Want to get into golf? You quickly run into the word golfkørekort, the Danish beginner certification. But what is it really, what does it cost, and what are you allowed to do once you have it? Here is the honest guide to every route, from the cheapest to the slightly more expensive, and what happens when the card is in hand.
We are not a club and we do not sell a course, so we have no reason to push you in one direction. This is simply how it all fits together.
What is a golfkørekort, really?
Golfkørekort is the everyday word for the whole beginner course, and even the Danish Golf Union uses it. But it covers three things that often get mixed up. Here is the difference:
Four words people mix up
- The golfkørekort: the training itself, lessons plus tests. It is not a physical card.
- Course permission: what you get when your club approves you. It lets you play your own club’s course, not every other course yet.
- Handicap: your skill number. As a beginner you start at the highest, 54.0, and it is created in GolfBox.
- DGU card: the full, finished course. It gives you the right to play every course in Denmark and the rest of the world for a green fee.
In short: the golfkørekort is the journey, course permission is access to your own course, and the DGU card is access to all of them.
What does the golfkørekort require?
The Danish Golf Union sets some minimum requirements that clubs build their courses around. You will find the official requirements on the DGU page on the golfkørekort:
- 3 hours of instruction in the long game
- 3 hours of instruction in the short game
- 2 hours of instruction in rules and etiquette
- An assessment of your striking, playing, and rules skills
The theory part and some of the swing practice can in several places happen indoors or in a simulator, but the assessment of your play on the course has to happen outdoors. If you want the rules on their own, we have gathered them in golf rules for beginnersand golf etiquette on the course.
How to get it: the two routes
Essentially there are two routes to the golfkørekort. They cover the same content, but differ a lot in pace.
- Route A: a club beginner course over time. Group lessons at a club, typically spread over 6 to 12 weeks and often sold as a three-month course. The classic route, at a calm pace.
- Route B: an intensive weekend course. The whole card in a single weekend or two to four consecutive days, often through a golf school or academy such as golfkoerekort.dk, Dansk Golf Akademi or City Golf Copenhagen. Fast, but you have to take in a lot in a short time.
One-to-one private lessons with a PGA pro and commercial golf schools are not a third route, but variations on top of the two: group or private lessons, and a regular club or a commercial provider. A club beginner course like the one at Nivå Golfklub is a typical example of Route A.
What does a golfkørekort cost?
This is where it often gets confusing, because clubs blend the course price together with a membership. Separate the three things and it gets clear. All numbers are concrete examples and vary from club to club.
1. The card itself (lessons and tests)
A standalone weekend course without a membership typically costs around 1,000 to 1,800 kroner. Examples: Hvide Klit 1,000 kroner, Kalø and Hørsholm around 1,600 kroner, Randers 1,795 kroner.
2. Watch out for bundled prices
Many club beginner courses bake the course itself and a trial membership into a single price. Examples: Gyttegård 999 kroner including lunch, Nivå 1,695 kroner including three months of trial membership and coaching, Copenhagen Golf Center 1,995 kroner. So here you are paying for the course plus a temporary membership together, not just the card.
3. The membership afterwards
Once the card is in hand, the ongoing membership is a separate cost. It can be as low as around 450 to 515 kroner a year as a flex or pay-and-play membership, where you pay a green fee per round instead of a fixed subscription. A full club membership costs more and varies a lot.
What does the golfkørekort unlock?
This is where it turns into real golf, not just permission to be on the course.
- A starting handicap of 54.0. It is the ceiling for all beginners in the current system. You are set up as a beginner in GolfBox, and your handicap starts to move the moment you play a real course and hand in a score.
- Course permission and access. Course permission applies to your own club’s course, and with the DGU card you get access to every course.
- Access to handicap-rated courses. A handicap-rated course is a course with an official rating, where your score actually counts towards your handicap. Par-3 courses and a number of pay-and-play courses without a rating typically do not count. For you as a beginner it means, very concretely, that your official handicap only moves once you play a rated course and submit the score.
If you want to understand the handicap itself better, we have explained how the official handicap works in Denmark and how to register a counting round.
What do you do after the golfkørekort?
This is the part nobody really tells you in advance. You stand there with the card thinking, and now what? The answer is simple: you need to get out and play, and ideally with someone.
Golf becomes fun when the rounds count for something and you share them with your friends. In Golfsocial you keep track of your rounds and your handicap through our DGU partnership, and you play and score together with your friends instead of alone. The official number takes care of itself in the background, while you focus on the game and the company.
That is the point of the golfkørekort in the end: not a certificate in a drawer, but a way into a sport you play with other people.
Get started now, before you have the card
You do not actually have to wait for the golfkørekort to get started. You can play par-3 and pay-and-play courses with no golfkørekort, no handicap, and no membership at all. You pay a green fee per round, typically around 100 to 200 kroner for 6 or 9 holes, and gear can usually be rented on site. Par-3 courses with short holes are made for beginners, so it is the perfect way to try golf, you and your friends, before you commit to anything.
You can find pay-and-play courses and book tee times on bookgolf.dk, the Danish Golf Union’s own platform where you can book without being a member anywhere. If you want to read more about playing without a card, Golfstart.dk has a good beginner guide. It is the same idea as playing golf without a membership.
And when you are ready for the golfkørekort, you have already tried it, and you know what you are getting into.
Frequently asked questions
Can I take the golfkørekort online? Only the theory part, and only in some places. Your play has to be assessed physically on a course, so a fully online golfkørekort does not exist.
How long does it take? From a single weekend on an intensive course to a couple of months on a normal club course. It depends on the route you pick and how much you practise yourself.
Do I have to be a member of a club? For the golfkørekort itself you are usually attached to a club through a beginner or trial membership. But you can start playing socially on par-3 courses before that.
What does it cost to keep up? It depends on your membership type. Flex membership, where you pay per round, is the cheapest way to keep going if you do not play that often.
