Two words can have a lot of meaning in sports.
Those two words would be World Cup, particularly when the “W” and “C” are capitalized.
The United States just added a World Cup title to its sports achievements but hardly anybody knows about that feat.
The title came in FootGolf — a hybrid sport that is a combination of soccer and golf — during the once-every-four-years event that ended in mid-January just outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Twenty-six countries and 230 players competed, and one of the two main headquarters and training site for the U.S. team is International Links-Melreese in Miami.
Coach of the winning U.S. team was Marcelo Landau, 57, who works out of Melreese.
Landau thought his team had a chance to win the title, but few others did.
“Argentina, Netherlands and Hungary were the favorites because they were the countries that were the first to play FootGolf,” Landau said. “But I am not surprised we won, because I knew the quality of our players.”
In the final, the U.S. defeated Argentina, 11-6. The four U.S. players competing in the final were Shariff Kathiv, Jordan Godfrey, Arturo Barragan and Julian Nash.
To basically explain FootGolf: It is played off to the side of a regular golf course, usually in the rough or the edge of the fairways, and players must kick a soccer ball into a hole (Yes, to accommodate a soccer ball the hole is much larger than a regular golf hole, making it the envy of every bad golf putter.)
There is no running or defending, and players do not wear spikes, and they dress in golf knickers. The regular golf greens are never used, thus never any damage.
The sport has seen some decent growth in the U.S., with 459 golf courses in 49 states having a FootGolf Course.
GOLDSTEIN HONORED
Barry Goldstein, director of golf instruction at Inverarry Country Club in Broward County, has been named one of the top 25 junior instructors in the U.S. by Future Champions Golf.
With the award, Goldstein and fellow teaching pro Don Law from Boca Raton, joined some elite instructors.
One of the other pros selected was Cameron McCormick, who has been Jordan Spieth’s coach since Spieth was 12 years old. Guess that selection wasn’t too tough to figure out.
Also selected was Gary Ghilchrist, who founded and runs the well-renowned Gary Chilchrist Golf Academy in Clermont. Seventy-five of Gilchrist’s students have been named American Junior Golf Association All-Americans, six have been selected AJGA players of the year and two have won U.S. Amateur Championships.
As Goldstein put it of his selection, “Nice company.”
MARINO COACHING
A familiar name — well, last name — has joined the Nova Southeastern men’s golf team as an assistant coach.
Nova coach Ryan Jamison, whose team won the Division II national title last year, named Joey Marino — yes, the son of famed Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino — as an assistant coach
“Ryan and the team have been very successful over the past few years and it will be a great learning experience for me,” Marino said. His duties will include player development, recruiting, on-course instruction and administrative duties.
A native of Weston, Marino attended North Broward Prep and then played for the University of North Florida from 2008-13.