Spending Too Much On Golf Club Membership? We Pick 5 Of The Best-Value Options

As with very nearly all things, the price of golf club memberships has risen fairly significantly in the first two and a half decades of this century.

For many, the cost of a full annual golf club subscription has become prohibitively expensive, too large a percentage of annual income to be justifiable.

In certain areas of the country where the population and demand is higher, golf club subs run into the thousands of pounds.

But there are places in the UK where you can still find a reasonable membership subscription, and there are ways to be a club member without it breaking the bank if you're not yet ready to become a nomadic golfer.

Here we look at five of the best-value golf club membership options out there.

Get Flexible

One of the best-value options for golf club membership can be found at clubs and facilities that offer flexible memberships.

The basic concept is that you pay an annual fee, significantly lower than a standard, full golf club subscription, and then pay for your golf as you go.

Many venues operate a credit system, where you top up on those credits and use them as required. Generally, you’ll be using up more credits on a Saturday morning, whereas a Tuesday evening might cost fewer credits.

Market Harborough Golf Club offers flexible membership of less than £600 against a full subscription of £1400. That gives you 450 credits to be used through the year.

Preston Golf Club offers a flexible membership of just £495 for which you could play up to 24 times a year depending on when you choose to head out.

Crieff Golf Club in Perthshire offers flexible membership options starting at just £260!

The highly rated Tenby Golf Club in Wales has flexible membership offerings from only £369 per year.

There are services allowing flexible membership over multiple courses. PlayMoreGolf is an online platform that allows you to play up to 50 rounds per year on some 250 courses around the country. Clubs in the PlayMoreGolf group can tailor their specific flexible membership offering but there are some great deals to be found.

Limit Your Days

If you have the capacity to do so, you can get value for money with a 5-day membership. If you are retired or have flexible work then perhaps you don’t need weekend golf.

Gosforth Golf Club near Newcastle offers 5-day (Mon to Fri) membership at just £635, a saving of £250.

The excellent Hampton Court Palace Golf Club offers 5-day membership of £155 per month, a saving of £40 per month.

Princes Golf Club in Kent also has a 5-day option, although it’s extremely popular!

Go Remote

Owing to supply and demand, courses in remoter areas tend to offer cheaper membership rates. As an example, Shiskine Golf Club on the Isle of Arran offers a membership rate of just £250… And you get to be a member of their tennis club for that too.

There are also some extremely reasonable membership rates to be found at some of the more remote championship courses. Silloth on Solway Golf Club – a course at 51st in Golf Monthly’s Top 100 UK&I Course Rankings – has an annual membership subscription of just £685. That’s exceptional value for an exceptional course.

Move To St Andrews

Bit expensive moving to St Andrews, but if you did, you would be able to enjoy some of the best value golf anywhere in the country.

In 2025, the annual fee for a resident’s links ticket in St Andrews, to play all seven courses (including the Old Course) as many times as you like is just £386. That’s insanely good value when you consider that’s only £46 more than one round on the Old Course for a visiting golfer.

Okay, you would have to also join one of the local town clubs, but with rates around the £500 mark, you still have exceptional value for money to play all year in the world’s most famous golfing town (just don't look at the property prices!).

Go Country

Another option is to become a member of somewhere that isn’t close to where you live. Most clubs will offer some sort of “country” membership for those who live out with a certain radius of the course.

Tain Golf Club in the north of Scotland offers country membership of just £350 per year.

Saunton Golf Club in Devon, home to two courses in Golf Monthly’s top-100 UK&I ranking, offers a country membership of £826 per annum, which is great value considering you have two of the country’s best courses to play!

Golf Club memberships are undoubtedly expensive. But, with a little shopping around, you can find deals to gain value for money. It’s still possible to be a member of a club, possibly a prestigious club, for under £1,000 per year.