"Park Ball," a youth-only version of park golf for young people to enjoy, is being developed. The move is expected to help park golf, which has grown mainly among older adults, broaden its reach to younger players.
According to the park golf community on the 21st, the Korea Park Golf Association is developing Park Ball, a youth-oriented park golf model, as part of the "2026 Youth Sports Infrastructure Project" led by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee. The association commissioned the related project work in June this year, and it will run through February 2027.
Park Ball adapts existing park golf to fit school settings. It is a modified sports model in which the course, game rules and equipment are newly designed to account for young people's physical characteristics and the school physical education environment. The plan is to create a standard six-hole model that can be run during 40- to 45-minute physical education classes even in limited spaces such as a school playground.
The course will be about half the length of park golf. Taking into account young people's physical characteristics and average driving distance, the four par-3 holes will be set at 20 to 30 meters and the two par-4 holes at 30 to 50 meters. The association also plans to prepare installation standards and manuals for small, medium and large playgrounds so that courses can be laid out according to the size of the grounds.
Dedicated equipment designed for safety and convenience will also be developed. In place of park golf balls, the project will provide youth balls that cushion impact, and clubs will likewise be adjusted in size to fit elementary school students' physical characteristics. The operating set will be built using movable hole cups, obstacles and mat-type teeing grounds so that it can be set up and taken down before and after class. The aim is to let schools without separate facilities such as a park golf course use the operating set to enjoy Park Ball on their playgrounds.
A curriculum that can be applied to regular physical education classes will also be developed. Lesson plans for each session will be prepared with lower- and upper-grade students' physical development and learning levels in mind, and a standard educational program including games and cooperative activities will be established. Materials for use in schools, such as teacher guides and safety management manuals, will be developed as well.
The association will begin a pilot program next month at hub schools in five cities and provinces nationwide. With one lower-grade class and one upper-grade class participating at each, the program will run eight sessions for a total of 200 students, and the association plans to assess Park Ball's suitability in the field based on the results.
Hong Seok-ju, head of the Korea Park Golf Association, said, "Until now, park golf had no standardized educational model that children could learn from," adding, "Park Ball is the first step for children to safely take up the sport, and a starting point that later lets families stand together on the same course."
