Link Golf UK crest

Link Golf UK · Public golf, run for the community

Seven public courses, kept open and kept public

Link Golf UK takes on public golf courses and runs each one as a Community Interest Company. Every course is a social enterprise in its own right, so what it earns goes back into the course, the people who work there and the community around it: affordable, accessible golf, free coaching every week and outreach work with local schools, charities and community groups.

What it meansWhat we have done
2019
first course saved
7
public courses
3,500
children coached free this year

A social enterprise is a business with a social purpose first. It trades like any business and has to stand on its own feet, but the reason it exists is the good it does, and the money it makes is put back into that purpose. At every course the aim is simple: keep public golf open, keep it affordable, and open the game to people who were never going to walk through the gates of a private club.

Golfers with trolleys walk towards a green at Marland.

What it means

A community interest company at every course

Link Golf UK takes on public golf courses, and each course is set up in its own entity as a community interest company: a form of company created by law for businesses that exist to benefit a community. It is the community interest company at each course that is the social enterprise, not Link Golf UK as a whole. Marland Golf C.I.C. was the first, in 2019, and Heaton Park Golf C.I.C. followed in 2020.

A community interest company has an asset lock. Its assets and profits are held for the community it serves, and it reports every year to the Community Interest Company Regulator on what it did for that community. In plain terms, the course cannot be stripped and sold on, and what it earns is used for the course and the people who play it.

Every course stays a public golf course, open to everyone. Link Golf UK takes on the running, the investment and the risk, and what each course earns is used for that course and the people who play it.

2019Marland, our first community interest company
0courses closed in seven years

On the ground

What a social enterprise looks like in practice

3,500+
Children in free coaching sessions this year
52
Weeks a year the free junior sessions run
16 & under
Play free at every course
£500k
Invested in a course, on average, in its first two years

In the community

Out on the grass, week in, week out

Five older golfers putting together on a practice green on a sunny day.
A coach with a clipboard talks a group of girls through an exercise on the grass.
A coach watches a group of girls in a junior session as one takes a putt with a bright club, cones on the grass.
Older golfers on a practice green, one bending to pick up a ball while the others line up putts.

The initiatives

What we have done so far

None of this is a side project. It is the reason the business exists, run week in, week out at every course.

A young golfer smiles and waves, trolley in hand.

Junior Academy

Free coaching, every week of the year

PGA professionals coach children for free at every course, 52 weeks a year. No kit, no membership and no family history in the game needed. Over 3,500 children came through the sessions this year.

Juniors watch a young golfer hit from a covered range bay at Tapton Park.

Free golf for juniors

Anyone aged 16 and under plays free

Any of our seven courses, any day the tee sheet allows, with clubs to hire at the shop. A 14 to 17 year old playing without an adult needs a short consent form from a parent first.

Golfers on a striped fairway at Marland, from the air.

Junior Tour

Somewhere to compete, since 2024

A tour of junior events across our courses in the north west, so a child who learned the game in a free session has somewhere to play it for real, against others of their own age.

Marland's greens from the air with the Pennines beyond.

Courses kept open

Seven public courses, none lost

Marland in Rochdale was losing money and facing closure when we took it on in 2019. Heaton Park followed in 2020 after its operator went into administration. In seven years we have not lost a course.

Golfers walk a fairway between birch trees at Derby.

10,000 new golfers

Our aim for 2026

Free taster sessions, beginner programmes and equipment support at every course, with local schools, charities and community groups, to introduce 10,000 people to golf this year who are new to the game or coming back to it.

Golfers practise in covered range bays at Tapton Park with the course beyond.

Careers in golf

Jobs and training, not just tee times

When we take on a course, the people who work there come with it on the same terms. A partnership with The Golf College gives young adults a route into careers in golf.

Children and two coaches gather in a circle on a grass area for a junior session.

Schools

Free range use for schools

Our driving ranges are free for schools to use, so more children get the chance to hit a golf ball for the first time.

Which range, when and how it works is arranged with your local course team. Get in touch and we will talk you through it.

Ask about a school visit
Four golfers on a green with the flag, seen from the air at Stanley Park.

Recognition

Community Project of the Year, 2026

In September 2026 the Golf Foundation named Link Golf UK its Community Project of the Year, at its awards during the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth.

The citation was for making public golf more accessible: rescuing a council course from closure in 2019, running seven public facilities, free play for children aged 16 and under, and weekly free coaching with equipment provided.

It was recognition for something that has been happening across all of our venues, week in and week out, without much fuss.

Andrew Terry, co-founder

Seven years

One course at a time

  1. 2019

    Marland, Rochdale

    The council course where both founders learned the game was losing around £200,000 a year and facing closure. Marland Golf C.I.C. took it on in April.

  2. 2020

    Heaton Park, Manchester

    Taken on for Manchester City Council after the previous operator went into administration, through Heaton Park Golf C.I.C.

  3. 2024

    Stanley Park, Tapton Park, Derby

    Three councils chose Link Golf UK to run their courses: Blackpool, Chesterfield on a 25-year contract, and Derby.

  4. 2025

    Middlesbrough and London

    Middlesbrough Municipal, with about £1.4 million invested in its first twenty months, and London Airlinks, our first course in the capital.

  5. 2026

    Wentworth

    The Golf Foundation names Link Golf UK Community Project of the Year.

We set the business up in 2019 for one reason, which was to stop the unnecessary closure of golf clubs.

Andrew Terry, co-founder, writing in The Golf Business, October 2026

Greens and paths at Middlesbrough Municipal in autumn, hills beyond.

Where the money goes

Back into the course, first

On average we invest about £500,000 in a course in its first two years, most of it on the things golfers notice: drainage, greens, bunkers and machinery, then the clubhouse.

At Tapton Park, £650,000 of investment took turnover from £625,000 to £1.4 million in two years. At Middlesbrough, around £1.4 million went in over the first twenty months: the range, a new bar open to everyone, drainage and machinery.

A better course brings more people, more people pay for the next improvement, and each course is left in better order than the day we arrived. That loop is the whole model.

£650kinvested at Tapton Park
£1.4mTapton Park turnover, from £625k

Questions

Straight answers

No. Link Golf UK is a business and has to pay its way like any other. What makes each course a social enterprise is why it exists and where the money goes: every course is set up as its own community interest company, so what it earns is held for the course and its community rather than taken out.

A CIC is a type of limited company created in 2005 for businesses that trade for the benefit of a community. Its assets are locked to that purpose, it files a community interest report every year, and it answers to the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies. Ours are on the public register at Companies House.

No, each course is. Link Golf UK takes on public golf courses and sets each one up in its own entity as a community interest company, and the CIC is the social enterprise. More about us, and the people who run the courses.

It means it is priced for the town it sits in. Green fees and the Annual Pass are set so that a working person, a pensioner or a family can play regularly, anyone aged 16 and under plays free, and the standard of the course is not what we cut to get there.

Pick your nearest course on the contact page, choose the juniors or beginners subject, and the venue team will send the session times. No kit, no membership, no cost.

Yes. Taster sessions for schools, charities and community groups are part of our aim to introduce 10,000 new people to golf in 2026. Tell us the group, the ages and the numbers and the nearest venue will put something together.

Bring a child, a class or yourself

Free junior coaching runs every week at all seven courses. Get in touch and we will point you to the nearest one.

Contact usFind your course

Stay in the loop

Tee times and offers, first

One short email a month: new tee times, Annual Pass offers and news from all seven courses.