Martyn's Law for golf and sports clubs
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Golf and sports clubs fall under the same rules as any other venue, and being members-only makes no difference. If your clubhouse can reasonably hold 200 or more people at once, from time to time, including staff, committee and volunteers, your club is in scope at the standard tier. Most clubs' scope question comes down to two numbers: the clubhouse on a normal day, and the clubhouse on your busiest day.
Does Martyn's Law apply to golf and sports clubs?
Clubhouses, function rooms and bars sit in the Act's entertainment and leisure activities category, the same group gyms and members' clubs fall into. A premises is in scope when it meets four conditions: it's a building, it's used for one of the Act's listed activities, it's open to the public, and 200 or more people can reasonably be expected there at once, from time to time.
The condition clubs most often get wrong is "open to the public". The guidance is explicit that limiting entry to members or their guests does not stop a premises being publicly accessible (para 4.7). A members' club that checks membership at the door is treated the same as any other venue. That rule cuts both ways on the course itself: open land is excluded from the Act only while access is genuinely uncontrolled (para 4.35). A club that lets anyone wander the fairways keeps that exclusion for the course. A club that checks membership before letting people onto the grounds does not, so those areas need to be considered too.
In practice, this means most clubs' scope question is really about the clubhouse, plus any grounds they actively control, not the open course. See what Martyn's Law covers for the general scope test if you want the full picture.
Working out your clubhouse capacity
Count everyone who could reasonably be in the building at the same time on your busiest realistic occasion, not an average Tuesday and not your fire safety certificate. Staff, bar workers, greenkeepers on shift and committee members all count alongside members and guests.
A worked example: a clubhouse with a bar and lounge holding 140, a terrace for 40, and 15 staff on a normal day comes to 195, out of scope. The same clubhouse hosting a captain's day or a wedding reception in the function room might reach 250. Because that kind of peak happens every year, the club is in scope on the "from time to time" test, even though most days stay well under 200. Read the annual festival trap if your club has one or two big fixtures a year and you're unsure whether they count.
Whatever number you land on, keep a dated note of how you worked it out. The guidance expects your method to be capable of satisfying the SIA if asked (para 4.25). Our free checker walks through the same questions in about two minutes and gives you a printable record.
Who is the responsible person at a golf or sports club?
The duty sits with whoever controls the premises. For a members' club, that's the club itself, acting through its committee, rather than any one individual. For a proprietary club owned by a company, the owning company holds the duty. Either way, responsibility can be shared out in practice, usually to the secretary or general manager, but it can't be handed off entirely: the committee or the owner remains on the hook even when a member of staff does the day-to-day work.
What the standard tier actually requires
Two things: a one-time notification to the regulator that your club exists, and public protection procedures covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication, in place so far as reasonably practicable. See the standard tier explained for what each of those means in full.
For a club, the practical difference is usually between a quiet weekday and a busy function night. On a Tuesday afternoon with three staff on, procedures need to work with the people actually present. On a Saturday with a wedding party, a full bar and live music, the same procedures need to work with a room full of people who don't know the building. And because members can be out on the course, well away from the clubhouse, communication needs a way to reach them too, whether that's a pro-shop tannoy, a phone tree, or radios if your club already uses them for other reasons.
What you do not have to do
- You do not need a written plan by law, though the guidance recommends one because it's hard to demonstrate compliance without one (para 7.32).
- You do not need to hire security staff, install CCTV, or buy any equipment.
- You do not need paid or accredited training. The guidance is clear that using a third-party product or service is never mandatory (para 6.7).
- You do not need to review your procedures on any set schedule. Reviewing periodically is good practice, not a legal requirement (para 7.29).
- You do not need a risk assessment document or a designated senior individual. Those only apply at the enhanced tier, for premises expecting 800 or more.
What it costs, and how the service helps
None of the above requires spending money, and we won't tell you otherwise. What takes time is working through the questions properly and getting them written down in a way that holds up if the SIA ever asks. That's what our service does for clubs: a short questionnaire any secretary or manager can complete, turned into a plan written for your actual clubhouse, function room and grounds, with printable briefing cards for bar staff, stewards and greenkeepers.
Start with the free tier checker, no email required, or see how the service works for clubs if you already know you're in scope.
Similar venues: pubs and bars, village halls and gyms and leisure centres.
Frequently asked questions
Do the fairways and pitches count towards our numbers?
Only if access to them is controlled in the same way as the clubhouse. Open, uncontrolled grounds are excluded while nobody is checking membership or tickets at the gate (para 4.35). Once you're checking members in, that exclusion no longer applies, so most clubs are safest counting the clubhouse and any grounds they actively control, and treating the open course as a separate question.
We host weddings and functions. Does that change anything?
It can. A function room or marquee hired out for a wedding or a big society dinner adds to your numbers for that day, and if it regularly pushes you past 200 including staff, your club is in scope even though a normal Tuesday is quiet. The test is what happens from time to time, not what happens on average.
Is it the committee or the general manager who is responsible?
Legally, the duty sits with whoever controls the premises: for a members' club that's the club itself, acting through its committee, and for a proprietary club it's the owning company. In practice, most clubs put one named person, usually the secretary or general manager, in charge of the day-to-day task, while the committee keeps ultimate oversight.
Does Martyn's Law apply to sports clubs generally, not just golf?
Yes. The same test applies to rugby clubs, tennis clubs, bowls clubs, cricket clubs and any other members' sports club with a clubhouse or pavilion. If the clubhouse and any controlled grounds can reasonably hold 200 or more people, including staff and volunteers, at the same time, the club is in scope at the standard tier.
Sources: Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025; Home Office statutory guidance (April 2026, updated May 2026) and supplementary documents. Paragraph references are to the statutory guidance. General information, not legal advice. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.