Footgolf course to kick off opening

by Frank Lee

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St. Joseph City Council member Matt Killam took the idea of constructing a six-hole footgolf course in Northland Park and ran with it by raising funds for the new activity during the past year.

There will be a grand opening at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the neighborhood park, which is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and located north of CR 75 near a large housing development. People are encouraged to bring their own soccer ball to the grand opening to play the course.

“We’re going to have refreshments at the grand opening of the footgolf course. It is a gnome-themed park, and it is free and open to the public,” said Killam, who sits on the Park Board, which developed the course in response to the trending way to play golf by kicking a soccer ball.

“The whole project was probably about $2,500 . . .  and we were able to cover the majority of that through donations, and then the park board has got its own budget as well, so some of that came through the park board’s budget.”

The City of St. Joseph “recognizes the importance of parks, open spaces, nature areas, trails and recreation facilities in the overall health and well-being of the community,” according to information found at its website about its commitment to maintaining and developing parks.

“How it started out was that it was just kind of a concept because footgolf was kind of trending, I noticed, and I found Northland Park has an open field, so I brought the concept to the park board, and the park board liked the concept, so we took the ball and ran with it,” Killam said.

“Several sponsorships helped in getting the whole thing off the ground,” he said. “Essentially, we have a hole sponsor for each individual hole.”

Sponsors included local businesses and groups: Scherer Trucking, Brenny Transportation, C&L Excavating, St. Joseph Lions Club, the St. Joseph Jaycees and Central Minnesota Credit Union.

“We had a couple of other sponsors for the sign and from the flags aspect of it, and that would have been McDonald’s, AgStar Financial Services and Scheels,” Killam said. “Coborn’s is going to be sponsoring the food (at the grand opening), providing cookies and juice.”

The park board also worked with Mary Bruno, a local artist, to beautify the footgolf signage at Northland Park, which is more than nine acres in size. Bruno designs and produces letterpress art at Bruno Press in St. Joseph.

“She was able to design the gnomes . . . so each individual hole has a gnome,” Killam said. “It’s like a family of gnomes; it has the mom and the dad and the brother and the sister and then the uncle and their little family pet, and so you follow the gnomes across the course.”

“Recently, as well, I got a donation box set up that we were able to paint, and my mom actually painted a gnome on the side of it and like a donation on the front of it,” he added. “And the public works department was able to fabricate it on the big sign on the course.”

The City of St. Joseph maintains about 78 acres of parkland, according to its website, and Northland Park is among about 12 parks in the St. Joseph area that exist or are planned.

“Northland Park already has a basketball hoop there,” Killam said. “It’s got a volleyball pit there, it has a little gravel lot in the back, it’s got two small playgrounds there as well, so it’s got some stuff already there, but it’s really open in the middle of the park.”

According to the advocacy group Footgolf Minnesota, there are about 500 footgolf courses in almost all 50 states. Rules for the game can be found at its website: www.footgolfminnesota.com.

“What was nice was that we were able to include all six footgolf holes without destroying the tranquility of the park itself,” Killam said. “The course kind of goes on the outskirts of the park, so it doesn’t ruin the park itself, in my opinion, and I think (other) people would agree with that.”