Bay State Games sets 2026 FootGolf competition at Quail Ridge Country Club

Bay State Games will stage its 2026 FootGolf competition on Saturday, July 11 at Quail Ridge Country Club in Acton, with the top three athletes in each event earning medals and an athlete award gift. Registration closes Wednesday, July 1, and the entry fee is set at $55 through May 1, $65 through June 1 and $75 for late registration, with the green fee included.

The field is limited to full-time residents of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island or New York, along with full-time students at a Massachusetts academic institution. That makes the event less like an open summer pickup day and more like a regional championship filter, one that gives New England players a defined route into a scored, medal-driven competition. Great Wolf Lodge New England has also set aside a room block for athletes, families and spectators from Tuesday, July 7 through Sunday, July 12, turning the weekend into a multi-day stop rather than a quick in-and-out entry.

The setup at Quail Ridge adds to that tone. Players must bring their own size 5 soccer ball, wear golf-appropriate attire and stay off soccer cleats, a rule set aimed at protecting the course. Quail Ridge describes FootGolf as a blend of soccer and golf played with a regulation #5 ball on shortened holes with 21-inch cups, and the Bay State Games rules push the same idea further by requiring tee shots from behind the markers, a single kicking motion and no pushing the ball with the top or bottom of the foot. The ball must be played where it lies, with only limited relief for obstructions and water hazards, and the player farthest from the hole goes first, just like golf.

That structure matters because it rewards control over improvisation. On a course built for precision, the difference between a safe placement and a reckless swing of the foot can decide whether a player is chasing bronze or walking off empty-handed. Bay State Games says its summer and winter games draw more than 7,000 athletes and are built around personal development, education, physical fitness, teamwork and sportsmanship, and this FootGolf event fits that model while still carrying enough competitive weight to matter on its own.

The larger sport has already reached well beyond one July weekend in Acton. USA FootGolf says the American FootGolf Federation is the governing body and exclusive U.S. member of the Federation for International FootGolf, and that FootGolf has been regulated by FIFG since July 2012, with the rulebook created in 2013. FIFG’s 2026 World Championship in Acapulco is set for 1,240 players and 64 teams over 12 days, with previous World Cups held in Hungary, Argentina, Morocco and the United States. Against that backdrop, Bay State Games is not just filling a summer date. It is giving regional players a legitimate benchmark.