Nine holes and par 3s in Britain: from the Balgove at St Andrews to a Surrey short course

Ask a British golfer where they played last weekend and the answer is nearly always an eighteen-hole course. Ask when they last had a spare five hours and the conversation gets awkward. Between those two facts sits a whole category of golf that many players walk straight past: nine-hole courses, par-3 layouts and short courses, some of them in very famous places.

This page makes the case for them, with real examples and prices from September 2026, and explains how to get the most out of a round that takes two hours rather than five.

Start at the Home of Golf

If anyone doubts that short golf is proper golf, send them to St Andrews. Among the eight public courses owned by Fife Council and run by St Andrews Links Trust, the Balgove is a nine-hole course of 1,520 yards and par 30, served by the Eden Clubhouse. It is one of the six adjacent courses on the links north of the town, alongside the Old, New, Jubilee, Eden and Strathtyrum.

Edinburgh offers a second, very different example. Edinburgh Leisure runs six city courses, two of which are nine-hole layouts. Portobello, described by the operator as one of the oldest nine-hole courses in Scotland, is a parkland course of 2,566 yards and par 32 with Arthur’s Seat behind it, finishing on a 198-yard par 3. The Wee Braids, beside Braid Hills, is a nine-hole par-3 course pitched at beginners, families, juniors and anyone who wants to sharpen their approach play.

And in Surrey, Hoebridge Golf Centre near Woking runs three courses side by side: an eighteen-hole, par 73 main course, the nine-hole Shey Copse, which it pitches as ideal for a quick round after work, and a par-3 Short Course it says takes about 90 minutes.

What it costs

Short golf is usually cheaper golf, and published price lists make the point.

• Hoebridge, visitor rates in September: Shey Copse £23 Monday to Thursday, £24 on Friday and £26 at weekends; the Short Course £21 Monday to Friday and £24 at weekends. For comparison, the main course was £45 before 1pm on a weekday and £56 at weekends, falling to £24 after 5pm.
• Edinburgh Leisure, prices correct from 1 April 2026: a nine-hole twilight round was £23.50 at Braid Hills and £20 at the other eighteen-hole courses for a casual visitor. An annual membership covering only Portobello and the Wee Braids was £397, against £671.50 for all six courses.
• Hire: Edinburgh Leisure charged £16.50 to hire clubs for nine holes and £4.50 for a trolley, so a beginner can play without owning a set.

Wherever you play, look at the twilight, nine-hole and short course columns on a price list before you look at the headline weekend rate.

Nine holes counts

The most persistent myth about nine-hole golf is that it does not count for anything. Under the World Handicap System, nine-hole scores can be submitted, and an expected score based on your Handicap Index is used to produce an equivalent eighteen-hole score differential. Each nine has its own rating, which is why you must record which nine you played and from which tees.

That matters for two reasons. It means a golfer who only ever has time for nine holes can keep a genuine Handicap Index. And it means the index reflects the golf you actually play, rather than being built from the occasional Saturday when you managed eighteen.

At Hoebridge, the Course Rating tables for the World Handicap System are published on the courses page, so you can check the ratings before you play. Elsewhere, ask the pro shop or look at the scorecard.

The time argument

For most adults with a job and family, the real barrier to golf is time rather than money. A nine after work changes the maths completely: roughly two hours instead of five, and a round you can fit into a weekday evening rather than surrendering a Saturday.

British summers make this especially practical. Edinburgh Leisure’s opening hours for Braid Hills ran to 19.40 from May to August, with the twilight window starting at 18.50, and the clocks going forward on the last Sunday in March opens up after-work golf for months.

Frequency matters for improvement too. Golf is a motor skill, and playing little and often tends to do more for your game than one long round a fortnight. Two short rounds in a week keep your feel for distance, putting pace and course decisions sharper than a single marathon.

Par-3 golf is where the scoring shots are

On a par-3 or short course almost every shot is an approach, a chip or a putt. That is the part of the game where most club golfers waste the most strokes, and a short course gives you an hour of nothing else.

The difference from the practice ground is consequence. On a range you hit ten wedges from 60 yards and remember the best one. On a short course you hit one, then you have to chip and putt whatever it left you. That single change, one ball and a score, is what turns practice into golf.

It is also the gentlest possible introduction for a new golfer. No long tee shots to top in front of a queue, a short walk, and a round finished before anyone gets bored. The Golf Foundation’s GolfSixes League for juniors is built on the same idea, with matches over six shortened holes lasting roughly 75 to 90 minutes.

How to play nine holes well

Nine holes is not simply half of eighteen, and a few habits change.

• Protect the card. With fewer holes, a single disaster weighs more. A triple bogey on the third of nine is a far bigger share of the round than the same score on the third of eighteen.
• Favour the safe side. Take the club that keeps you in play off the tee and aim at the fat part of the green.
• Warm up briefly, but do warm up. A shorter round leaves less time to find your swing, so ten minutes of short swings and putts before the first tee matters more, not less.
• Use it as a test. Nine holes with a single swing thought or a new putting routine gives a clearer answer than eighteen holes with several ideas and a tired back nine.

The half set

Short courses are the natural home of a half set, and many golfers discover they enjoy golf more with fewer clubs.

On a nine-hole course like Portobello or Shey Copse, something like a hybrid or fairway wood, a 7-iron, a 9-iron, a sand wedge and a putter covers almost every shot, and a driver is optional. It fits in a pencil bag you can carry for nine holes without noticing.

On a par-3 course you need even less. Three clubs, a mid-iron, a wedge and a putter, turn the round into an exercise in distance control. The side effect is valuable: with gaps in the bag you learn to hit three-quarter shots and to flight the ball down, skills that pay off on any British course in a breeze.

Short golf for newcomers

More people now start golf indoors or at a range, on a simulator or a shot-tracking bay, before they ever play a hole. For them, a nine-hole or par-3 course is the ideal next step: short enough to feel achievable, cheap enough to try without commitment and relaxed enough to learn the etiquette in an afternoon.

If you are taking a beginner out, choose the short course rather than the range. Edinburgh Leisure pitches the Wee Braids at beginners and families, Hoebridge describes its Short Course as a place for novices to learn, and Edinburgh Leisure hires out clubs. Our guide to grip and set-up covers what a newcomer needs to know before the first tee.

Where to find them in Britain

Start local. Nine-hole courses, par-3s and pitch-and-putts rarely feature in rankings or county guides, so a map search for “nine-hole golf” or “par 3 golf” near your postcode is often more useful than a list of top courses.

Look at multi-course venues. Operators such as Edinburgh Leisure in the capital and Hoebridge in Surrey combine full-length and short courses, which lets a group split between the two or a beginner move up when ready.

And include short courses on golf trips. At St Andrews, the Balgove sits within the same links complex as the Old Course; a round there is an easy way to include a less experienced golfer in a trip to the Home of Golf, or to sharpen your short game on links turf before a bigger round.

Whatever you book, check the current price and opening hours on the operator’s own site rather than a directory, since twilight windows and rates change with the season.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any course or operator mentioned here.

Five things to try this month

• Find the nine-hole and par-3 courses within half an hour of home, and note their twilight rates.
• Play nine holes after work once a week for a month, walking and carrying a half set.
• Submit your nine-hole scores so your Handicap Index reflects all your golf.
• Take a friend who has never played to a short course instead of a range.
• Play one nine with a single swing thought, and judge it only on that.

Eighteen holes is the format golf inherited, not the one most people can fit into a busy week. A nine or a par-3 round is not a lesser version of the game. For many golfers, it is the version that keeps them playing at all.