Why Enter an Open Golf Competition?

Open golf competitions are one of the best-kept secrets in UK amateur golf. If you're a club member, they're the easiest way to test your game on new courses, play prestigious venues at a fraction of the visitor green fee, and feel what competitive golf is like away from your home club. Here's why you should put one in the diary.

Most clubs use their opens to showcase the course at its very best. Entry fees are often cheaper than the standard visitor green fee, and many include extras like a bacon roll on arrival, a two-course meal afterwards, or even a post-round pint. It's not unusual to find Top 100 venues running open events that are eligible to all — including links classics, historic heathland tracks and parkland gems that would otherwise be difficult or expensive to play.

Opens are a club's shop window. Greenkeepers know visiting golfers will judge the venue on what they find underfoot, so the course is usually prepared to a higher standard than on a normal visitor day — quicker greens, freshly cut fairways, raked bunkers and tidy tee boxes. It's one of the few times a non-member gets to see what the course looks like at peak condition.

If there's a course you've always wanted to play, the chances are it runs at least one open competition a year. Elite venues fill up fast, but most of the UK's best-known courses welcome non-members through their open programme. Pair the round with a stay nearby and you've turned a single day's golf into a mini golfing break.

There's a noticeable shift the moment you tee off in a real competition — a starter announcing your group, a physical scorecard in your back pocket, a leaderboard somewhere with your name on it. Even seasoned golfers describe it as "different" and "proper". That bit of pressure sharpens your focus, changes how you think about club selection on tight tee shots, and tests how your game holds up when a five-footer actually matters.

Playing the same home course over and over can hold your game back, because you're only ever asked the same questions. Opens force you to read greens you've never putted, judge distances you can't pace from memory and shape shots you'd never need at home. Mixing parkland, links and heathland into your season is one of the quickest ways to become a more complete golfer.

While many opens are individual Stableford or Strokeplay, you'll also find Texas Scrambles, foursomes, four-ball better-ball, mixed greensomes and other team events. Team formats are particularly good if you're new to competition golf — you can share the pressure with a partner, and the atmosphere is usually more relaxed than an individual medal.

Most of us play with the same handful of friends week in, week out. Opens drop you into a three-ball with strangers who share your interest in the game — sometimes drawn in handicap order, so you'll be playing with people at a similar standard. Many of these events run year after year at the same venues, so you start seeing familiar faces, and casual playing partners can become lifelong golfing mates.

Most club golfers only play tournament rounds at one venue — their own. Opens give you a chance to put a card in your hand on courses you don't know, against players you've never met. It's a different test from a Sunday medal at home: unfamiliar greens, fresh nerves, and a genuine result at the end of it. Useful for your handicap, and even more useful for your game.

Prizes range from pro-shop vouchers and golf equipment to bottles of something nice — and at many events, the top finishers earn invitations to grand finals at prestigious venues. You don't enter expecting to win, but knowing there's a prize on offer adds another small layer of motivation as you walk to the first tee.

Opens run all over the UK, seven days a week, throughout the season. You can string together your own little schedule — a links event in early summer, a heathland classic in autumn, a Texas Scramble with mates in between. It's the closest most of us will get to playing a real tour: travel, prep, compete, recover, repeat.

If you've never played a competition before, the idea can feel intimidating. It really isn't. Opens are welcoming, well-organised and pitched at all abilities. The first one is always the hardest — once it's done, every event after gets easier, and your game gets sharper for it.

If you're a club member with an official handicap, there's an open competition out there with your name on it. Browse live UK opens on Golf Empire, pick a course you've always wanted to play, and find out what your game looks like when it really counts.