Wilton Father & Son are Champions in a Sport Many Have Never Heard Of

Footgolf may never make it to the Olympics, but for two Wilton champions, it would be terrific if it did.

Slawomir Przybysz, 58, and his son Matthew Przybysz, 28, are standouts at an increasingly popular game that combines soccer and golf, in which players kick regulation soccer balls down golf fairways into oversized “cups.” 

It’s a sport in which the father-and-son duo are consistent “medal” winners. 

This past April, Slawomir, a former professional soccer player from Poland, won footgolf’s U.S. Open at Crystal Springs Resort in New Jersey in the Senior Plus division. He was also first in the Honduras and Polish Opens in 2023. That same year, the elder Przybysz, who runs a local painting business, won the senior division of the Mexican Open in Cancun.

Matthew, a former captain of the Wilton High School soccer team, finished second in the Men’s division of the Open. It was only the latest success that Slawomir and Matthew have enjoyed. 

Last May the duo competed together in the FootGolf World Cup in Orlando on a team representing Poland, among 972 competitors from 39 countries in an event big enough to be broadcast by ESPN. 

Two years prior they both were part of the Angel City FootGolf squad that captured the national championship. That year Slawomir also won the Memphis Open. 

“It’s been a good stretch,” said Slawomir, who until a few years ago played “regular” soccer for Wilton’s Ancient Warriors team in the Shoreline League. Footgolf is now his passion. 

“I can still compete and have so much fun, especially now that Matthew is involved in the sport, too. He’s got a TikTok account with his friend Michael Nowicki of Norwalk where they put amazing shots from golf courses around the world.”       

For Matthew, who works in the financial industry in New York, the chance to compete with Dad is the prize. “He’s taught me so much about soccer, now he’s doing the same with footgolf. It’s really fun to be able to travel and compete together.”

FootGolf’s Burgeoning Popularity

Well-established internationally, footgolf is a descendant of a game invented in the 1920s called code ball, reborn as footgolf in the early 2000s in Netherlands. Now, the Federation of International FootGolf conducts as many as 25 events a month around the world.

The American Federation of FootGolf brought the sport to the U.S. in 2011. Soon after, golf authorities began to promote it when traditional golf participation was plateauing and hundreds of courses were going under. A segment about the sport on NBC nightly news didn’t hurt. During the COVID pandemic, footgolf and golf both gained ground as social-distanced activities you could play outdoors. 

Today, the American Federation sponsors about a dozen events a year. FootGolf Connecticut is the state governing body. Although it’s difficult to tell just how many people play, there are some 500 courses in the country where people compete or just play for fun. 

As with golf or soccer, footgolf requires strength, technique and finesse. Par for 18 holes in footgolf 70-72, about the same as traditional golf, but the length of holes is usually a bit shorter, at slightly over 100 yards for par 3s, 200 yards for par 4s, and up to 300 yards for par 5s. Footgolf plays much faster than traditional golf, consuming only two- to two-and-a-half hours versus the four-and-a-half- to five-hour commitment that golf requires 

Though he no longer plays traditional soccer, Slawomir enjoys traveling the world to play footgolf. He enters about a dozen tournaments a year. 

“I’m still planning to go to Portugal, Chile, Canada and Mexico in the next couple of months,” he said. He especially loves it when he can share it with Matthew, whose career in finance now makes that a bit harder. “Footgolf is a great opportunity to be on the golf course, continue to kick the soccer ball, and be around great guys. It’s really fun to compete with my son,” he said.

One might say Slawomir had a head start in mastering his new sport. Prior to migrating here in 1989, he played professional soccer for the Polish team Legia, one of the most successful soccer franchises in Polish history. By then he’d become a golf fan, too — although he doesn’t play — watching lots of it on TV and even attending the 2021 Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. 

Slawomir played his first footgolf event in 2016 on the East Granby Copper Hill Country Club course, one of two footgolf courses within an hour or so of Wilton. The other course, Crystal Springs, is the site of this year’s Open. 

Footgolf is a game Slawomir thinks many more people would play if they knew about it. Since COVID drew more people back to traditional golf because of its natural social distancing, footgolf has been promoted less by the traditional golf industry. But it’s growing nonetheless, especially among the increasing number of American soccer players.

“It’s a great game and I hope, hearing about these events, more people will get into it,” he said, though not everyone will have a small practice field in their backyard where they can make a few “swings.”

If Slawomir has any regrets in footgolf, it’s that he has yet to make a hole-in-one, unlike Matthew, a founding member of Norwalk’s Polska premier youth soccer team, who has. 

“Maybe yet to come,” Slawomir smiled.