Organising
How to Organise a Golf Day (Without Losing Your Mind)
Organising a golf day? Our practical guide covers courses, teams, formats, handicaps, prizes, timings and a complete golf day checklist.
· 9 min read
Organising a golf day sounds easy until you realise you’ve somehow become responsible for tee times, teams, handicaps, food, prizes, buggies and the bloke who hasn’t played golf since 2019.
The good news: it doesn’t need to be complicated.
Whether you’re planning a corporate golf day, a charity golf day, a golf society day, a client outing or a stag weekend with clubs attached, the moving parts are the same. This guide walks you through golf day organisation from start to finish — and there’s a complete golf day checklist near the bottom you can steal.
1. Start with the basics
Before you contact a single golf course, get clear on the shape of the day. Approximate answers are completely fine at this stage — nobody expects final numbers yet.
- roughly how many golfers are coming
- a preferred date (and a backup)
- a rough budget per person
- where everyone is travelling from
- what kind of day it is — corporate, client, charity, society, friends or stag
- whether you want breakfast, lunch or dinner included
- whether it’s properly competitive or mainly social
Those answers decide almost everything else. A 16-person society day and a 72-person corporate golf day are both “golf days”, but they are not the same job.
2. Choose the golf course
When you’re comparing venues, think about:
- location and travel time for your group
- course difficulty — a championship brute can be a long day for occasional golfers
- price, and what’s actually included
- availability on your preferred date
- catering quality and options
- practice facilities
- buggy availability
- club hire for golfers who don’t own clubs
- a private room or function space for food and prizes
- whether they regularly host golf days
That last point matters more than it looks. Clubs that host regular golf days usually offer corporate or society packages that bundle golf, food and sometimes prizes into one per-person price. Asking for a package is almost always easier than arranging every element separately — and their events team will have seen everything go wrong before, which is exactly what you want.
3. Book the tee times
Golf day groups almost always go out in fourballs — four players per tee time. So:
- 20 golfers = roughly 5 groups
- 32 golfers = roughly 8 groups
- 48 golfers = roughly 12 groups
Leave sensible spacing between groups so nobody spends the day standing on tees. The exact interval varies from club to club, so ask the venue what they recommend rather than assuming a fixed gap.
For larger events, ask whether a one-tee or two-tee start is possible. Sending half the field off the 1st and half off the 10th gets everyone round in a similar time — useful when you’ve booked food for a specific hour.
4. Get the player list sorted
Once the date and course are booked, collect the details that matter:
- name
- email or mobile, if you’ll need to contact people
- handicap
- dietary requirements
- buggy requirements
- club hire requirements
What if someone doesn’t have a handicap?
Every golf day organiser meets this problem eventually. Plenty of occasional golfers play several times a year without maintaining an official handicap — and when you ask what they play off, you get a vague shrug and a number that may or may not have been true in 2019.
Rather than asking them to guess — “what do you reckon you play off?” — send them to No Bandits. They enter their recent rounds and get a free No Bandits General Play Handicap based on how they’ve actually been playing, adjusted for course and tee difficulty.
With 3 or more rounds they qualify for No Bandits Verified status, and if you want something for the records they can download a No Bandits Verified Handicap Certificate for £1 — complete with a QR code so you can check it’s genuine.
Worth being clear: it’s designed for informal, corporate, charity and society golf. It isn’t an official WHS Handicap Index — and if your event formally requires one, players will need to go through the official route instead. Our guide to whether you need a handicap for a corporate golf day explains when that applies.
5. Decide the golf day format
The format shapes the mood of the whole day. The common options:
Individual Stableford
Points for your score on each hole, adjusted for handicap. A disaster hole costs you nothing — you just pick up and move on. Good for mixed abilities and straightforward to run.
Texas Scramble
Everyone in the team drives, you pick the best shot, and everyone plays from there. Excellent for corporate and social days, and for groups containing less experienced golfers — nobody spends six hours apologising to their teammates.
Better Ball
Pairs play their own ball and the better score on each hole counts. Useful for pairs or team competitions where everyone still wants to play their own game.
Individual Stroke Play
Every shot counts, including the ones in the lake. Better suited to more serious golfers — it can be unforgiving for beginners and slow for big fields.
Still undecided? For most mixed-ability corporate or charity days, Texas Scramble is the safe crowd-pleaser. Stableford is the best “proper competition” option that won’t ruin anyone’s afternoon.
6. Sort out the handicaps
Nothing starts a clubhouse argument faster than a handicap nobody agreed on. Sort the rules before the day, not on the first tee.
Decide:
- whether players with official handicaps use them as they are
- what players without official handicaps play off
- any maximum handicap for the event
- handicap allowances for your chosen format (some formats use a fraction of full handicap)
- how everyone will be told their number before they tee off
For players without an official handicap, No Bandits is the easy answer — send them the link, they enter their recent rounds, and everyone’s number gets worked out the same way from actual scores. There’s more on what makes a fair number in our guide to what handicap you should play off.
