Laredo’s newest sports venue will host the city’s oldest sports franchise for a unique opportunity to fuse the region’s most passion-inspiring activities. The Laredo Heat announced their hosting of the 1stAnnual Soccer Golf Tournament hosted by Bud Light and Laredo Heat SC at the Max A. Mandel Municipal Golf Course on July 2.
The tournament will see all its proceeds benefit the Laredo Heat Soccer Club and Academy, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. The mission of the club is to get youth to learn to play soccer, get advanced players into competitive tournaments and teach the next generations the rules of the game and the importance of proper training, exercise and doing well in school.
The event – a first in Laredo – offers a unique experience for Heat fans and golf enthusiasts to compete with the Heat’s most popular team members. The tournament will feature 18 teams with four participants per team on the 9-hole track. Registration will begin at 5:30 p.m. at The Max with dinner and an awards reception immediately following play. A $49 per participant registration fee will include the meal, reception, nine holes of soccer golf and a goody bag.
Each team’s participants must bring their own size-5 soccer ball to compete with. The tournament’s categories of competition will include Best Group Score, Best Individual Score, Best Dressed and Worst Score.
The game is played with a regulation size-5 soccer ball at a golf course with shortened holes and 21-inch diameter cups. The rules largely correspond to the rules of golf. Soccer golf is played throughout the world in many different forms, but as a sport, regulated by the Federation for International FootGolf (FIFG).
There will be a cash bar throughout the event and reception, and hole sponsorships are available.
The Heat are competing in their 10th season in the Premier Development League, all the while working toward developing youth soccer within the Laredo Community. The Heat have fielded a Super-20 team for under-20-year-old athletes in the United Soccer Leagues along with teams ranging from under-5-years-old to the under-23 PDL team. The Laredo Heat 00 Boys Red (Under-14) became the first team from Laredo to ever qualify for the U.S. Youth Soccer Association 2014 Presidents Cup Region III Tournament in Alabama.
Led by Coaches Juan de Dios Ibarra and Carlos Ordaz, the Laredo Area Youth Soccer Association and the South Texas Youth Soccer Association, representatives championed the tournament to qualify for the U.S. Youth Soccer National Presidents Cup in Greenville, S.C., on July 10-13.
The PDL Heat next play Midland-Odessa on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Odessa.
Please call 956-723-4700 or visit www.LaredoHeatSC.com for more information.
Each home game will see the Heat offer four fans a chance at winning $500. If the randomly selected fans can bury an undefended penalty kick at halftime, they will win $400 for themselves and $100 to the evening’s selected benefactor.