FOOTGOLF is not easy.

The increasingly popular sport takes aspects from, as its name suggests, football and golf.

My understanding of the former is greater than the latter, and perhaps that was my first failing.

Footgolf is so much more about golf than football. And it is unforgiving.

Every green seems as though it plays as fast as Augusta in US springtime, instead of Colchester in winter.

If you strike the ball as you would do in a football match, you will overhit it and end up on the next fairway – that did happen.

And if you hold back you can look a bit tame – that happened, too.

So, after a one-hour session, my advice is treat your tee shot as a cricket-style straight drive – head over and follow through, but not too much.

After that, it’s anyone’s game.

My partners for the nineholes at Colchester Playgolf were Ian Heydon, the UK number five, who lives in Lexden, and Footgolf Suffolk’s Dan Ferretti.

My first lesson was not to pretend I was David Beckham, whipping a cross-field pass, but rather to play long passes on the ground.

It immediately yielded results for me on the first hole as I shot even par. However, my confidence was misplaced.

On the second, I was wayward, ending up in the rough. I had felt sure the hill would be enough to bring my ball down to the green. But it wasn’t.

So, while my partners were comfortably putting on their third and fourth shots on the green, I was negotiating the speed of the hill, which, as it turned out, was fast. Very fast.

I gave the ball the slightest of taps and though it travelled nicely down the hill, it took off along the green and end up closer to Spring Lane than the 21ins hole.

Eventually, I recovered to just about save my embarrassment.

Holes three and four went pretty hitch-free. In fact I even received a compliment.

But that didn’t last.

At the fifth tee, I noticed the hole was a bit longer than the rest, so I thought it was time to break out the David Beckham strike.

Wrong idea.

I was spot on with my initial long pass, but it kept going and going. Did I mention the greens were fast?

By the end, I felt comfortable enough to say I’d got the hang of it.

I’m like that with ten pin bowling as well, but each time I go back, without fail, I’m back to square one.

I dare say I’d be like that with real golf.

I’ve even agreed to a more difficult session next year in either Millers Barn, Clacton, or Stonham Barns, Suffolk.