Date Published: 23/06/2022
Amidst the noise of a busy working life in London, Denise Bradley maintains her passion for golf through her subscription to iGolf, England Golf’s new digital community for non-members of golf clubs.
She regularly travels across the country and abroad to play with her husband, and despite being unable to commit to club membership at this time, admits that since joining iGolf, she has seen great progress in her golf game and advocates the platform to many of her female friends too.
We sat down with Denise to understand more about her golfing journey and how iGolf can help more women and girls, who are non-club members, to obtain an official handicap.
Why did you choose iGolf?
In similar fashion to many others who play the game, Denise was introduced to the sport by her partner, who himself is an avid golfer, club member and a regular user of the My EG app: “he introduced me to it and the obvious benefit to me is that it is a way, as somebody who isn’t a member of a golf club and can’t commit to membership, to get an official handicap.”
Denise really hasn’t looked back since, and thoroughly enjoys the ability to “track all my rounds, through the My EG app” and tell others what her handicap is: “the main question you get asked when playing with someone is what your handicap is, so iGolf gives me that ability to own one and be able to tell them that.”
How easy was it to obtain an official handicap with iGolf?
When obtaining a golf handicap, the process is often mistaken as a lengthy one that requires sign-off from many parties and an endless process of card submissions. Not anymore, thanks to the new World Handicap System (WHS), obtaining an official handicap is as easy as submitting 54-holes, which can be either 9-holes or 18-holes too.
This is the process in which Denise was able to obtain her own handicap, and she found the entire journey of joining through to receiving that magic Handicap Index a simple one: “signing up and using the app was so easy. It takes my registered rounds and so long as you post the number of rounds needed, it calculates it all for you. It’s really simple.”
But not to rest on her laurels, obtaining a handicap was just the start for Denise, who recognises that improving her game and lowering her scores requires further practice and play, something she totally admits: “the main thing for me now is to make sure I keep putting in the practice and playing to keep my handicap where I want it to be!”
How has iGolf helped you improve your golf handicap?
“It’s great. You enter your score after your round and submit, leave it for a while and it sorts everything for you. I usually find myself checking in the morning after to see whether I have gone up or down based on that round.”
“If you’re target driven it’s perfect for you as well. It helps provide the information you need to track your progress and work out how much work to put in. I’m often saying to myself ‘right, I need to get out and play because I’m working on lowering my handicap and it is not there yet’.”
By providing every non-club member with an official handicap, iGolf is the perfect platform to keep track of your performances and measure your progress against that of your friends. Clearly, this is something that Denise has found really useful as a way to maintain her motivation to practice and play and ensure she keeps lowering her scores.
Not only that however, she supports the way in which the app calculates everything for you, which gives her the peace of mind before she tees it up at any golf course in England: “the big thing is that when you are about to play, it automatically calculates your Course Handicap for the day before you play, so it does the legwork for you, using the Slope Ratings. It makes sure you are playing from the right handicap…because I guess if you don’t own a handicap and guess, you might just play off any number, and shoot what you think is a really bad round.
“But actually, if you were a subscriber to iGolf and owned a handicap, you would’ve been given more shots than you think and it would have been properly vetted. By doing that automatically for you, one bad round isn’t necessarily going to affect your handicap too much, so you don’t have to worry if it isn’t your day!”
What are your future golfing goals?
In similar fashion to her current focus on improving her golf game, Denise is committed to the progress she has seen since joining, and “will definitely continue using iGolf” to maintain this: “I’m never going to play golf five days a week, and after a two-year break due to an ankle injury, that really set my game back, so it’s really good that I can play and practice at my own pace and already through the subscription and app, I have seen progress in my performances – going from 36 down to 26.
“Moving forwards, if I can just get it down to 20 or something along those lines, then that would be a good goal. And then for me, it will just be about continuing to play and maintaining it.”
How can iGolf help improve access for women and non-club members?
“I think it can help a lot. I’ve spoken to a friend of mine about it and said to her ‘you need to subscribe’ because she is in a similar situation to myself and a similar level to me but is also looking to improve her game and understand her exact level right now – iGolf can help her to do that.
“What’s good about iGolf is that it supports that message that you can be a non-club member and still obtain an official handicap. For women who can’t commit to club membership like me and my friend, that is really important and thanks to iGolf, there’s now an app to support you to do so.”
One other way that Denise cited as to how iGolf can help more women to play the game was in the very nature of iGolf, which provides non-club members with a seamless way of benchmarking their progress and tracking performances, and comparing to their friends, thus fostering friendly competition and a greater understanding of where their golf games are currently at: “if you want to measure yourself against your friends and whilst playing with others, through iGolf (and by consequently downloading the My EG app), you can.”
What has been your best golfing moment since joining iGolf?
Reflecting back on her first year since becoming an iGolf subscriber, there were many moments for Denise that stood out, including of course, obtaining an official handicap.
However, we all enjoy walking off the 18th hole having played an incredibly good round of golf and so too that feeling resonated with Denise: “I did have one of those rounds recently where you know when you just can’t do anything wrong? It was something like 42 points in stableford format, so it really helped to reduce my handicap.”
It is those moments that reinforce some of the reasons as to why we love the sport and want to play, as they validate the practice and hard work we put in to try and improve our own games. This was true for Denise, who said “it was great because it felt like a really great achievement and to be able to see the real progress through the app as a result was really good.
“That’s what keeps you coming back.”
The benefits of iGolf:
There are a range of benefits that you can receive when subscribing to iGolf however, if you are still unsure, you can receive a 30-day free trial to experience it for yourself! All you need to do is head to our homepage, click Join Now and input the code ‘TRIAL30’ on the sign-up form when you get to Payment Details.
- A complete digital history of your handicap and scores over time
- Keep track of your scores and progress
- Easy sign-up process
- £46 for a 12-month subscription
- Personal liability insurance arranged via Bluefin Sport
To find out more about iGolf, get in touch with igolf@englandgolf.org.