At Monarch Bay Golf Club in San Leandro, California, FootGolf, is taking traditional golfers by surprise. CCTV America’s Mark Niu reported this story from San Leandro.

Ramon Estevez, managing director of the California FootGolf Association admits that when he and his friends first started playing foot golf, people look them as though they were aliens.

“But we’ve past that now. Now it’s how do we take that to the next level,” Estevez said.

The rules for foot golf were officially adopted in Holland in 2009, and in July 2014, there were only two golf courses that offered foot golf in California and ten across the United States. Today, there are now 40 in California and 400 nationwide.

In foot golf, the scoring and terminology are the same as regular golf, with birdies, bogies and eagles.

“You don’t need to learn all the different clubs for golf, it’s pretty much see ball, and kick ball. It’s very accessible to different ages,” Jennifer Harper, director of business development of California FootGolf Association, said.

With the popularity of golf declining among the younger generation, foot golfers believe their sport can do what snowboarding did for ski resorts and bring in a new demographic. The sport has an advantage for growth as golf courses already exist, and it only takes a few thousand dollars to convert a course for foot golf, chiefly to make bigger holes.

Die-hard supporters of the sport say the ultimate goal is to have foot golf tournaments on the highest international stage.