How FootGolf Works: The Basic Rules

FootGolf takes the course layout and scoring conventions of golf and swaps the club and ball for your feet and a football. Played on purpose-built or golf-course-adapted layouts, the aim is simple: get the ball from the tee into a 21-inch (53cm) cup in as few kicks as possible.

Scoring

FootGolf uses the same scoring language as golf. Each hole has a par — the number of kicks a skilled player should need. Finish a hole in fewer kicks than par and you're "under par"; take more and you're "over par". Add up your kicks across all holes (typically 9 or 18) and the lowest total wins, exactly as in stroke-play golf.

The Tee Shot

Every hole starts with a tee shot from a designated tee box, typically using a raised tee to give a clean, consistent kick — the same idea as a golf tee, just built for a football instead of a golf ball. The tee itself matters more than it looks: an uneven or wobbly tee changes how the ball sits and can throw off your first strike before you've even swung a leg. This is exactly why dedicated FootGolf tees — metal, wood, or hard plastic platforms — have become standard kit rather than a nice-to-have.

Playing the Ball As It Lies

Once your tee shot is away, you play the ball from wherever it comes to rest, just like golf. There's no picking the ball up and repositioning it, with a small number of standard relief situations mirrored from golf's rules — an unplayable lie (the ball is stuck somewhere you genuinely can't make a normal kick, such as jammed against a wall or fence), ground under repair (a marked maintenance area), or a ball plugged in soft ground after a wet spell. In each case you typically take relief at the nearest point that isn't nearer the hole, for a one-stroke penalty — though exact application can vary slightly by competition ruleset, so it's worth checking event-specific local rules if you're unsure.

Holing Out

The hole is complete once the ball is fully kicked into the cup — resting on the lip doesn't count, it has to drop. On the green (or the equivalent short-grass area around the cup), players typically use a gentler push-kick to finish out, similar to a golf putt. Reading the borrow (how the ground slopes) matters just as much here as it does in golf putting, even though the technique looks completely different.

A Quick Glossary

A few terms you'll hear constantly around a course: fairway (the mown strip between tee and green), rough (longer grass either side, which slows and grips the ball more), lie (how the ball is sitting on the ground), and marker (a small disc used to mark your ball's position on the green so it doesn't get in another player's way while they play through).

Etiquette Basics

FootGolf shares golf's respect for pace of play and course care: let faster groups through, avoid excessive divots, and stay quiet while others are about to kick. We've got a full breakdown of dress code and etiquette in a separate article.

Once you've got the basics down, the next question is usually: club league, national tour, or straight to the big leagues? We cover exactly how the competitive structure works in our next post.