The Club is affiliated to the appropriate national and regional bodies, thereby ensuring that the handicaps of members shall be recognised officially both in the UK and internationally.

The Club’s membership varies from year to year but in general the Club has roughly 130 members of whom 90 are men and 40 are ladies. The profile of the membership is too varied to describe, but suffice it to say that we have a full mixture of characters from a large number of different walks of life, and a significant number of our members are from overseas. We like to think that in purely simple terms, the Club is group of public golf course players that have arranged amongst themselves to play golf in an organised manner and in accordance with the officially recognised golf rules. At present, the Club has a shortage of regular players, therefore it has the ability to take on new members - both men and ladies.

The Club meets each Sunday morning at Richmond Park where we have a prior arrangement with the golf course administrators for a reserved tee allocation. Our tee allocation is booked weekly and the number of games booked is based upon our anticipated number of players. The start time for our first game is typically at our around 8:45.

In the summer season we find that we normally field in the order of 15 to 18 games, and in the winter season this drops to around 10 games.

The normal Sunday routine is for a group of men to play in an initial block, followed by the ladies playing in their own group and with the residue of the men making up the final games. On selected days through the year we do mix up the men and the ladies, which helps the members to intermingle.

One of the major attributes of the Club is the manner by which everyone congregates on a Sunday morning where, for a new joiner, it takes just a couple of weeks to get to know the regular players and to be able to meet up and play with familiar faces. We have not had a capacity problem for many years but the policy remains that if necessary the size of the Club’s membership will be restricted in order that those who typically want to play on a Sunday morning can do so with relative ease.

We are fortunate at Richmond Park in that there are the two courses: the Dukes and the Princes. Every Sunday is competition day and our play alternates between the two courses on a week-by-week basis.

In the summer season we play for the main Club trophies, and through the winter we have competitions that are more suited to the mixed weather conditions. Throughout the year we have in the order of 46 Sundays with a pre-set event, and for the remaining days the Competition Secretary will arrange a one-off event that could be something out of the ordinary such as an 'irons only' or pairs competition.

For the main competition days each player is obliged to pay a £2 competition entry fee.  These are accumulated through the year and the pot is used to purchase the prizes for the winners. In addition, on most days we hold an optional competition sweep of £2 per person. It is a Club rule that unless a player is involved in a knockout match or some such similar event each member must enter the competition of the day.

The vast majority of the Sunday events are what are termed handicap qualifiers which means that members’ handicaps are adjusted on a regular basis and indeed far more so than occurs with most other clubs.

From Spring through to the Autumn we have 4 internal men’s and ladies mixed events that are played on Saturdays, and a further notorious match where the men take on the ladies. We also have a few home and away Saturday ‘friendly’ matches where we battle for the retention of the friendly trophies. For the more enthusiastic golfaholics the Club regularly enters NAPGC national knockout events that often involve travelling to other venues similar to Richmond Park.

The Club has an exceedingly strong ladies section that has its own fixture list and is equally involved in its own array of ‘friendly’ events and the NAPGC events. In addition, the ladies section organises its own Spring and Autumn ‘ladies weekend away’ where the more well behaved men are invited to participate.

Each new member has to pay a one-off joining fee of £50 and the annual subscription charge. At present, the Club's annual subscription fee is £50. Members who leave and subsequently rejoin will not be asked to pay another joining fee.

The Club’s subscription year starts on 1st February. New members who join after 30th April will be charged at the following rates for the first subscription period: May and June £40, July and August £30, September and October £20, November and December £10. There is no first period subscription charge for a new member who joins during January, which is the final month of the Club’s membership year.

Each time a member plays with the Club, green fees are paid at the going rate [presently £25 per round for weekend play] to the golf course administrator in the usual manner, and of course there is the competition entry fee and sweep which puts a bit of added interest in the day. Members who are involved in the friendly and other inter-club matches are required to pay a small charge but there is no need to dwell on this at the moment.

So that’s it, a full golf club membership and an official internationally recognised handicap for £100! Now, is that good value for money or what?

In the golfing world all amateur club players must have a handicap.

• If you presently hold a valid club handicap, the handicap rules require a straight transfer from one club to another therefore reassessment does not apply. Prospective members with a valid handicap are invited to play with us on a guest basis for one week and if there is the desire to join the Club, it follows that, subject to the Club being happy, there will be an immediate fast-track entry.
   
• Alternatively, if you do not have a handicap we have the ability to award you a handicap, which is based on your playing performance. Under the present handicapping rules the maximum handicap allowance for men is 28 and the maximum handicap allowance for the ladies is 36.
  
  To gain a handicap it is necessary to undergo a handicap qualification process, the rules of which are governed by the Council of National Golf Unions [CONGU]. The main requirements are as follows:
  
  
  • The rules require that a prospective member plays three full rounds of medal/strokeplay golf. It is a requirement of CONGU that the cards are ‘marked’ by a Club member and that the rounds are played on the courses at Richmond Park. A simple assessment is then applied to the three results to determine the playing handicap.
    
  • The three rounds of golf played through the handicap qualification period need not necessarily be played on consecutive weekends. We do, however, require that the three qualification cards are completed within a period of six months. Also, in order to help with an understanding of the Club’s procedures we make every effort for prospective members to play with members of the Club’s main committee during this period.
  • One important point to consider is that we do have a qualification level for Club membership. We require that at least one of the three qualifying cards must be to a handicap of no worse than 28 for men and 36 for ladies. In rough terms this means a gross score for the men no worse than 96 playing from the yellow tees and for the ladies a gross score of no worse than 108 playing from the red tees.
    
    This point is particularly important and if you are not sure if you can manage the required standard please play at least one full round of golf at the Park and gauge your own performance.
    
    For those prospective members who approach us but are unable to achieve this standard we normally suggest a period of golf lessons and practice before a fresh attempt at membership
     
• The handicap qualification rounds give prospective members an ideal opportunity to see how we operate and to see if we are the sort of club that suits their aspirations. Likewise, it gives the Club an opportunity to assess whether prospective members are likely to fit in with the general environment of the Club, however it is only very, very rarely that we encounter any difficulties.
   
• Please note that we do not take the Club entry fee or the annual subscription charge until the appropriate qualifying rounds have been played and a prospective member’s handicap has been decided.

The new member contacts are Peter Harrington and Cheryl Woodhouse. If you wish to discuss joining the Club please call Peter on 020 8998 9350 or email either

Peter   secretary@richmondparkgolfclub.org.uk or
Cheryl   ladysecretary@richmondparkgolfclub.org.uk

Alternatively click here for a link to send a your enquiry details.