Golf as an element of corporate culture and a venue for business events

Picture a Tuesday morning on the first tee with three colleagues and a client. Now picture four hours of that, with no projector and no slide deck. What will you talk about? The weather? The client’s kids? Eventually, the contract.

Why has this ritual lasted so long in office life? The reason it has lasted lies in how the game is played.

What a round shows that a meeting hides

A meeting is an hour of prepared answers. A round is four hours of small decisions made in the open. Under Rule 1.2a of the Rules of Golf, players are expected to act with integrity and show consideration to others. Usually there is no referee, and players call penalties on themselves. Players see how their fellow competitors deal with a bad bounce, a lost ball or a putt nobody else was watching.

The evidence that deals actually happen on the course is scant. Most of what exists is self-reported. The most widely quoted example is a 2002 survey of US executives in which a large number reported that deals had been closed on the course. An even larger share admitted to bending the rules. The survey is also over two decades old, so treat it as folklore rather than evidence.

Course maintenance before play. Photo: Makesavanh Oudthalith / Pexels

Formats that let a beginner and a low handicapper share a card

In the past, novice golfers would spend company golf outings apologising for their poor form. This has largely been resolved by modern formats. In a Texas Scramble, or Captain’s Choice, each player on a team hits a shot, and the team chooses which of the shots to play. The team then plays from that spot until the ball is holed.

From January 2020, the R&A and the USGA introduced the World Handicap System, which limits the Handicap Index to 54.0 for all players. Thus, a high handicap player can now play with a low handicap player on fair terms. A well-run company day usually builds in:

• A four-person scramble, so no single shot decides the team’s fate
• The recommended WHS allowances, which a committee may vary in the terms of the competition: 25% of the lowest handicap to 10% of the highest
• Three counting drives from each player
• A shotgun start, so dinner does not wait

When the course moves indoors

The National Golf Foundation’s 2025 report estimates that 19 million people in the US played golf without playing on a traditional course. These people used driving ranges, indoor simulators and venues like Topgolf. As of late 2025, the NGF reported there were at least 1,500 commercial simulator businesses in the US

Topgolf markets itself as a place to host corporate events, meetings and fundraisers, and claims that its bays are covered and have fans and heaters. A bay at Topgolf is a lot less intimidating than a first tee with a crowd behind you, and that logic travels well to a wet Irish November.

Office sweepstakes, majors and golf betting odds

The 2026 majors gave every office plenty to argue about. Rory McIlroy became the first player since Tiger Woods to defend his Masters title. Aaron Rai took the PGA Championship. Wyndham Clark won the U.S. Open and Ryan Fox birdied the final hole at Royal Birkdale to become only the second New Zealander to win The Open.

Most offices follow these weeks through a sweepstake, a group chat and a leaderboard on somebody’s second screen. Some also look at golf betting odds, a quick read of how the market rates a field and how that view shifts after each round. If you are curious how a tournament is priced, a page such as Golf Betting Odds online in Ireland – VivatBet lays out the week’s markets. Read the numbers as estimates, not promises: in a full field, even the favourite usually starts with less than an even chance.

Since 1 July 2026, remote betting licences from the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland have been in force. Licensed operators have to verify the age of their customers. They must also not offer credit or accept credit cards. Lastly, operators must let customers set their own spending limits. Set a limit before the first tee shot, and keep the sweepstake as the main event.

Talking business between shots. Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels

The hospitality suite as a meeting room

The upper tier of golf hospitality is corporate entertaining with a leaderboard attached. The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship takes place at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns and pairs each professional with an amateur partner. The 25th edition brings together professionals, actors, sports stars and business leaders. The better net score on each hole counts and the Championship is played over four days from 1 to 4 October 2026.

Closer to home, the Amgen Irish Open at Doonbeg offered general admission tickets for September’s event alongside hospitality packages. Visitors to the event got to witness Shane Lowry win by 11 strokes, the largest winning margin in the history of the Irish Open.

Adare Manor 2027: the big one for Irish business

The Ryder Cup comes to Adare Manor in County Limerick in September 2027. The tournament takes place from 17 to 19 September. It marks the centenary of the Ryder Cup and is only the second held in Ireland, after The K Club in 2006. Luke Donald captains Europe for the third consecutive time, going against Jim Furyk’s USA team.

Match day tickets cost 499 euro each. General admission tickets were offered by ballot, which has since closed. Practice day tickets, priced at 89 and 179 euro, were also offered through the ballot. Hotel packages from Ryder Cup Travel Services, which include match day tickets, are still available. So too are a limited number of premium hospitality packages. A pre-event study commissioned by Failte Ireland, the state tourism body, puts the week’s value to Ireland at between 161 and 190 million euro. Expect a year of client invitations planned around that one week.

Who gets invited, and why it matters

The criticism of corporate golf culture is that it excluded people. Augusta National admitted its first female members in 2012. Two years later, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews followed suit, and Muirfield did not allow women members until 2017, after losing its place on the Open rota as a result of a vote against changing its policy.

The R&A started the Women in Golf Charter in 2018. Currently, there are almost 1,500 signatories. Approximately one in five affiliated golfers in Ireland is a woman, according to Golf Ireland’s October 2025 count.

That is the modern case for a company golf day: a format anyone can play, an indoor option, and an invitation list that looks like the office. You do learn more about someone in four hours on a course than in an hour across a table.