Introducing Ecuador

Ecuador is one of the latest countries joined FIFG during the summer. Marco Izurieta C., the president of the FootGolf Ecuador is working on to delegate players for the next World Cup and make our sport more and more popular in his country.

What should we know about Marco Izurieta C., president of FootGolf Ecuador?
I am an entrepreneur and a businessman based in Quito, Ecuador. My personal background in the business has been involved in the aviation and technological markets now, by distributing digital products used in the communications and video marketing markets worldwide. 

Who helped you to get closer to FootGolf?
My elder son, Sese, who now lives in New York, USA. He has played this sport, while he was on a university tour with his soccer team in the States. He fell in love and recommended it to me around five years ago. It seemed like a good chance to bring it to our country, and since then I have been working hard to start officially with FootGolf Ecuador.

What were the first steps?
Together with a golf club, who are the owners of a 9 hole golf course located in Guayaquil, Ecuador, we started to play and developed this great sport in our country a few years ago. This happened, when I found this public golf club in Ecuador. Now, the FootGolf course is officially located in Samborondón, Guayaquil, and is called “Driving Range - FootGolf and Golf Club”. We had two FootGolf tournaments held this year. We appreciate so much, that Matias Perrone, the latest World Champion came to play here. We travelled abroad with four players to participate at the 2019 US Open also.

What’s next?
Now, we are becoming officially a sport in Ecuador and we are finishing soon the construction of our new official website and we are trying to coordinate the Driving Range Club in Guayaquil to have their players officially affiliate to the FIFG and see, if they can prepare well with the purpose of being able to participate internationally representing our country on the next World Cup in Japan. Also, we are negotiating with two more golf clubs in Quito, Ecuador with the aim of getting them involved in FootGolf as well. This is not an easy job to do and I think it will take more time to develop FootGolf in Quito. Beside that, our Mayor of Quito has made public declarations a month ago, stating that Quito will have its first public golf course in the near future and of course, we will do our work to get FootGolf involved in this new golf course in Quito.

---