Why Join An Online Golf Club?

One of the best things about an online golf club is that it lets you talk golf whenever you wish, wherever you are, and at all those times when you can’t get out on a course and play as often as they would like.

There are so many advantages to an online golf club, not the least of which is a golf courses guide which many of them produce, and golf course reviews by other members. Golf course guides and reviews are exactly what you need if you want to play some different courses when you are going on holiday. Not only can you find reviews of courses by other members, but you can add your own reviews also in many of the online clubs.

Another advantage is that you can take part in the forums that they have. While some of them are merely social chit-chat, you will also be able to pick up tips and tricks, often from pros who are members also. 

Golf is a game that on the ‘face of it’ appears to be very straightforward: you hit a ball with a stick in order to get it into a small hole. However, as we all know, there is a myriad of things to overcome and it will take you some time and a lot of practice to master the game.

If you are a new player you will have all sorts of questions, such as how to go about getting a handicap.

Getting a golf handicap requires you to play 54 holes – ideally 3 rounds of 18 holes, but it can be a mix - and you need to be a member of a golf club affiliated to one of the eight unions which are part of the Council of National Golf Unions (CONGU). You then submit three or more cards signed by a “responsible” club member and the club will then allocate a handicap based on the best card.

However, if you are just looking to play ‘social golf’ you can use the handicap trackers provide by one of the many online golf clubs in the UK, often for free or as part of your annual membership fee.

Some Reasons To Join An Online Golf Club

There are only two types of people in this world. You are either a golfer or you are not. OK, fair enough, we golfers are actually in the minority, but nonetheless there are a good number of us. Some recent stats showed that over 1 million people in the UK had played a round of golf the previous week, and over 1.5 million had played in the previous month. That’s a lot more than people who play chess or scrabble, or even those who go fell running or paragliding. Anyway, what was that old saying? “A bad day on the golf course is better than a good day in the office!”

Those of us who play golf live and breathe the game. And with the coming of the internet we can now indulge ourselves even more with golf clubs online. What once used to be a hobby that we could only enjoy at the weekend, we can now be involved in every time we are anywhere near a laptop, mobile phone, or tablet – and we’ve all got mobile phones. We can chat away to our heart’s content in the virtual online club bar as much as we like.

However, there is a lot more than just chatting that you can do in an online golf club. Most of them will point you in the direction of new golf partners and golf societies in your area, which is great, because you can make new friends and find new courses to play. Finding new golf partners is not always easy, but online golf clubs usually have golf games posted where people are looking for partners to play on courses in your area. Of course, because it’s the internet, you will also find that there are games to play up and down the country, so if you happen to be going 100 miles away on business for a few days you may well be able to get in a round of golf while you do so as well.

Let’s say you are going on holiday, whether in the UK or abroad, and you are going to take your clubs with you. (What’s a holiday for if it’s not to play golf?). You are going to an area that you very well may not know, so you can ask in your online golf club if anyone has played at such and such a club that is in your holiday zone. You will almost certainly find that you get reviews of that course from other members who live there and have played it, or at least get pointed towards some reviews.

There are plenty more benefits to becoming a member of an online golf club, so if you are not already a member you would do well to join one.

Checking Out Golf Course Reviews For Your Holiday

If you are going away on holiday and want to play golf (what’s a holiday for, if it’s not to play golf?) you will want to check out the golf course reviews for the course or club to which you are going. If you are not already a member of an online golf club, now would be a good time to join one as you will usually find that they have a golf courses guide and lots of reviews from other members.

However, there are plenty of sources online which have extensive golf course directories covering the whole of the UK, and some 40,000 courses worldwide, along with many independent reviews. So, for instance, if you are going to Norfolk in the UK, you can simply click on that county in the listings in an online golf club and up comes a list of every course together with a price guide and possibly a star rating.

In many cases you can then just click on the name of a club that interests you and up will come its’ details including address and phone number along with the price of a round midweek and weekends, its’ website address, and a link to book tee times. You may also find an in-depth review of many courses by one of the members of an online golf club.

However, becoming a member of an online golf club gives you another advantage because you can talk directly to other members in the forums. It’s all well and good having the views of someone who has played a course, but you may want to ask questions about the facilities, the pro shop, or any one of another dozen things.

You can also arrange games and matches with other members. Online golf clubs give you a place where you can do this and everything else except, actually play golf, but they point you in the right directions with that as well since that’s why we are all here – to play!

Join an Online Golf Club To Find Open Golf Competitions

Open golf competitions are a great way to find new friends and play new courses, and one of the best ways of finding them is to join one of the online golf clubs. Many of these will have information on games that people are promoting and inviting others to take part. You will often find that there are games available at a time to suit you and in many cases not very far away from where you live. This gives you the chance to play courses that you otherwise would never have thought of, or that may be restricted to their members and guests only.

It is always fun to play a new course as there are no bad memories of quadruple bogeys or missed fairways, and the course is new and exciting. The fact is that most people play well on a new course, perhaps because they sub-consciously know that they need to play at their best. However, there are a few tips to be had by reading fellow members course reviews before you play. You can see photos of the course including the signature hole and check out the Stroke index/difficulty factor.

When you arrive at the open event, it is always worthwhile spending some time on the putting green to get a feel for the speed of the greens. Start with short putts and then increase the distance.

If you use a online golf club like thesocialgolfer.com, you can also review other members scorecards that have been posted on the site to see which holes may be the trickiest to navigate. So, no longer do you have to scour the web for Open golf events, just join an established and well like online golf club, new courses are always fun so there is no need to feel stressed.