Footgolf player appeals for new local sponsors
An Edinburgh-born footgolf player is appealing for local businesses to sponsor him as he gets ready to represent Scotland and Britain in the fast-growing sport.
Declan Reid, a 47-yearold business analyst who grew-up in Dreghorn but now lives in East Calder, will represent Scotland again, at the Four Nations FootGolf competition being held in the south of England in May.
The sport follows golf rules, but competitors use their feet instead of golf clubs, with the aim of the game to get a size five football into the 21-inch wide holes. The yardage of each of the 18 holes varies depending on the terrain and obstacles, with anything up to 200 metres making a decent par five.
Declan has qualified for the Great Britain footgolf team for the first time, to play against team USA in a Ryder Cup style event in August. He also hopes to represent Scotland at the European Championships being held in Turkey this December.
He said: "As you will appreciate, to play on the Scottish FootGolf Tour comes at a cost with entry fees, travel and accommodation. I am seeking sponsorship from local businesses who may be interested in supporting me.
"The sport is getting bigger. Footgolf has been growing for about 15 years but started to get bigger in Scotland in 2016/17. They had a UK tour back then and I qualified to represent my country just by playing the tour events."
Last year Declan, who plays for the Kingdom of Fife team, won 6 out of the 14 events he entered, including The Scottish Open, The Scottish Masters and the senior Scottish Open. He currently has 12 caps for Scotland, but will make his Great Britain debut against the USA in August. He said: "I found this sport in 2016 and started playing competitively in 2017 when I first played for Scotland. It was still quite new at that time but now we get about 100 people at each event in Scotland.
"There are footgolf courses at Bridgend outside Linlithgow, Cluny Clays, Cumbernauld, and Broadlees near Strahaven has a custom made 18-hole footgolf course. "Any local business interested in supporting Declan, can email: zetdec77@yahoo.co.uk.
6
The number of events Declan won last year