Whilst Shoe Golf is now as familiar as football in many of the countries that border the Arctic Circle, it is still a breakthrough sport in many European territories, despite it’s inclusion as a demonstration sport in the upcoming Olympics.

Shoe Golf, although shrouded in layer upon layer of highly complex and sometimes meaningless rules is essentially a simple game; drink, place an object (or as it is officially called, a Carney), on the floor, walk away from it, drinking, until you are bored of walking, undo your shoe (the Kicker) and place it on the end of your foot (at the toe end), then try and kick the Kicker off of your foot at the Carney. The winner is the athlete who hits the Carney with the Kicker the least number of kicks (boots).

For a full list of ISGA rules, please see the rules and regulations sections of the ocho website

In latter years, the noble art of Shoe Golf has been adopted as the official sport of the off-duty snowboarder, (where often holes in the snow are used as Carneys) although it’s roots lie in much more ancient times.

There is both archaeological and historic record of Shoe Golf dating back to the times of the ancient Greeks; indeed the vase pictured left was uncovered in the late 1950’s in an excavation just outside Athens. The vase is believed to depict an athlete warming up for the Shoe Golf event at the 64BC Olympiad in Syria.

Once the Syrian vase was discovered there followed a number of revelations from Italy, where statues of Roman Shoe Golfers were identified in Pompeii and Parma, again pictured left. Latin text was later translated by a student at Peterborough Adult Education College which suggested that the Coliseum’s main purpose was not for Gladiatorial battles, but to stage the Roman Open, the world’s first Shoe Golf world championships, of course, this would not have made such a good movie, so epics such as Gladiator perpetuate the myth and keep our sport, an underground sport.

For more information about Shoe Golf, check out the ocho website and, please remember, this is a potentially very dangerous sport, please ensure that you remember to ensure the fairway is clear before booting the Kicker at the Carney.