County Card Scheme

The Bedfordshire County Card Scheme enables Members of Affiliated Clubs to play at other courses within Bedfordshire and most other English Counties, at reduced green fee rates.

The scheme has been adopted by all but two County Unions and provides benefits to Club Members, Clubs and the County Union. Unlike Commercial 2 for 1 schemes ALL the income collected by the County Union goes straight back into the game at grass roots level.

The Counties in the scheme will, from 1st April 2012, comprise Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon, Dorset, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire & Rutland, Middlesex, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire & Herefordshire, Somerset, Staffordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Yorkshire. Currently, those County Unions have over 1200 clubs who host County Card Members. All of these courses will be available to Bedfordshire County Card Members.

A full list of Bedfordshire Clubs is available via this link, or once on that page other Counties are listed on the left. In addition, Bedfordshire is fortunate to be one of just a handful of Counties to have a similar agreement with Norfolk, and a list of their participating Clubs can be found here.

Host Clubs

Cards are mostly sold through Club Secretaries/Managers or the Members Committees but new for 2011 you can buy one online. Numbers are limited initially, but if you have any difficulty contact your Clubs BCGU representative or the County Secretary.

County Card Members

Members aged 18 and over of Affiliated Clubs may join the scheme only if their own Club has agreed to act as a host.

Annual membership is £10.00, or £11.00 if bought online and posted to you.

County Card Members may play at least once at any of the Host Clubs on the list (some Host Clubs may allow more than one visit).

Bookings must be made in advance with the Host Club. Restrictions on time and day of the week may apply. In general, bookings will not be accepted for weekends or Bank Holidays.

County Card Members must have current handicaps and must agree to be bound by the rules of the Club being visited.

The County Card may only be used for groups of up to 4 players and may not be used in connection with larger groups or societies.

The County Card year runs from 1^st April to 31^st March annually. The card booklet contains details of all Clubs within the scheme at the time of printing. This list will be updated from time to time, and the most up to date details are available via the links above.

Host Clubs

The minimum commitment required is to accept a booking of one four-ball group per week on a day or time determined by the Club.

The green fee to be charged is entirely at the discretion of the host Club. Typically, the green fee will be 50% of the visitor rate, or the same as the 'guest' green fee.

Clubs may sign-up to this scheme for a minimum period of one year, which will be renewed automatically unless the Club decides to opt out of the scheme.