Ireland set to compete in the Footgolf World Cup

Gary Mullin is Ireland's leading 'FootGolfer' and will head to Buenos Aires on the 2^nd of January for the Footgolf World Cup. Footgolf, I hear you say! Is that even a thing? Well it’s very much a thing  and growing in popularity at a 'rate of knots'

It is a hybrid sport that combines soccer with golf (sort of) and is beginning to thrive in Ireland. Basically you play a shortened golf course with enlarged holes by kicking a football and keeping score like you would in golf.

Gary comes from a very successful underage footballing background where he rubbed shoulders with some of the best footballers during his time with Ireland Under 15’s and Connacht Representative sides. Gary has represented the Galway District League Football Association at all levels and was part of the Salthill Devon Under 21 Eircom League winning team. Injuries to both knees have blighted his progress but has continued to be one of the most prolific scorers in Junior Football in Galway over the last three years while playing for NUI Galway.

He has come full circle and is back to represent his country at next year's World Cup as the best FootGolfer in Ireland this year. 

2015 in Ireland was the first year in which an official league was set up and run. This league was set up to include 11 tournaments on 10 different courses throughout Ireland with a ranking system in place to decide the players that would be chosen to represent Ireland in The FootGolf World Cup in January 2016. After what Gary admits was a shaky start to his competitive FootGolf career where he played poorly in the first two tournaments, however he went on to win four of the remaining nine tournaments and placed high in another two. This meant Gary finished as the number one ranked FootGolfer in Ireland for 2015 and as such will be one of the players from Ireland to look out for at the World Cup in Argentina next week.

There is expected to be 280 players in Argentina in January from all over the world and Gary hopes to put in a strong performance over there: “I feel like I have a great start to do something special at the world cup, nobody really fancies the Irish players as we do not have as much international experience as other countries but there is five or six of us who have outperformed some of the best footgolfers across Europe in the few events we played this year so we are backing ourselves to do ourselves and Ireland proud.”

Gary explains that the World Cup is first and foremost an individual competition for players but this year's World Cup will also have a built in team format to identify countries with a core group of strong players and Gary feels Ireland has one of the best. “We do not have as many players playing competitively as other countries yet but what we do have is a core group of 7 or 8 players who can beat each other on any given day and who have various styles and techniques of playing which make us quite a dynamic group.”

So as we head into 2016, Gary Mullin and the other Irish FootGolfers will be trying hard to fly the Irish flag high for the first time in the New Year and perhaps provide an inspiration for other Irish teams in the years ahead.