PlayMoreGolf review: We try the app that’s bringing Sussex’s young people back to golf

With golf courses some of the first areas to open during the pandemic, a company that aims to make the UK’s courses as accessible as possible has had a remarkable resurgence. Our reporter John Holden tried it out, taking in some of the finest courses around Sussex in the process.
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The concept

PlayMoreGolf has been around for years, but as newly released isolators looked to get outside on the golf course without breaking the bank it has seen memberships skyrocket.

The company claims it has seen web traffic increase by more than 500 per cent since lockdown, with enquiries up by more than 1,400 per cent.

Mannings Heath's Waterfall course SUS-200409-114015001Mannings Heath's Waterfall course SUS-200409-114015001
Mannings Heath's Waterfall course SUS-200409-114015001
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A website and an app, PlayMoreGolf allows users to join one ‘home course’ as their main club. For the membership fee – significantly lower than the standard tariff – you are allocated points, which are spent on booking tee times.

The beauty of PlayMoreGolf is that on top of the core points for your main course, you also receive some additional ‘flexi points’, which can be spent on any registered course in the country.

For example, a PlayMoreGolf membership at Ifield Golf Club in Crawley would set you back £350, for which you would receive 80 home points and 20 flexi points. With tee times costing an average of five points (depending on date and time), that works out as 16 rounds a year.

On top of that, your 20 flexi points get you four rounds at other similarly priced courses just to mix things up a bit. If my maths is correct, that is £17.50 a round to potentially play five different courses - not bad when you consider 18 holes would usually cost at least £30, often more.

Mannings Heath's Waterfall course SUS-200409-113655001Mannings Heath's Waterfall course SUS-200409-113655001
Mannings Heath's Waterfall course SUS-200409-113655001
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Your PlayMoreGolf membership gives you basically all the perks of joining directly through the club. Obviously a direct membership gives unlimited play, but at most courses that will cost more than £1,000 a year. A significant outlay for the semi-regular golfer and financially restrictive enough to put you off trying out other courses.

This way bridges the gap between full paying member and green fee paying visitor. It also shifts the focus from golfers in their 60s with the time to play two or three rounds a week, to younger players who want to fit golf around other commitments. The average age of a PlayMoreGolf member is 35-42. The average golf club member? They’re aged 65.

The courses

Over the last month, through PlayMoreGolf, I’ve got to try out three of the area’s finest courses. I’m a member at a club in Worthing, so often feel I’m wasting my membership if I squander a weekend playing somewhere else.

Gatton Manor, Dorking SUS-200409-113706001Gatton Manor, Dorking SUS-200409-113706001
Gatton Manor, Dorking SUS-200409-113706001

But the app’s flexibility allowed me to play the spectacular Waterfall course at Mannings Heath Golf and Wine Estate, near Horsham. Peak time green fees are usually £65, but would be between five and ten PlayMoreGolf points.

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A championship setting, it offers everything you want from a golf course. Secluded, expertly manicured and featuring incredibly well thought out and well framed holes. It rewards accurate drivers, with narrow openings giving way to widening fairways once you’ve bypassed the guarding trees. But safety with an iron is a viable option too - the course plays around 6,000 yards from the yellow tees, although be prepared for some serious undulations.

The 476-yard par 5 13th hole torpedoed my already faltering round with a calf-busting raised green that added at least 70 yards to the hole and probably took a few years off my life.

It would never have occurred to me to fork out for a round at Mannings Heath - although it would be worth it - but PlayMoreGolf makes such luxuries so much more affordable.

Gatton Manor, Dorking SUS-200409-113716001Gatton Manor, Dorking SUS-200409-113716001
Gatton Manor, Dorking SUS-200409-113716001

I also ticked Gatton Manor in Dorking off my list. I’ve often lamented the lack of water at my home course, but Gatton Manor’s criss-crossing streams and sheltered ponds feature on the majority of holes and add that unmistakable frisson of peril. The course had understandably suffered from the heat wave when I played, but it was still in great condition.

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Towering oak trees give a real sense of isolation and carefully placed hazards mean all but the biggest hitters will struggle to blast their way around. A lake on the 386-yard par 4 3rd meant a 9-iron off the tee for the cowardly golfer with no faith in his carry.

Irons came out for around half of my tee shots and with five par 3s and three par 5s, there was plenty of variety to spice things up. A really impressive course and great fun to play.

My final round came at Ifield Golf Club in Crawley – a more run-of-the-mill course than my other two trips but still a challenging, picturesque round.

A sprawling parkland course without any dramatic undulations, Ifield’s wide fairways should forgive wayward drives but that did not stop me nestling behind most of the trees on the course.

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It was a classic example of why PlayMoreGolf is a good concept – a fairly average course that, to be honest, had I spent £35-40 playing I may have felt short-changed. But PlayMoreGolf’s points system would have reduced the cost to more like £20, which is a far more reasonable price.

The verdict

Put simply, the app makes golf more affordable for the recreational player who is not interested in forking out for a full membership, which often doesn’t represent value for money for anyone who can’t play more than once a week.

I think it’s a great concept. PlayMoreGolf seems to be exactly the kind of inclusive, affordable golf model that can help break the inaccessible, ‘you can’t sit with us’ attitude that has plagued the sport for too long.

The app and website were both easy to navigate and the points system is clear and simple. You can search for courses on the map so you can plan trips easily and pricing seems well laid out and transparent.

As we all come to terms with coronavirus life, flexibility is becoming ever more important. PlayMoreGolf is right on trend.

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