Handicap certificate, haar and hire trolleys: playing a British course as a visitor

At St Andrews, a visitor booked on the Old Course is asked to be on the tee at least twenty minutes before the start time, with a valid handicap certificate for the starter in the Old Pavilion. A letter of recommendation will not do. It is a neat summary of visiting golf in Britain: almost anyone can play almost anywhere, provided they have read the small print before setting off.

How well you strike the ball matters far less than you fear. What clubs, trusts and council courses notice is whether you turned up prepared, kept up with the game in front and left the course as you found it. All three are within your control, whatever your handicap.

Three questions to settle when you book

Who is allowed to play, and when? Pay-and-play venues, council courses and the public links trusts sell tee times to anyone. Members’ clubs vary far more. Many publish visitor times on certain days, and some keep weekend mornings for members. If the online booking page shows nothing, ring the professional’s shop or the secretary’s office rather than assuming the answer is no.

What proof of handicap do they want? Some courses ask for none, others set a limit. At St Andrews Links the Old Course is the only one of its courses that requires a certificate, with a maximum handicap of 36 for men and women, shown on paper or digitally. Plenty of members’ clubs ask for proof too, so check in advance and have your record ready on your phone.

What does the green fee cover? Hire clubs, trolleys, buggies and caddies are almost always extra. Ask what is available and whether it needs booking ahead, particularly for anything with a motor.

No club, no handicap? There is still a way

You do not need to belong to a club to hold a Handicap Index in England. England Golf’s iGolf subscription, at £47 a year, gives golfers without a club a World Handicap System index and a scoring record. It does not, on its own, entitle you to enter club or county competitions, but for a visitor asked for proof of handicap it can answer the question.

In Scotland, golfers score through the My Scottish Golf app. Edinburgh Leisure, which runs the city’s public courses, points its golfers to the app for entering scores and checking their handicap, and runs the Edinburgh Leisure Golf Club for those who want an official index while playing council golf.

If you have neither, choose courses that do not ask. Public courses rarely do, and they are often the better introduction to a new area anyway.

What to wear, and where the rules tighten

Dress codes in Britain run from relaxed to traditional, and the clubhouse is often stricter than the course.

St Andrews Links asks for clothing appropriate to the sport, not scruffy or torn, with suitable footwear on the course and a smart-casual standard in its clubhouses. It also asks golfers to wear soft spikes or plastic cleats to protect the greens, and hires out shoes if yours are not suitable. At the other end of the scale, Edinburgh Leisure advertises no formal dress code on its courses at all.

Between those two sits most of the country. Golf trousers or tailored shorts, a collared or golf shirt and soft-spiked shoes will get you onto nearly every course. Denim, sports shorts and football shirts are the items most likely to draw a quiet word. Pack a waterproof and a jumper whatever the forecast says; a warm, calm first tee can turn into a wet, windy back nine within the round.

Arriving and checking in

Allow more time than you think. Unfamiliar car parks, a pro shop queue and a long walk to the first tee eat a surprising slice of half an hour.

Large venues often split check-in points across the site. At St Andrews, the Links Clubhouse serves the Old, New and Jubilee, but Old Course players check in at the Old Pavilion beside the first tee, and those entered via the ballot pay the starter on the day. The Eden Clubhouse handles the Eden, Strathtyrum and Balgove. A free shuttle bus links the clubhouses, the Old Pavilion and the Golf Academy between 30 March and 24 October 2026, with no Sunday service.

When you reach the starter, ask two things: whether anything on the card is unusual, such as a blind tee shot or an out-of-bounds line that is easy to miss, and what the expected round time is. St Andrews prints that expected time for a four-ball on each course’s scorecard, and its rangers are on the links to keep play moving.

Trolleys, buggies and caddies

Walking is the ordinary way to play many of Britain’s best-known courses, and on the traditional links buggies can be scarce. Carnoustie Golf Links, for instance, keeps two buggies for golfers with a disability, available only on advance application with supporting documentation, at £80 including a driver the course requires.

