Pine Valley Golf Course sits between Camp Robinson and the Little Rock Air Force Base. It will never be confused with Pine Valley Golf Club, the course in southern New Jersey that Golf Digest consistently ranks one of the best in the world.
The rural Arkansas golf course can be reached from any direction, though it isn't a straight shot from any of them. When it comes to straight shots, Pine Valley's back nine includes holes that would frustrate the most accurate of golfers who easily could find their tee shots unplayable or even lost. The intimidating par-3, 14th hole, in which players tee off high atop a ridge, plays around 160 yards and is surrounded by water on three sides.
Variety golf
• The Brown family opened Pine Valley Golf Course in 1968. The course added foot golf last year, then opened a disc golf tract this spring.
COST $5 all day for foot and disc golf walkers; extra $4 for regular golf walkers
CARTS Available at an extra charge
RENTALS Soccer balls for foot golf can be rented for $2; loaner discs available for first-time disc golfers
FOOT GOLF Back tees, par-67, 2,297 yards; front tees, par-67, 1,883 yards
DISC GOLF Back tees, par-64, 2,955 yards; front tees, par-57, 2,138 yards
History of foot golf
The origins of foot golf are unclear as they can be attributed to many countries or people at the same time, as early as 2001. The first nine-hole foot golf tournament on a golf course, and played as the sport is known today, was organized in the Netherlands in 2008 by Michael Jansen and Bas Korsten, and played by a mix of Dutch and Belgian professional soccer players.
Jansen learned of the sport from Dutch soccer player Willem Korsten, who recalled playing a similar game during his time with British club Tottenham Hotspur, who would end training sessions by kicking the ball from the soccer pitch back to the changing rooms in as short a time as possible. Later Belgium and Hungary switched from playing in parks to golf courses and the game was introduced to Argentina in 2010.
The American Foot Golf League was founded in 2011. The game was internationally publicized, and countries worldwide started collaborating on the development of the game. Foot golf has been recognized or is in the process of being recognized as a sport in many countries.
SOURCE Footgolf.us
Sitting on a 110-acre layout, the golf course is quirky, yet unique. What also makes it stand out is that in the last 1½ years, Pine Valley has become the only course in Arkansas to offer golf, foot golf and disc golf on the same grounds.
Burns Park in North Little Rock has two golf courses and foot golf on the same property, but a disc course is not connected.
William H. Brown opened Pine Valley in 1968, with his son Mark taking over in 1986. Mark Brown said the decline in golf in recent years has put a major crimp on business, leading to the opening of foot golf last year and then disc golf this past spring.
"It was imperative we explored other options," said Brown, 60. "What we've seen and read is that young people just aren't playing golf. These things were born out of necessity."
Step in Blue Brown, Mark's son, who has been part of the family business since 1998 after graduating from North Pulaski High School two years earlier.
"Blue pushed me to put in a foot golf course, then he pushed me to put in a disc golf course," Mark Brown said. "I told him we'd do it, but he had to be in charge."
Foot golf uses a soccer ball where players kick the ball from a tee area into an oversized hole (about 21 inches in diameter). There are six courses in Arkansas, according to footgolf.us. Pine Valley's disc and foot tracts utilize about 50 acres on the golf course's front nine because "we couldn't figure out how to play it on the hills on the back side," according to Mark Brown.
"Everything we do flows with the golf course," said Blue Brown, 38. "To get enough traffic to supplement income we have a long way to go. Foot golf has a long way to go for growth exposure. We know we need bodies."
For $5, walkers can play the foot and disc 18-hole courses all day. The foot course is a par-67 played at 2,297 yards from the back tees. Disc golf occupies about 3,000 yards from its tips with par a 64. For an extra $4, walkers can play regular golf.
According to PDGA.com, a website run by the Professional Disc Golf Association, there are about 70 disc golf courses in Arkansas, mainly in parks and around school campuses. Mark Brown said disc golf won't keep Pine Valley afloat financially, but he can see business picking up since his course opened.
"Foot golf is to grab the appeal of soccer players, while we know there is a wide interest for disc golf," Mark Brown said. "There have been some disc golfers tell me that they stopped playing golf and started playing disc golf. There are some guys I haven't seen in years out here that started playing disc golf. Well,they got the fever again and came back and started playing golf. It's all about having options and hoping they can feed off each other."
The course has welcomed birthday parties and college groups since foot golf opened. It has also hosted cosmic tournaments, where players played both disc and foot golf at night in separate events. Blue Brown said he knows Pine Valley's proximity to a major thoroughfare isn't ideal, but he believes the combination of the three sports will pay off.
"The No. 1 selling point fact is that a parent can bring a 12-year old kid out who has no interest in golf and the kid might be miserable swinging a golf club," he said. "But then he looks over and sees that disc flying and hears it hit a basket and goes, 'Wow, I want to try that.' "
Brown said Pine Valley's golfers have been receptive to the new sports occupying the course, but there will always be the traditionalists who don't want to share it.
"The guys here have been open minded," Brown said. "They understand with the decline of golf and young people not playing it, that we had to occupy our needs elsewhere."
Having seen the family business grow from its infancy, Mark Brown said the placement of the latest courses was tricky, but he and his son tried to factor in all variables.
"It wasn't the ideal thing to put those [courses] on the front side, but we liked to keep at least nine holes open for golfers," Mark Brown said. "Safety was important because we definitely don't want anyone getting hurt."
On the No. 9 tee box, for instance, there is a handwritten sign alerting golfers to the possible presence of foot golfers playing the same hole.
"There's a whole new crew out here that's never been on a golf course. We constantly try to educate those players, but at the same time we want them to enjoy their experience."
Sports on 08/14/2016