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.

The Benefits of An Online Golf Club

To some people the idea of an online golf club may seem somewhat strange because you can’t play golf online. Well, even that is not strictly true because you can play simulated golf online, and some websites let you play on actual named courses. However, sitting at your laptop all day doesn’t have quite the same appeal as getting out on the course with a set of clubs and doing it for real.

As such, the last few years has seen a growth in online golf clubs. These can provide you with all sorts of entertainment, tips, forums, golf societies, and above all may give you links to people wishing to play in your area or clubs in your locality that you may want to try.

You may find that some online golf clubs have a golf courses guide to clubs in your area, and reviews by other members. It is one thing visiting the website of a club where it will tell you how wonderful their course is, how superb the food in their restaurant is, and more. Of course it will. But reviews from people who have been to a course, played it, and can tell you an awful lot more than club website and are of course completely independent.

Furthermore, you may also get tips from fellow members on how to play a certain hole, or possibly how not to, especially if they have managed to get into trouble on it.

Another possibility with an online golf club is discounts from partner clubs on their green fees.

We all like a discount, and some online clubs have arrangements for discounts for their members at affiliated traditional clubs with which they have teamed up.

From the golf club’s point of view, they will get extra income, and from the online club member’s side you get to play a round for less. Everybody wins.

Finding Golf Courses for Your Holiday

If you are looking for somewhere to go on holiday that has some good golfing opportunities the best place to start is by joining an online golf club. You will find a lot of golf course reviews from other members who have played at a course and then will give their considered opinions about it for the benefit of the rest of the members.

Furthermore, the good online golf clubs will have their own golf courses guide containing a considerable amount of information about courses including tee times, green fees, and the facilities provided. Online golf club membership is considerably less than the membership fees charged by some golf clubs in the golfing world. Some of the most prominent and traditional golf clubs in the UK have very restricted memberships, and you must be proposed and seconded, and in some clubs, you are required to have a playing interview with the chairman.

Some membership fees can be high, although average is £800 per year but you can pay astronomical amounts: in some cases, they are well in excess of six figures, whereas an online golf club offers membership for less than £50!

Online golf clubs provide all sorts of information about everything golf. In fact, about the only thing you can’t do in an online golf club is play golf and sit in the bar afterwards either bragging or drowning your sorrows. However, you can keep in touch with your golfing buddies on the days when you are available, and there may be a monthly newsletter, tips from Pro’s, discounts on green fees, and all sorts of other goodies.

So, if you are looking for a good golfing holiday or want to plan a golfing odyssey, you can really do no better than join an online golf club. They will have forums which you can join and ask other members their opinions about any golf clubs or courses that you are considering too.

Golf Is A Totally Addictive Sport

Once you start to play the game of golf you will very quickly realise just why it is such an absorbing the game of golf is. Chess players probably do not go home and chat to their friends in the pub about how they played the rook against the bishop, and tennis players probably don’t talk endlessly about their games, but golf has a way of getting hold of you: you do sit in the pub afterwards and chat with your fellow golfers (or not) about the shot you played at the 11th hole.

Anything to do with golf become your focus (bordering on obsession!). This is why corporate golf days and society golf days are so popular. Corporate golf days are not just a day off work and a chance to relax with people who are clients or suppliers but also an opportunity to play the sport you love (and an excuse to get a day out of the office or factory!).

They are also a great way for businesses to show appreciation of their staff and clients by raising money for a charity or cause close to you or your staff’s heart – or if this not your motivation - it gives them a day off and a chance to reward their hard work throughout the year. This is quite smart business thinking too, because those staff members will realise that they are appreciated and will work more proficiently as a result.

All sorts of well-known and not so well-known Corporate Businesses/Companies and Golf Societies hold charity golf days for members, However, some who do not play golf may come along for the ride and to find out what is so fascinating about bashing a ball into a hole with a stick. They can very quickly get roped in!