If carrying a bag for four hours does not appeal, hire a trolley. Carnoustie lists a PowaKaddy electric trolley at £25 a round and a push trolley at £10 a day, with TaylorMade hire clubs at £60 a day. St Andrews hires pull trolleys, PowaKaddys, clubs and shoes.

A caddie is the other answer, and on a famous links a good one is worth more than a yardage book. Carnoustie’s published caddie fee is £80 per single bag plus a gratuity, and it strongly recommends booking at least 24 hours ahead.

When the weather turns

Read the course’s bad-weather policy before you pay, because a visiting fourball is more likely to meet a haar or a squall than a summer heatwave.

Carnoustie’s is typical of the detail you will find. If there is lightning, golfers on the course are advised to stop and shelter, and a paying golfer who abandons the round rather than waiting gets no refund. In fog or haar, the decision to continue lies with the golfers themselves, and again an incomplete round is not refunded. When heavy rain makes putting impossible, the course is closed temporarily; if a visitor’s time cannot be rescheduled, a refund is offered.

Winter visitors should also expect a different course. Carnoustie treats 1 November to 31 March as its winter period, when every golfer plays from a mat on the fairways, the courses may be shortened and winter greens come into use if ground conditions require it.

Keeping pace on a course you do not know

Nobody remembers a visitor’s score. Everyone remembers waiting.

Play ready golf in a friendly round, leave the trolley on the side of the green nearest the next tee, and have your next club chosen while others are playing. On an unfamiliar course, balls go missing more often, so watch every shot in the group and play a provisional whenever a ball might be lost. Under Rule 18.3 you must announce it as a provisional before you play it; simply saying “another ball” does not count.

If a gap opens in front and the group behind is pressing, call them through. Three minutes of standing aside is far easier than feeling hurried for five holes, and it is the gesture regulars notice most.

Leaving the course as you found it

Replace your divots on the fairway, or use the sand and seed mix if the course provides it. Repair your pitch mark and one other. Rake the bunker, entering and leaving from the low side, and put the rake back where the club asks. On links courses with deep revetted pot bunkers, never climb out up the face.

Keep trolleys off tees, greens and the areas roped off for recovery, and follow any signs routing traffic around them. These courtesies matter on any course, but on a members’ course that admits visitors, they are what keeps the visitor tee times open.

Where to play for less as a visitor in Britain

Famous links cost famous money. Carnoustie’s Championship Course green fee is £249 in April and £360 from May to October 2026, with the Burnside and Buddon at £99 and £135.

Council and pay-and-play golf is where visiting becomes affordable. Edinburgh Leisure’s 18-hole visitor rate is £41 at Braid Hills and £36.50 at its other 18-hole courses, and a 3-day pass at £45 or a 7-day pass at £75 opens six courses across the city. The pass cannot be bought from overseas, so buy it once you have arrived in the UK. In Surrey, Hoebridge Golf Centre charges visitors £45 on the Main Course before 1pm from Monday to Thursday, £56 at weekends, and £24 after 5pm. If the tees are unfamiliar, ask the starter which set suits your length rather than defaulting to the back markers.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any course, club or organisation named here.

Before you set off

• Confirm visitor times, any handicap limit and the form of proof accepted.
• Ask what hire, trolley, buggy and caddie options exist, and book the ones that need notice.
• Check the dress code for the course and for the clubhouse separately.
• Read the bad-weather and winter policies before paying.
• Arrive early enough to find the right check-in point, then ask the starter about the card and the expected round time.
• If first-tee nerves are a worry, remember the starter has watched thousands of opening drives and forgets them all.

Where this shows up on a course

Three short or nine-hole courses from our directory, open to anyone.

• Woodham Golf & Country Club: A James Hamilton Stutt parkland course opened in 1981 on 229 acres of County Durham, formerly Rushyford: a par 73 of 6,688 yards with space between the holes.
• Musselburgh Links, The Old Golf Course: Nine holes inside a racecourse, documented since 1672 and holder of six Opens: the oldest golf course in the world, best played with hickories, and what visitors report.
• Sandford Springs Golf Club: Three Hawtree nines on the Kingsclere ridge with a hotel on site: greens reviewers rate among the best they have played, and a service record that is not uniform.

We have not played these courses; each page says what it is based on.