Golf for Complete Beginners: How to Start Playing at a Pay and Play Course

How to start playing golf is a question with a much shorter answer than the sport's reputation suggests. You do not need a club membership, you do not need a full set of clubs, and you do not need to be any good before you are allowed on a course. What you need is somewhere that lets anyone book a tee time, half a dozen clubs, and a willingness to play nine holes badly. Everything else follows from that, including the official handicap, which costs £47 a year and takes 54 holes of scores to earn.

You do not have to join a club

The single biggest myth about golf is that you need a membership. Pay and play courses exist precisely so you do not: you book a tee time, you turn up, you pay a green fee, you play. Lullingstone Park is one of them, with an 18-hole Championship Course, a 9-hole Valley Course and a driving range, and nobody at the first tee will ask what club you belong to.

That matters for a beginner because it removes the two things that put people off: a joining fee before you know whether you like it, and the sense that everyone around you has been there for twenty years. On a pay and play course, half the people on the tee are in the same position as you.

Step one: borrow or hire, do not buy

Buying a full set before your first round is the classic beginner's mistake, and it is expensive. Borrow from a friend, or hire at the course, for the first few outings. When you do buy, buy second-hand and buy half a set: seven clubs cover every shot on a par 72, and the Rules of Golf allow a maximum of 14 with no minimum at all, so a light bag is a completely legal bag. Our guide to what golf clubs a beginner needs sets out exactly which seven and why.

You will also want a glove for your lead hand, a handful of tees, and cheap balls in quantity. Do not buy premium tour balls: they are built around spin rates you cannot yet produce, and you will lose a dozen in your first two rounds. If carrying is the problem rather than the clubs, buggy and trolley hire solves it.

Step two: the range first, and one lesson

Hit balls before you play holes. A bucket at a driving range costs a fraction of a round and it lets you find out what a golf swing feels like without four people waiting behind you. Two or three range sessions before your first nine holes will make the difference between a frustrating morning and an enjoyable one. Our driving range and practice facilities page covers what is available here.

One lesson with a PGA professional early is worth more than ten hours of self-taught practice, and it is worth having before you have built habits rather than after. A professional will fix your grip, your alignment and your ball position in half an hour, and those three things account for most beginner slices.

Step three: practise the shots that actually score

Beginners practise driving because it is satisfying. Scores come from the other end of the bag. Putting is roughly 40 per cent of your strokes, and chipping from just off the green is where a beginner loses shots in threes and fours rather than ones.

If you have an hour to practise, spend twenty minutes on the range and forty on the short game. Our chipping and pitching basics guide covers the two shots that will take the most strokes off your card fastest.

Step four: play nine holes, not eighteen

Your first round should be nine holes. Eighteen is four hours or more, it is physically tiring when your swing is still new, and it turns a hobby into an endurance test. Nine gets you round in about two hours, costs less, and leaves you wanting to come back.

Play it at a quiet time. Weekday mornings and late afternoons are the least pressured slots on any course, and there is nobody behind you willing you to hurry up. Our comparison of nine holes or eighteen covers which to pick as you improve.

Step five: the etiquette that actually matters

Golf's rulebook is long. The etiquette that experienced players actually care about is short, and getting it right buys you enormous goodwill even if you are playing badly.

• Keep up. Ready golf is fine: play when you are ready rather than waiting on strict order. If you lose a ball, drop one and move on rather than searching for five minutes.
• Let faster groups through. If a group behind is waiting on every hole, wave them past. Nobody minds a beginner; everybody minds being held up.
• Repair what you damage. Replace divots, repair your pitch mark on the green, rake the bunker behind you.
• Stand still and stay quiet while someone else is playing, and out of their eyeline.

More detail on golf etiquette and pace of play, and on what to wear, which is far less strict at a pay and play course than most beginners fear.

Step six: get an official handicap

You do not need a handicap to play, but it changes the game once you have one, because it turns every round into a measurable result rather than a vague sense of how it went. And you no longer need a club membership to get one.

England Golf's iGolf scheme gives non-club members a Handicap Index under the World Handicap System for £47 a year, which also includes public liability insurance and access to the MyEG app for submitting scores. To get your initial index you submit scores totalling 54 holes, in any combination of nine and eighteen hole rounds. After that, once you have 20 acceptable scores on record, your Handicap Index is calculated from the best eight of your most recent 20 rounds.

That structure is worth understanding early, because it means one disastrous round does not follow you around. It also means your handicap only improves when your good rounds improve, which is a more useful target than trying to eliminate bad ones.

What a realistic first season looks like

Set the expectation properly and golf is far more enjoyable. A beginner playing once a fortnight with a couple of range sessions in between will usually be comfortably round nine holes within two or three months, and will start putting together a full 18 without embarrassment somewhere in the first season. Scores in the 120s on a par 72 are entirely normal to begin with. Almost nobody breaks 100 in their first year, and the people who tell you they did are rounding down.

The costs that actually add up are green fees and range balls, not equipment, which is the opposite of what most beginners assume. Play at the cheaper times, use the range rather than a round when you just want to hit balls, and buy the clubs slowly.

Starting at Lullingstone Park

If you are in Kent or south east London, the sensible sequence here is a couple of range sessions, then a quiet weekday nine on the Valley Course, then the Championship Course once you are getting round without losing half a dozen balls. The green fees and booking page has current visitor rates and how to book, and the first-time visitor page covers directions, parking and what to expect on arrival. Start from the Lullingstone Park homepage for everything else.

Two external sources worth bookmarking: the Rules of Golf are published free by the R&A, and the non-member handicap scheme is run by England Golf at englandigolf.co.uk.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I start playing golf as a complete beginner?

Start at a pay and play course, where anyone can book a tee time without a membership. Borrow or hire clubs for the first few outings, hit two or three buckets at a driving range before you play holes, take one lesson with a PGA professional, and make your first round nine holes at a quiet weekday time rather than eighteen at the weekend.

Do you need to join a golf club to play?

No. Pay and play courses let you book a tee time and pay a green fee with no membership at all, and you no longer need a club membership to hold an official handicap either. England Golf's iGolf scheme provides a World Handicap System index to non-members for £47 a year.

How do I get a golf handicap without being a member?

Subscribe to England Golf's iGolf scheme, which costs £47 a year and includes a Handicap Index, public liability insurance and the MyEG app. Submit scores totalling 54 holes, in any mix of nine and eighteen hole rounds, and you will be issued an initial Handicap Index. Once you have 20 acceptable scores, it is calculated from your best eight of the most recent 20.

How many clubs does a beginner need?

Seven is plenty: a driver or 3-wood, a hybrid, a 7-iron, a 9-iron, a pitching wedge, a sand wedge and a putter. The Rules of Golf set a maximum of 14 clubs and no minimum, so a half set is a fully legal bag. Buy second-hand and add clubs only when you can name a distance you cannot cover.

Should a beginner play nine holes or eighteen?

Nine, for the first several rounds at least. It takes about two hours instead of four or more, costs less, and is far less tiring while your swing is new. Move up to eighteen when you can get round nine without losing a lot of balls and without holding up the group behind.

What should a beginner practise most?

The short game. Putting accounts for roughly 40 per cent of your strokes, and chipping from around the green is where beginners lose shots in clusters. A sensible practice hour is twenty minutes on the range and forty on putting and chipping, which is close to the opposite of what most beginners actually do.