organiser · 29 June 2026 · By Simon Berriman, Founder of Caddie Live

How to Organise a Golf Society Day: The Complete Guide

Organising a golf society day is one of those jobs that looks simple from the outside and turns into a hundred small decisions the moment you volunteer for it. Where do you go? How much do you charge? What format keeps a 6-handicapper and a 24-handicapper both enjoying themselves? Who's collecting the money, and what happens when three people drop out the night before?

This guide walks through the whole thing in the order you'll actually need it, from the first email to the last prize handed out. Follow it and your day will run smoothly — and you'll spend the round playing golf instead of fielding questions on the first tee.

Start early and put one person in charge The single biggest predictor of a good society day is how early you start. Popular clubs block out society tee times months ahead, and the best dates — bank holiday weekends, the back end of summer — go first. Begin three to four months out for a normal outing, and a good six to twelve months ahead if it's an annual trip or you want a marquee course.

Just as important: one person runs it. A society day organised by committee becomes a day organised by nobody. Nominate a single point of contact who sends the first email, chases the stragglers, and makes the final calls. That person can delegate — someone on prizes, someone on the evening meal — but the buck stops in one place.

Nail down the three basics: where, when, how much Before you can book anything, get answers from your group on the three questions that drive everything else:

Where you're playing, when you're going, and how much people are willing to spend. Send a short poll with two or three date options and a rough price ceiling. You'll never please everyone, but you'll quickly see the centre of gravity — and a date that suits two-thirds of the group beats endless deliberation that suits no one.

Be realistic about ability and ambition. A championship links is a wonderful idea until half your field is hacking out of gorse and the round takes five and a half hours. Match the course to the group.

Book the venue and ask for a society package Once you've got a date and a course, contact the club directly and ask specifically about their society packages. Most clubs offer bundled deals — coffee and a bacon roll on arrival, a round of golf, and a two-course meal afterwards — at a per-head rate that's far better value than booking each piece separately. Typical society rates run from around £30 to £80 per head in the UK depending on the course and the season.

Don't be shy about asking for extras. Clubs want society bookings, especially midweek, and many will throw in sweeteners: a free place for the organiser, complimentary range balls, course planners, or a drink with the meal. If you don't ask, you don't get.

Get the key details in writing: the number of tee times reserved, the deposit, the cancellation terms, and the deadline for final numbers and dietary requirements.

Set the price and collect the money up front Work out your price per head by taking the total cost — green fees, food, prizes, any prize fund or buggies — and dividing by your expected numbers, then add a small buffer for no-shows and the inevitable extras.

Then collect the money before the day, not on it. "I'll pay you on the day" is how organisers end up personally out of pocket when two people don't show. Set a firm payment deadline, take a deposit early to lock in commitment, and stick to it. A simple bank transfer to one account, with a clear cut-off date, saves an enormous amount of grief.

Choose a format that suits a mixed field Your format decides whether everyone has fun or whether the back-markers have mentally checked out by the 6th. For a society day with a range of handicaps, the classic choice is individual Stableford: players score points against their handicap, a blow-up hole costs you that hole and no more, and everyone keeps playing all the way round. It's simple to understand and forgiving of bad days.

If you want a team element and a more relaxed, social feel, a Texas Scramble is hard to beat — teams play the best shot each time, so weaker players contribute without holding things up. Many societies run both: an individual Stableford competition alongside a team prize.

(For a fuller breakdown of Stableford, Scramble, Matchplay and the rest, see our guide to golf day formats.)

Sort the handicaps so it's fair Mixed-ability fields only feel fair if handicaps are applied properly. Under the World Handicap System, players have a Handicap Index that converts to a Course Handicap for the specific course and tees you're playing — and most society competitions then apply a handicap allowance (commonly 95% for individual Stableford) to keep things equitable.

You don't need to be a rules official about it, but you do need a consistent method and the numbers ready before the first group tees off. Decide your allowance in advance and apply it to everyone the same way.

This is one of those jobs that's tedious by hand and instant with the right tool. Caddie Live handles handicaps for you — it stores each player's index, works out their Course Handicap for the tees you're playing, applies your chosen allowance, and does it identically for the whole field. No spreadsheet, no arguments on the first tee.

(More detail in our guide to handicaps for mixed-ability golf days.)

Build the draw — and mix people up The draw (your tee sheet) is where a society day either feels like an event or feels like the same four mates who always play together, playing together again. Mix the groups up. Part of the point of a society day is golf with people you don't normally partner.

Leave ten-minute intervals between groups as standard — any tighter and you'll get bottlenecks on the par 3s. If you know who the slower players are, send them out near the back and have a quiet word about keeping pace.

Doing the draw by hand on a whiteboard is a rite of passage no one enjoys. In Caddie Live you can organise the groups in one click — it builds balanced, mixed pairings across the field automatically, and you can drag anyone around before you lock it in. Publish the draw the day before with tee times, group lists, and the all-important details: the course address and postcode, the club's phone number, the dress code, and what time to arrive.

Plan the prizes and the on-course games Prizes turn a round into a competition. You don't need to spend a fortune — the recognition matters more than the value. A sensible structure covers the main competition (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and often a "best back nine" so latecomers in the standings still have something to play for) plus a few on-course contests: nearest the pin on the par 3s and longest drive are the staples. A small "wooden spoon" for last place always gets a laugh.

If there's a sponsor or you're raising money for charity, on-course games like beat-the-pro or a hole-in-one prize are easy ways to add a fundraising element.

(See our roundup of golf day prize ideas and on-course games.)

Don't forget the evening For many societies the golf is only half the day. Book the table for dinner in advance, confirm dietary requirements with the club when you give final numbers, and have a rough running order for the day: arrival and coffee, tee-off window, lunch or dinner, then prize-giving. Prize-giving is much better with everyone in the room and a drink in hand — plan it for after the meal, not in the car park while people are itching to leave.

On the day: scoring and the leaderboard Here's where a lot of well-organised days come unstuck. You've done everything right — and then you're stood in the clubhouse with forty scorecards, a calculator, and a queue of players asking who won while you check Stableford points by hand. It's slow, it's error-prone, and it kills the buzz of the prize-giving.

The modern fix is live scoring. Instead of paper cards, players (or one scorer per group) enter scores on their phones as they play. The handicaps and Stableford points calculate themselves, and a live leaderboard updates in real time — on players' phones, and on a big screen in the clubhouse for the prize-giving. No maths, no disputes, no waiting. The winner is known the moment the last group signs off.

This is exactly what Caddie Live is built for, and it carries the whole day from start to finish:

Create the event in a couple of minutes and invite your players with a single link Handicaps calculated automatically — indexes, course handicaps and your chosen allowance, applied to everyone the same way Groups organised in one click, with balanced pairings you can tweak before locking in Live scoring straight from players' phones, with the leaderboard updating in real time on phones and the clubhouse TV A shareable card of every round when the day's done It turns the most stressful part of organising — the admin, the scoring and the result — into the easiest, and frankly it makes the whole day feel more like an event. Get your players signed up on it too: once a group plays a day on Caddie Live, going back to paper cards and a clubhouse calculator feels like hard work.

[Create your golf society day free in Caddie Live →]

Quick checklist 3–12 months out: agree date, course and budget; book the venue and society package 8 weeks out: open sign-ups, take deposits, confirm the format 2 weeks out: chase final payments, confirm numbers and dietaries with the club Day before: publish the draw with tee times, address, dress code; brief slower players on pace On the day: set up live scoring, run on-course games, save the prize-giving for after the meal Organise the admin well and the day takes care of itself. Get the scoring sorted and you'll actually get to enjoy it.![post1]