What Is a Golf Society?
A golf society is a group of golfers who organise their own days at courses they do not belong to. No clubhouse, no subscription, one person doing all the admin. Here is how they run.
2 min read/Updated September 2, 2026
A golf society is a self-organised group of golfers who arrange days out at courses they do not belong to. There is no clubhouse, no course and no membership fee beyond whatever the group agrees to charge itself. There is usually a fixture list of four to eight days a year, an order of merit, and one person doing all of the work.
The term is used most in the UK and Ireland. The nearest American equivalent is a golf league or an outing group.
A society is a booking entity, not a governing one. When a society books a course, the host club sets the dress code, the pace of play expectations and the local rules. The society decides the format and who wins the prizes.
How a society day runs
A typical day starts with coffee and a bacon roll, moves to a shotgun start or consecutive tee times depending on numbers, and ends with a meal and a prize giving in a function room the club has set aside.
The organiser books the course several months out, collects money from members, submits a final numbers count to the club about a week before, prints the cards, works out the handicaps, and stands up after dinner to hand out the prizes. Most societies are one person away from not existing.
Formats societies use
Stableford is the default. It lets a player who has put three in the water pick up, take zero for the hole and still enjoy the rest of the round, which matters when half the field plays six times a year.
Scrambles appear on the more social days, particularly the Christmas fixture and any day where new members are being introduced.
Individual medal play shows up rarely, usually only on the day that decides the season order of merit.
The order of merit
Most societies run a points table across the season. Points are awarded for finishing position on each day, sometimes with a bonus for turning up to every fixture, and the leader at the end of the season takes a trophy at the Christmas meal.
The order of merit is what stops a society dissolving in its third year. It gives members a reason to enter the fixtures they would otherwise skip, and it makes the last day of the season worth attending.
Prizes
Society prizes are small and constant rather than large and occasional. A typical day awards first, second and third on Stableford points, nearest the pin on two par 3s, longest drive, and a booby prize for the worst score that anyone was brave enough to hand in.
Because the prize fund comes out of a few pounds per head, societies buy at a very different price point from a corporate day. Useful, branded, small items outperform one expensive prize, and something carrying the society name gets used at every future fixture.
Starting one
You need four things: about a dozen people who will commit, a bank account or shared payment link, a fixture list booked before the courses fill up, and a written handicap policy agreed before the first prize is awarded rather than after.
The handicap policy is the one that causes arguments. Decide in advance what you do about players without an official handicap, whether you cut a winner, and who has the final say. Put it in writing in the first month, when nobody has anything to gain from the answer.
Common questions
Do you need a handicap to join a golf society?
Not usually. Most societies accept members without an official handicap and allocate a provisional one after two or three rounds, adjusting it as results come in. Societies that award serious prizes tend to insist on a WHS handicap to keep the order of merit honest.
Is a golf society the same as a golf club?
No. A club owns or leases a course and has a clubhouse, a committee and a subscription. A society owns nothing, pays green fees at a different course each time, and exists mainly as a fixture list and a group chat.
How much does a society day cost?
The green fee package normally covers 18 holes, a bacon roll on arrival and a two course meal afterwards. Courses quote a society rate well below the visitor rate for midweek bookings, and the organiser adds a few pounds per head to fund the prize table.
What is a roll-up?
An informal, recurring fixture with no entry list. Members turn up at a set time on a set day, get paired off into whatever groups the numbers allow, and play. It is the low-commitment version of a society day.