For $55 a year and a pair of flat-soled shoes, Tigard-area residents can play on one of only two regulation lawn-bowling greens in the state.

The King City Lawn Bowling Club is opening its doors Thursday, Aug. 13 with free sessions at 10 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., no experience required.

The club, which sits next to the King City Civic Association golf course, has been rebuilding after the pandemic thinned its ranks, according to Tigard Life. On a recent weekday morning, about 10 members showed up to roll bowls on the manicured green, with a couple more watching from the sideline.

"I had a great first day of bowls, and I've been chasing that high ever since," said Raymond Francis, 62, the club's coach-administrator who first tried the sport roughly three decades ago with the Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club in California.

Francis and his wife chose their King City retirement home largely because of the green. Francis describes the open house as a chance for newcomers to try the game and, as he puts it, "let the addiction set in."

The sport is simpler than it looks. Players roll dense resin balls called bowls toward a smaller marker ball called a jack. Closest to the jack wins. The club provides all the equipment, so newcomers just need sneakers or other flat-soled footwear.

The green gets the same professional maintenance as the adjacent golf course, and the club recently added a digital scoreboard. Members compete in Northwest regional tournaments in traditional all-white apparel, though the twice-weekly Tuesday and Thursday morning sessions at 10 a.m. are casual.

Rita Holmes, 73, a club member who believes the green dates to the 1960s when the King City homeowners association started, said the low cost and free equipment are what keep her coming back. Annual dues run $55, and the club supplies everything a player needs.

Francis said the low-impact exercise of bending, turning and walking is exactly what doctors recommend but most people skip. Seniors make up much of the current membership, but the club welcomes all ages.

The Aug. 13 open house is the club's next step in its membership drive. The King City green and the Portland Lawn Bowling Club's facility at Westmoreland Park in Southeast Portland are the only two regulation greens in Oregon.