English Open returns to Ashbury Resort for 2026 FootGolf event

The English Open will return to Ashbury Golf Resort from 20 to 23 August, with FIFG listing competitive rounds for 21 to 23 August at the Ashbury Course and Pines Front 9 near Okehampton in Devon. That makes this more than a routine stop on the calendar. It brings one of FootGolf’s clearest domestic measuring sticks back to a venue that already knows how to handle pressure, size and the kind of field that forces players to separate themselves quickly.

The familiar setting matters. Ashbury’s courses cover more than 600 acres of countryside, with sightlines across Dartmoor and toward Exmoor, and the layout has already been used for top-level FootGolf at championship scale. Players who have seen the ground before will know the rhythm of the resort, while first-time entrants will have to solve a course that is part championship test and part patience exam. In a sport where small misses can turn into big numbers, a repeat visit rewards the regulars who learn the land fastest.

The event’s status is just as important as the venue. FIFG classifies the English Open as an ENG 500 event in its BlueGolf tournament system, putting it in the ranking tier that carries real weight for points, world standing and selection cases. The 2025 edition drew players from 35 countries, a field wide enough to show that the English Open has already moved beyond a standard national title fight. A return to Ashbury gives that international pull a fixed stage instead of forcing the tournament to reinvent itself every year.

That stability also fits the structure around the event. The FootGolf Association of England, the official governing body for the sport in England, was registered in 2020, and a consistent home for the English Open gives the domestic side of the game a clearer anchor. Ashbury’s own FootGolf setup is open for booking daily and uses footballs kicked into custom-made larger holes, while FIFG’s earlier Masters materials described the resort as capable of hosting 1,000 people across two hotels, with a second property 3 km away and shuttle transport. Add the resort’s proven ability to stage 18 holes on Oakwood and 9 on Pines, and the message is plain: Ashbury is built for the scale this event now demands.

If the field lives up to the venue, the English Open will again function as a benchmark rather than a date filler, with Devon giving FootGolf a familiar place to measure who is really ready for the next level.