Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Yousif Al Alawi won Bahrain’s first FootGolf Open Tournament at the Royal Golf Club with a score of 64 strokes.
Abdulla Al Khalifa was a close runner-up with 66 strokes and Abdulla Hamad narrowly clinched third place on countback with 71 strokes.
The event was sponsored by Volkswagen and boasted a top prize of a Golf GTI experience. Al Alawi will now be able to take home a Golf GTI for a weekend to experience the iconic Volkswagen hot-hatch in action.
More than 30 competitors took part in the inaugural FootGolf tournament, a fun game which merges two of the world’s most popular sports – football and golf.
The event was played on the back 9 holes of the Royal Golf Club’s Montgomerie championship course and models of the Volkswagen Golf GTI, Passat and Tiguan were displayed on the course for the duration of the event.
”We are delighted with the success of our first official FootGolf tournament,” said George Lodge, the Royal Golf Club’s FootGolf co-ordinator. “I would like to thank Volkswagen for their sponsorship and all the competitors who had a great fun evening. We are looking forward to hosting many more such events in the future.”
As revealed exclusively in GulfWeekly, FootGolf, the fast-growing sporting craze that singlehandedly appears to have saved scores of golf courses around the globe from extinction, has taken off in Bahrain at the club.
Management at the Riffa Views facility were stunned by its instant popularity after taking a stab at the bigger ball option with a ‘soft launch’ and the Sunday evening sessions have continued to grow ever since.
“The feedback we received was very positive and has created an affirmative vibe as we have introduced something new which is fun and exciting,” said Stephen Havrilla, the Royal Golf Club’s general manager.
Havrilla added: “We chose to introduce FootGolf to expand the range of activities available to the public and, most importantly, introduce non-golfers to the golf course with a long-term goal of developing them to become golfers.”
FootGolf’s Sunday evening sessions start from 6.30pm and are open to all. The goal of the game is to kick a standard football into a special FootGolf cup in as few shots as possible.
* If you are interested in playing FootGolf or in sponsoring a series of FootGolf events, contact the club on 17750777 or email reservation@theroyalgolfclub.com. For full information on FootGolf, visit https://theroyalgolfclub.com/footgolf Results: 1st Yousif Al Alawi (64 strokes), 2nd Abdulla Al Khalifa (66), 3rd Abdulla Hamad (71 c/b).
