Value golf courses in GB&I: Beat the recession

We've reviewed some excellent value golf courses in an effort to prove that the recession needn't mean you have to cut down on your golf. From Canterbury in the south east to Kirkistown Castle in Northern Ireland, take at look at these 50 value tracks.

To define a ‘value course’ there must be some constraint on price. To set a benchmark for each area we took the average price of the top-100 courses in that region and applied a percentage to set a maximum green fee price under which a course could be considered for selection. The process is outlined below:

1. GB&I was split into 16 regions. 2. Golf Monthly top-100 courses in each region were identified and their summer weekday green fees noted. 3. An average top-100 summer weekday green fee was calculated for each region. 4.  A sliding-scale percentage was applied to each top-100 average green fee to determine a benchmark for each area.

- Where the average top-100 green fee was over £150 a figure of 30% was applied to give a maximum for the area.

- Where the average top-100 green fee was between £100 and £150 a figure of 40% was applied to give a maximum for the area.

- Where the average top-100 green fee was under £100 a figure of 50% was applied to give a maximum for the area.

- Calculations for Irish courses were in Euros.

Browse through the following pages and find out where you can play great value golf...

Jeremy Ellwood
Contributing Editor

Jeremy Ellwood has worked in the golf industry since 1993 and for Golf Monthly since 2002 when he started out as equipment editor. He is now a freelance journalist writing mainly for Golf Monthly. He is an expert on the Rules of Golf having qualified through an R&A course to become a golf referee. He is a senior panelist for Golf Monthly's Top 100 UK & Ireland Course Rankings and has played all of the Top 100 plus 91 of the Next 100, making him well-qualified when it comes to assessing and comparing our premier golf courses. He has now played 1,000 golf courses worldwide in 35 countries, from the humblest of nine-holers in the Scottish Highlands to the very grandest of international golf resorts. He reached the 1,000 mark on his 60th birthday in October 2023 on Vale do Lobo's Ocean course. Put him on a links course anywhere and he will be blissfully content.

Jezz can be contacted via Twitter - @JezzEllwoodGolf


Jeremy is currently playing...

Driver: Ping G425 LST 10.5˚ (draw setting), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 55 S shaft

3 wood: Ping G425 Max 15˚ (set to flat +1), Mitsubishi Tensei AV Orange 65 S shaft

Hybrid: Ping G425 17˚, Mitsubishi Tensei CK Pro Orange 80 S shaft

Irons 3-PW: Ping i525, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Wedges: Ping Glide 4.0 50˚ and 54˚, 12˚ bounce, True Temper Dynamic Gold 105 R300 shafts

Putter: Ping Fetch 2021 model, 33in shaft (set flat 2)

Ball: Varies but mostly now TaylorMade Tour Response