San Leandro FootGolf with kids

Gather up your children and soccer balls — one per person — and head out to the San Leandro marina for an active afternoon of running around playing FootGolf.

kid tees off at FootGolf — Scarlett tees off at FootGolf in San Leandro | Photo: R. Currier

What is Footgolf?

FootGolf is exactly what it sounds like. The main goal of FootGolf is similar to the main goal of golf: to get the ball (in this case a standard #5 size soccer ball) from the teeing ground into the hole (21 inches in diameter) in the least number of kicks possible. Some Bay Area golf courses offer both footgolf and standard golf on overlapping courses. In San Leandro’s Monarch Bay resort, the courses are side-by-side leaving from the same pro shop.

But did the kids like it?

Monarch Bay FootGolf with kids | Photo: Heather Flett

Your results will vary. Three kids age 6, 11, and 12 squished across a two-seater golf cart for our first attempts at FootGolf. The process is that you set up your ball at the kicking “tee” and aim for the yellow flag. As with regular golf, each kick is counted as a stroke and you do your best to get the ball in the hole with a minimum of shots. My older boys were the best at it. My little guy and I took double the shots with half the accuracy.

Athletic and curious kids will be delighted. The easily frustrated may want to go home early.

Carts are not recommended for FootGolf as you are only playing with a single soccer ball person with no need to schlep around a load of clubs, but I figured I did NOT want to come all this way to have them whining about sore feet and achey legs and the cart would add to the fun quotient. And the kids loved the cart.

I have not yet taken them real golfing, but I presume that FootGolf is worlds less frustrating. I thought it was pretty fun. My middle son would like to come back when it is one on one with him and a parent and he has a better likelihood of driving the cart. I think they would all have better attitudes with a group of friends.