolf, aiming for hole #1 at Apple Grove Golf Course on Friday afternoon.

Footgolf has become a new, popular sport around the North Dakota golf courses.

The history of footgolf goes back to the 1920s, different countries playing with variations and names for the game. In the 1920s, it was known as codeball. The rules for codeball aren’t the same as modern footgolf. Players in Switzerland started playing their version in the late 1980s.

The game was popular among footballers in Europe. Of course, in the United States, they are known as soccer players. In the States, the American FootGolf League was founded in 2011. It spread across the country and by 2014, the game was being played on hundreds of courses.

Don Aasen is one of the owners of the Apple Grove Golf Course in Minot. He was down in Arizona and saw people playing footgolf and he immediately thought the game was very interesting.

He had heard from one of the members of a Mandan golf course that when they first introduced the game, they had gotten complaints from some of the long-time golfers about soccer balls being kicked around. Time went by and now everyone is used to playing on the same course.

Monday was the first day that Apple Grove’s footgolf was ready to be played. They had the holes set up with orange flags that have the hole number and a soccer ball on it to differentiate them from the regular golf holes.

The player starts at hole #1 and sets their ball down between two large orange golf balls. Then they kick it and try to get the soccer ball in the hole with the orange flag in the least number of kicks possible. The players each get a footgolf card, just like golfers get when they begin a game.

The rules for the game are on the back of the score card. The card also has a very rough outline of what the layout is. However, the orange flags for footgolf are not on any of the greens.

The golf and footgolf holes are all in the same areas, but the footgolf flags are set off from the golf ones to prevent the green from being damaged. One of the rules of thumb is if a player’s soccer ball ends up on the green, they are to pick it up and set it down outside of the green before it can be kicked. If a ball is kicked from the green, it can be damaged.

A mom went on Monday to check out the layout when all they had were little flags marking the locations of the footgolf holes. On Thursday, a large group of seven people went out to play. Aasen also mentioned that one of the Minot coaches took some college students out to play, as well, potentially giving them a new method to use for perfecting their aiming and shooting.

To play all 18 holes, the cost is $11. If people who want to play don’t have their own soccer balls, they can rent one for $3.

“We’re looking into starting footgolf tournaments,” Aasen said. “We’ll have to make sure we check the golf tournament schedule.”

Footgolf is fun for all ages and it presents a good challenge. It’s also a good activity to participate in with family or friends, and enjoy a nice day in the outdoors.