Join the Clubhouse
Paul Defty smiling, in a blue golf shirt, hands resting on a club
About Paul D. Golf

Forty years in. Still learning.

I'm Paul. I've loved this game since I was ten. I'm not a PGA professional. I'm a club golfer, like you. Better than some, worse than I'd like, and fairly sure it's the wind. I built this so we'd all have somewhere to belong.

Read my storyThe Clubhouse
Why we built this

Golf is better when you belong.

Everyone wants to feel part of something. A place where people know your name, laugh at your excuses and are genuinely pleased when you finally break 90. For a lot of golfers, that place doesn't exist.

So we're building it. Think of Paul D. Golf as one huge golf society: club golfers of every handicap, from every corner of the country and beyond, who share what works, test the kit, swap stories and meet up to play.

It's told by the members. Their reviews, their trips, their love-hates. Paul's the host, but it's everybody's clubhouse.

Belonging

Every handicap welcome. Everyone was off 28 once.

Real golfers

Members, not models. Real names, real clubs, real handicaps.

Straight talk

Four weeks of testing, a named panel, the misses shown. Then a straight verdict.

Good company

Members' days, trips and a chat that's open every day.

Paul's story

From a half set at Boldon to now.

In Paul's own words, more or less.

  1. Age 10

    A half set for Christmas

    I got into golf when I unwrapped a junior half set of Dunlop Blue Flash clubs: a 2 wood, 4 wood, 5, 7 and 9 iron, a sand wedge and a putter. I joined my local club, Boldon Golf Club, and I was hooked. Nobody mentioned it only gets more expensive from there.

    One Christmas present. Forty years of golf. Somewhere out there is a youngster who's never held a club, and might just fall for it like I did. That's why we're building Bring the kids: so every one of them gets the chance to try.

  2. The school holidays

    Thirty six holes a day

    I was there nearly every day of the holidays, often playing 36 to 45 holes with a spot of lunch crammed in between. Lunch was optional. Golf wasn't. I won a few competitions and got my name up on the board in the clubhouse, and I played for the junior team with those same clubs.

  3. Age 15

    Ben Sayers and single figures

    Santa was very generous again: a set of Ben Sayers cavity backs. The handicap kept coming down. If my memory serves me, I was playing off 9 or 10. It's been coming down every time I tell the story.

  4. Age 18

    Priced out

    When I turned 18 the fees went from £50 to £550 a year. My parents couldn't afford it, and as I was still in full time education, neither could I. The clubs went into the loft, coming out once or twice a year, and I'd wonder why I was shooting 100 and not 80.

    Clubs have since realised they lose a lot of future members that way, and most now bring the fees up gradually through your twenties. It stuck with me, though. Nobody should lose the game because they can't find a way in.

  5. Eight or nine years later

    Back in the game

    I started playing regularly again and joined George Washington Golf Club. Technology had overtaken me. I'd been a long hitter as a junior, and now I was very average off the tee.

  6. The driver years

    Testing every driver known to man

    So began my quest to get those yards back. My bank manager remembers it well. Eventually I found the magic wand: a Callaway ERC Fusion, 10 degrees. Three hundred yards with a baby draw nearly every time. Then it was put on the banned list. Of course it was. To this day, it's the best driver I've ever had. The handicap followed me back down to 9.

  7. Spain

    Coaching, practice and a 6

    I moved to Spain for a couple of years, and that's where good coaching and a lot of practice really paid off. The sunshine didn't hurt either. I came home with a 6 handicap from the Spanish Golf Federation.

  8. Home again

    The North East wind

    This was before the World Handicap System, so I had to put in three cards for a new UK handicap. The North East winds are a harder test than the Spanish sunshine, and I came out with 11. Funny, that. More work and more practice, and these days it bounces between 6 and 8, depending on how many rounds I've squeezed in that week.

Paul Defty, head and shoulders, smiling
Why I'm doing this

Forty years of golf. Time to share it.

Golf has given me nearly everything I love doing: early mornings, good mates, trips I'll never forget and a lifetime of trying to hit a better drive. I've also seen how easy it is to fall out of the game, whether it's the cost, a move, or your regular four slowly drifting apart.

I've spent a fortune chasing the right kit, as my other half will happily confirm, and I've had the coaching that finally made the difference. I want to pass on what actually works, straight, like a mate in the bar would. Not a salesman, not a swing guru. Just someone who's been there.

Most of all, I want golfers to feel they've got a place. Somewhere they're welcome whatever their handicap, where they can find a fourball, test the kit and argue about the best course they've ever played. That's the Clubhouse, our online members' club.

I'm not a pro, just a club golfer who's played a lot of golf and still books the odd lesson. When your game needs a pro, I'll send you to the ones I trust.Paul Defty Founder. Off 6 to 8.
Things I've learned

The things they don't print in the rulebook.

None of them will lower your handicap. All of them are true.

  • Every new driver is ten yards longer. I've bought a lot of drivers. I am not two hundred yards longer.
  • The best lesson I ever had cost me a pint.
  • Nobody remembers your score. Everybody remembers the shank on the 18th.
  • Play a round in the North East and you've had all four seasons, usually before the turn.
  • "I'll just play nine" has never once meant nine.
  • A provisional ball is just optimism with a backup plan.
The friend, not the salesman

You'd trust a mate who's tried it.

You'd always trust a mate who has tried it over the person behind the counter. That's what this is. Paul buys kit, plays courses and books trips like you do, then the panel tests it too, and you hear straight what was worth it and what wasn't.

How we testJoin the Test Panel
40years playing
7handicap, give or take the wind
5×rounds a week, in a good week
£0paid verdicts
Paul's cousin driving off the tee at Gleneagles
That's Paul's cousin. He tried Gleneagles first, so we didn't have to.
The Deft Notes

Weekly or monthly. Always one thing that works.

A tip from the Pro Panel, a word from Paul, a member's verdict and what Paul is testing next. Plus the free guide: The Rules You're Probably Breaking Every Saturday.

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Stop firing at flags. Hit the middle of the green, take your two putts and let your mates find the water. The flag is a suggestion, not an instruction.

Paul