Playing as a visitor: what to ask before you go
Access, handicap certificate, dress code and what the fee includes. One call to the shop settles most of it.
Britain has more genuinely accessible great golf than anywhere in the world, including courses that have staged The Open. Playing one as a visitor is mostly a matter of asking the right questions before you set off.
Find out what kind of club it is
Municipal and pay-and-play courses sell tee times to anybody. Most members’ clubs keep part of the sheet for members and sell visitor times, often midweek. A small number of private clubs require introduction by a member, and they say so plainly on their websites.
Where the site is unclear, one call to the professional’s shop settles it.
Handicap and membership questions
Many clubs ask visitors for a handicap certificate, particularly at weekends and on championship courses. If you do not belong to a club, iGolf from England Golf provides a WHS handicap for independent golfers, and the equivalent schemes at Scottish Golf and Wales Golf do the same. Carry the record on your phone.
Booking, and what the fee includes
Booking through the club’s own site usually gets the better times and makes changes easier. Tee-time platforms are useful for last-minute rounds and for finding what is open nearby. Check what the green fee includes: buggies, range balls and caddie hire are almost always separate, and winter rates differ sharply from summer.
Dress code, in practice
A collared shirt, tailored trousers or shorts and soft spikes will get you onto essentially any British course. Denim, football shirts and cargo shorts are what gets turned away. Some clubs still ask for shirts tucked in and jackets in the dining room; the shop will tell you in a sentence.
Arrive early enough to be useful
Thirty minutes before your time is the norm: enough to check in, roll a few putts and find the first tee without rushing. Many clubs will not hold a time for more than a few minutes on a busy morning.
Pace of play is what visitors are judged on
Nobody minds a high score. They mind waiting. Play ready golf, leave the trolley on the route to the next tee, and pick up when you are out of the hole in a social round. If the group behind is waiting on every shot and there is space ahead, wave them through.
Looking after the course
Replace divots or fill them from the bottle. Repair your pitch mark and one more. Rake bunkers, entering and leaving from the low side. On links in summer the ground is hard and the bunkers are deep; leaving them raked is the difference between a welcome and a raised eyebrow.
Where to play as a visitor
St Andrews Links is publicly owned and takes visitors on all seven courses, including the Old Course through the daily ballot. Carnoustie, Royal Portrush and Royal Birkdale all sell visitor tee times at published rates. Inland, the heathland belt around Surrey and the links of Kent, Lancashire and the Ayrshire coast are open on the same basis, and county unions publish course directories that show what is genuinely accessible.
Rates vary enormously by season, and the club’s own green fee page is the only reliable source.
Before your first round somewhere new
- Call the shop and ask about access, handicap requirements, dress code and what the fee includes.
- Arrive thirty minutes early.
- Agree with your group how you will keep pace before you tee off.
Visitors are invited back for how they treat the course and the group behind, never for how they play.
