Laura Thomson earns FootGolf World Cup place through rankings route

Laura Thomson earned her place at the FIFG FootGolf World Cup 2026 in Acapulco by finishing third in the Scottish rankings and also placing in the European rankings, a double route that sent the Edinburgh player into both the individual and team events. FootGolf UK lists Thomson as 36 and says her path shows exactly how Scotland’s ranking system turns steady domestic results into a World Cup call-up.

That route matters because it is built on accumulation, not one breakout weekend. Thomson had to hold her level across Scottish events and then back it up against European competition, the kind of profile selectors value when individual spots and team scoring are on the line. In a sport where rankings sit directly inside selection, every round can move a player closer to the biggest stage.

The Acapulco World Championship site put the scale of that stage at 1,240 participating players and 64 teams across men’s, senior men’s, senior men plus and women’s categories. The individual world championship ran from May 27-June 1, 2026, before the team competition from June 2-7, and FIFG describes the World Cup as the highest level of international competition in footgolf, staged every four years. Thomson’s place in the women’s field sat inside that broader Scottish entry, which also included men, senior men and senior men plus players.

Scotland’s team draw underlined the size of the test. The men were placed in Group E with Spain, Uruguay and the United States, the women in Group A with Mexico, Chile and Turkey, and the senior men in Group A with Hungary, Brazil and Slovenia. The Acapulco roster listed 11 Scottish men, four senior men, one senior men plus player and four women, with Thomson named in the women’s category.

The pathway starts at home. The FootGolf Association of Scotland says it is the national body responsible for developing social and competitive footgolf in Scotland, with a structure built around the Scottish National Tour, regional tours, rankings and squad selection criteria. That setup is what makes Thomson’s rise readable: a player can move from domestic ranking points to continental standing and then into World Cup selection without a shortcut.

The domestic calendar is still producing the form that feeds that pipeline. The Scottish Open 2026 will be a 54-hole event at MacDonald Cardrona Resort from Friday 24 July to Sunday 26 July, with a Scottish Scramble Pairs event on the Friday afternoon. FootGolf Scotland says Kelly Menzies won the 2025 women’s title, a reminder that the women’s side is active at the top end as Scotland continues to build depth for the next World Cup cycle. FIFG’s own history shows the event growing from 79 players in Hungary in 2012 to 227 in Argentina in 2016, 503 in Morocco in 2018 and 972 in the United States in 2023, and Acapulco pushed the field higher again.