Corporate and Charity golf days are a great way of combining your love of the game with raising funds for a good cause. All sorts of individuals, clubs, and societies organise charity days, and they can be a much more fun way to raise money than a village jumble sale.  

Great Golf Courses in and Around London and the Home Counties

There are a considerable number of golf courses in and around London, with over 220 courses around London and its major orbital road – the M25. However, there are rather fewer located in the royal county of Buckinghamshire which tends to favour quality over quantity.

Beginning with golf courses Buckinghamshire, one of the more notable courses is the one of the same name as the county – The Buckinghamshire. This course is not only the home of the LPGA Women’s Tour governing body but hoe to a stunning and well-kept course. There is plenty of water to be avoided here in the shape of the River Colne and the River Misbourne on the first nine holes.

The course also plays host to some superb water features. The greens are large and there are bunkers seemingly everywhere, with the 15th proudly sporting no less than ten of them.
The 8th has a dogleg sharply to the left over a lake and can catch out the unwary, but the 9th is a beautiful par 3 to the green which is set between the clubhouse and the river.

Highgate Golf Club is another prestigious club among the golf courses of London and is a par 72 of 6,015 yards set among trees and woodland in a hilly environment. This is a private members club, but non-members are welcome with a handicap certificate midweek, Monday to Friday, and at weekends if accompanied by a member. It is set on the north side of Hampstead Heath and is only a short drive from the West end of London There is a covered driving range, putting green, and short game practice area.

Finally, we should also give a mention to one of the best Golf courses in Essex, Thorndon Park in Brentwood. Known by some as “The Wentworth of Essex”, this is another Harry Colt-designed course. This unique club is surrounded by centuries old woodland including oaks which are over 500 years of age, along with many cedar and elm trees. The turf here is springy and lush and is always very well maintained, and the greens are hard but true. The 18th century Palladian Mansion and former clubhouse is one of the most stunning sights in the last hole of golf.

Golf Clubs in Essex And London

There are some 80 golf clubs in Essex affiliated to the Essex Golf Union which was inaugurated in 1924, and around the same number in London. However, with the Essex Ladies County Golf Association founded in 1900, meaning the women’s game was nearly a quarter of a century before the men’s Union was formed.

Golf clubs in Essex include the well-known Chelmsford Golf Club which was re-modelled in 1924 by Harry Colt. The October of 1987* brought with it a rarely seen hurricane in the UK, which devastated a lot of the English countryside and damaged many golf courses.

It brought down many trees, which in turn (over time) opened things up so that there was greater air movement, and the course became much drier. It is now said to be one of the best maintained courses in the county.

Romford Golf Club can be found in Gidea Park in Essex and is a testing course of 6,383 yards with a par of 71. Everything seems reasonably straightforward until you reach the par four 4th where you are often playing into the prevailing wind. It is 477 yards and the Pro’s tip is “carry the middle bunker for the second shot, card a five and move on”. The hardest hole is the par four 14th   which is 455 yards and has a pond just short right of the green.

Other well-known Golf clubs in London include The London Club, The RAC Club, The Grove but there is some bad new, as council become even more strapped for cash, they are selling off some golf course land for housing one such club is Beckenham Place Park GC between Penge and Bromley. This was a challenging and enjoyable course meandering between the ancient trees in the park but alas, from 2016, this course no longer exists.

Meanwhile, Dulwich and Sydenham Hill Golf Club (opposite to the famous Dulwich College and is an undulating course with astounding views of London from Canary Wharf to Wembley. This is another course designed by Harry Colt in 1894, although some alterations to bunkers were made in 2007 and the tees were rebuilt. 

*The Great Storm of 1987 was a violent extratropical cyclone that occurred on the night of 15–16 October, with hurricane-force winds causing casualties in England, France and the Channel Islands as a severe depression in the Bay of Biscay moved northeast. Among the most damaged areas were Greater London, the East Anglian coast, the Home Counties, the west of Brittany and the Cotentin Peninsula of Normandy which weathered gusts typically with a return period of 1 in 200 years.