The lucky 13!
13 Irish lads are currently living the dream, representing their country in an exotic water-side golf course in Beunos Aires. But this is not just any golf course, it’s a footgolf course, and the 13 lads are represting Ireland in the Footgolf World Cup.
Ronan Cunningham is one of those lucky 13 at the beautiful Pilar Golf Club in Buenos Aires, spoke to Neil Delamere about the rising popularity of the sport just ahead of ‘teeing off’ in the 2nd days play.
He told Neil allabout the sport and what it's like to play for your country with 12 of your best mates
Footgolf is one of Ireland's quickest growing competitive sports, but as Neil found out it's also one that's great fun for those lacking in skill, such as, er, professional footballers. Yes, pro footballers have tried their feet at the sport, thinking it would be a doddle and failing miserably!
But some have done really well, such as Robbie Keane and 'The Duffer', Damien Duff
Among the many other famous faces to try it was none other than the Notorious Conor McGregor who, of course, was brilliant at it when he played at Footee and is now the greatest footgolfer ever
But as Ronan, who is also the president of the Irish Footgolf Association, reveals this is a deadly serious competitive sport, and the team currently playing in the World Cup trained hard and played hard to be there, competing nationwide all of last year.
At the end of Day 1, all 13 of the team were well placed for Day 2. After this, there was one final days play at the sunny Pilar Golf and Country Club in Buenos Aires.
To get on team, Ireland had 11 regional events on 11 courses. Each player's best 6 results were counted. Gary Mullin was Irish champion, winning 4 competitions including the Irish Cup.
3 members of Pitch and Foot Waterford finished in the top 5 and gained automatic qualification for Argentina. 9 others from Dublin, Cork, Galway and an ex pat Gareth Morcombe, who originally played for Spain but has decided to play for his homeland.
The full team is: Aaron Connolly, Stephen Sawyer, Ronan Lynagh, Ronan Cunningham, Ricky Lahart, Kevin Heelan, James Barry, Gary Mullin, Gareth Morcombe, Eamon Clery, Daniel Redmond, Christopher Grace and Cathal Jenkinson. They had particular thanks to CARZONE and O'Neills Sports.
Mark our words, footgolf is going to be a sport lots of people will be taking up this year. In just two years since it first arrived to Ireland, its popularity has seen 2 clubs become 22 and more are being added all the time. Ronan Cunningham predicts big things for the sport, and in less than a year, a small-scale Irish League has produced a team capable of beating the best players in the world.
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