One caveat, again: a No Bandits handicap doesn’t replace an official handicap where the event or course genuinely requires one. Check with the club if you’re unsure.
7. Make the draw
How you arrange the groups is up to you:
- random draw — simple and hard to argue with
- balance the teams by ability so no fourball is doomed
- mix departments or companies so people actually talk to each other
- keep certain people together (new clients, nervous beginners)
- separate the dangerously competitive golfers
That last one isn’t a joke. Two men who once argued about a gimme in 2017 should not share a fourball.
8. Plan the day itself
Every event is different, but a typical golf day looks something like this — an example, not a universal timetable:
- 10:00 — arrive, registration, breakfast
- 11:00 — first tee time
- 16:00 — golf finishes
- 16:30 — food and drinks
- 17:30 — scores and prizes
Your actual timings will depend on player numbers, the course and the format — confirm them with the club when you book, and build in slack for the group that treats the 19th hole as the main event.
9. Prizes and competitions
Golf day prizes don’t need to be extravagant — they need to exist. The usual suspects:
- overall winner
- team winner
- nearest the pin
- longest drive
- best front nine / best back nine
- wooden spoon
- most golf played (highest score) — award with care
Keep it fun rather than formal. A novelty trophy and a bottle of something will generate more speeches than a tasteful voucher ever will.
10. What to send players before the day
A week or so out, send everyone one clear message containing everything they need:
- venue and directions
- date and arrival time
- first tee time (and where to find the draw)
- dress code
- the format
- handicap arrangements
- food arrangements
- what’s included and what costs extra
- what to bring
- your contact details
- a link to No Bandits for anyone who doesn’t have a handicap
The more that message answers, the fewer panicked texts you’ll get the night before.
11. On the day
The short practical checklist:
- confirm the player list
- confirm everyone’s handicap
- confirm the teams and draw
- make sure everyone knows their tee time
- explain the format before the first group goes out
- explain the side competitions
- hand out and collect scorecards
- confirm food and catering times with the club
- have the prizes ready
- nominate one person to deal with scores (ideally not the one in the last group)
12. The golf day checklist
The whole thing, timeline order. Screenshot this bit.
4–8 weeks before
- choose the date
- estimate numbers
- book the course
- agree the package and budget
- invite the golfers
2–4 weeks before
- confirm the players
- collect handicaps
- sort out players without handicaps (send them to No Bandits)
- decide the format
- organise the teams
- arrange prizes
- confirm catering, buggies and hire clubs
The week before
- confirm final numbers with the club
- send players the final information
- finalise the draw
- confirm handicaps
- prepare the competition and prize information
The day before
- check the weather
- confirm any last-minute changes with the club
- print or save the player list and draw
- prepare the prizes
- try not to reorganise the entire event because Dave has suddenly dropped out
And that’s it. Organising a golf day is mostly a sequence of small, unglamorous confirmations — do them in the right order and the day looks after itself. Then all that’s left is the golf, which is everyone else’s problem.
Common questions
- How far in advance should you organise a golf day?
- It depends on the size of the event and the venue. Larger corporate golf days and popular dates — Friday summer dates especially — benefit from booking several months ahead. A small society or friends' day can often be arranged a few weeks out. As a rule: the more people and moving parts, the earlier you should book.
- How many people do you need for a golf day?
- There's no minimum — a single fourball can be a golf day if someone brings a trophy. Groups naturally work well in multiples of four because golf goes out in fourballs, and larger events of 40+ simply need more coordination around tee times, food and prizes.
- What is the best format for a corporate golf day?
- Texas Scramble is the most popular corporate golf day format because every player contributes and beginners aren't exposed — everyone plays from the best shot. Individual Stableford is the better choice when the group mostly plays regularly and wants a proper individual competition.
- What do you do if someone doesn't have a golf handicap?
- Don't ask them to guess. Send them to No Bandits: they enter their recent rounds and get a free No Bandits General Play Handicap based on their actual scores and the difficulty of the courses played. With 3 or more rounds they qualify for No Bandits Verified status, and there's an optional £1 downloadable certificate with QR verification if you want a record.
- Do you need an official handicap for a corporate golf day?
- Usually it depends on the event and course rules. Many informal corporate days happily accommodate golfers without official handicaps using estimated or event handicaps, but some formal competitions require a recognised Handicap Index. Check with the host club or organiser before the day.
- How long does a golf day take?
- Plan for most of the day. Eighteen holes typically takes four to four and a half hours, and once you add arrival, breakfast or registration, food afterwards and the prize-giving, a golf day commonly runs six to eight hours in total. Exact timings vary with numbers, course and format.
- What prizes should you have at a golf day?
- The classics cover it: overall winner, team winner, nearest the pin and longest drive, plus one or two fun prizes like the wooden spoon. Prizes don't need to be expensive — they need to be presented with sufficient ceremony.