WATERVILLE — Footgolf combines golf and soccer, two sports at which I am wretched. That did not stop me from giving it a try.

Footgolf is new this year to Pine Ridge, Waterville’s nine-hole, par-3 golf course. There are four footgolf courses in Maine, with Pine Ridge joining a pair in the Portland area and one in Roque Bluffs in Washington County.

“I saw a commercial over the winter promoting footgolf. I had never heard of it,” John Curato, Pine Ridge’s manager, said. “I was surprised the PGA was promoting it.”

Curato thought the game looked interesting, so he approached Matt Skehan, Waterville’s Parks and Recreation Director, about bringing it to Pine Ridge.

“I went to Riverside (in Portland) and learned how it went,” Skehan said. “They had nothing but positives to say.”

On its face, the game is simple, which — like golf — is what makes it aggravating. From the tees, players kick a soccer ball down the fairway towards the hole. At Pine Ridge, the footgolf holes are set off to the side, yards away from the golf greens. Any golfer who still manages to hit into the 18-inch diameter footgolf hole at Pine Ridge is not penalized.

Each kick is a stroke. Like golf, the object is to get par or lower on each hole. Like golf, I failed.

I played two holes with Skehan and Elias Holmes, 9, Graeff Clark, 10, and Brandon Kelsey, 9, the sons and nephew of a friend. We were all first timers.

Hole one is a par 5, slightly uphill grind with a water hazard for good measure. The highlight of my play was the low, line drive I kicked over the creek that runs through the middle of the fairway. At first it looked like I had struck the soccer ball too low, and it was going to catch the side of the creek and bounce back into the water. I was relieved the ball found the edge of the hill and skipped forward and out of danger of rolling back with a frustrating splash.

Footgolf doesn’t have a traditional green around the hole, so I can’t tell for sure, but I’ll say I three putted for an eight. Hole two, a par 3 downhill, looked promising for a low score. My first kick was fantastic. It caught the steep slope of the hill and rolled an extra 30 yards. My second shot was also good, and set me up for a try at par from around eight feet from the pin. With my instep, I kicked the soccer ball, not too hard, not too soft. It rolled to the cup…

And caught the lip. It rimmed around the edge and was spit a few feet away. I wanted to swear, but with the children around, I bleated something that sounded like “Blaaarrggghhh!” In my mind, I’m still cursing.

Still mad about missing par, my next shot was short. My next one hit the flag and refused to fall, too. At this point, I picked up my ball and gently dropped it in the hole. That was probably illegal, but I was still learning the game and would ask for a rule clarification later.

David Rossignol, who runs the soccer program at Camp Matoaka in Smithfield, joined us as we finished the second hole. Rossignol said he’s played footgolf at Pine Ridge four or five times.

“The first time I was here, I played terrible,” Rossignol said.

Rossignol can now make par or better. He wants to bring some of his soccer campers out to try footgolf and maybe take on one of the other camps in the area for summer bragging rights. Footgolf would be a good way to work on soccer skills without actually working on soccer skills, Rossignol said.

“We do accuracy drills. We do passing drills. This has everything,” he said.

I’ll most likely play again before the summer is over, and when I do, I’ll try not to swear when I miss an easy putt.

I make no promises.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM