Can a game that combines golf and soccer give a financial shot in the arm to under-performing golf properties?
The game is called FootGolf, and it’s played like golf, except that players kick soccer balls into over-sized cups. For only $4,000, the city of Sacramento, California has established a FootGolf layout at its Haggin Oaks Golf Complex, and it’ll soon open one at its Bing Maloney Golf Course.
The Sacramento Business Journal points out that Haggin Oaks’ traditional course mostly attracts men aged 50 and older, while the FootGolf operation attracts kids and young adults of both sexes. “It’s added a whole new element to our business,” said Mike Woods, the course’s director of golf.
Woods has determined that the FootGolf track will generate $100,000 in annual revenues if it can average 30 players a day, a number that already seems to be within reach. His challenge now is to convert some of his FootGolf customers, 90 percent of whom have never been on a golf course, into golfers.